What is Parkinson's disease?

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Learning About and Living with Parkinson's Disease

Michael J. Fox's highly publicized advocacy of Parkinson's research, along with high profile cases of the disease such as those of Muhammad Ali and former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, has brought Parkinson's disease to the forefront of the American consciousness. More than one million Americans are affected by this debilitating condition, and there's currently no cure. Use this guide to find information, both basic and advanced, on Parkinson's disease and the ongoing effort to cure it.

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What is Parkinson's disease?

Most people associate Parkinson's disease with its most perceptible symptom, muscle tremors. This symptom, along with muscle rigidity, weakness, and impaired balance, coordination, and movement, result from the degeneration of dopamine-producing brain cells. Visit the sites in this section for a more detailed description of the causes and symptoms of Parkinson's, along with overviews of how it's diagnosed and treated.

Dulcinea's Insight

If you're searching for information on Parkinson's disease, two trusted methods for finding reliable information, courtesy of the findingDulcinea Health Guide, are to use health-specific search engines and to go directly to the most trusted general health sites (which undoubtedly have articles on Parkinson's). MammaHealth.com, Healia.com, and HealthFinder.gov are examples of health search engines, and the Mayo Clinic, WebMD, and eMedicineHealth.com are examples of general health information portals.

The overviews in this section are all similar in structure, but bring different degrees of depth, technicality, and coverage to their articles on what Parkinson's disease is.

While reading online, you may encounter "Parkinson's disease" written as "Parkinson disease" (as in the case of the National Parkinson Foundation and the American Parkinson Disease Association). This is an alternate, seldom used style referring to the same disease.

Dulcinea's Picks

For overviews ...

MedlinePlus 's "Medical Encyclopedia" is a good starting place for those with little or no understanding of Parkinson's disease. The article is brief but addresses all the major issues relating to what Parkinson's is, including its causes, symptoms, risk factors, tests, and treatments.

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The Mayo Clinic 's overview of Parkinson's disease has the same basic outline as MedlinePlus's (and as you'll see, there are certain topics, such as causes, symptoms, and treatments, that are always covered), but is much more thorough in its explanations. There is also information on self-care, when to seek medical advice, and coping.

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We Move , a nonprofit organization working to increase awareness for movement disorders, has a slightly more technical overview of Parkinson's than the Mayo Clinic, incorporating discussions of genetics, the substantia nigra in PD, drugs and treatment decision-making, and the types of surgery used to treat it.

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The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research has an information section that's broken into three parts: "About Parkinson's," "For Patients and Caregivers," and "Additional Resources." In the "About" section is a useful FAQ that gives an overview of the disease. The highlight of this site is the "Guide for the Newly Diagnosed," found in the "Patients and Caregivers" section. This guide walks you through the practical life issues, answering questions like, "Will PD affect my sex life?" and "Will PD affect my ability to work?"

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For children ...

KidsHealth.org has an overview of Parkinson's disease aimed toward a young audience. The description is simple and straightforward, and uses examples children can relate to, such as a fictional relationship between Maggie, a young girl, and her piano teacher Mrs. Barton, whose right hand Maggie noticed is always shaking.

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