Parkinson's Disease, Symptoms, and Oxidative Stress

Parkinson's disease is caused by a deficiency of dopamine, a neurotransmitter that should be produced by a group of neurons clustered in a part of the brain known as the substantia nigra. These neurons gradually disappear due to oxidative damage. The characteristic motor symptoms of the disease manifest when 80% of these neurons are no longer present, suggesting that oxidative damage has been occurring for some time prior to the onset of symptoms.

What is Parkinson's Disease

Motor Symptoms of Parkinson's Disease

• Tremor, which is rhythmic and slow, manifests at rest and decreases with voluntary movement. The one that occurs with the index and thumb is known as the “money counter sign,” a rhythmic, rapid, and repetitive movement observed in the index and thumb fingers of many patients' hands at rest. It resembles the action of someone counting coins or bills.
• Muscle rigidity, characterized by muscle hypertonia, which causes resistance to moving the limbs. This rigidity can be verified by checking the “gear wheel sign”. If a patient has their arm flexed and we try to straighten it, the movement will occur in stages, as if there were gears in the elbow joint allowing only small segments to advance until the extension is complete.
• Bradykinesia, which is the slowness of voluntary and automatic movements; this, along with muscle rigidity, causes two signs known as “poker face” characterized by facial unresponsiveness; and the other is “micrography”, which is the development of increasingly smaller writing as the disease progresses.
• Abnormal postures: body and head leaning forward; elbows and knees flexed or semi-flexed.
• Locomotion problems, short and slow steps, dragging feet; sometimes they struggle to stand, and occasionally they feel frozen with the sensation of “feet stuck to the floor.”
• Balance disorders, with altered reflexes, making them prone to falls.

Non-Motor Symptoms

• • Sleep disorders: (6 powerful reasons to sleep well) insomnia, fragmented sleep at night, frequent nightmares.
  • Chronic fatigue, tiredness.
  • Muscle or joint pain.
  • Excessive sweating.
  • Excess salivation (sialorrhea)
  • Swallowing difficulties, usually requiring a semi-solid diet.

• Constipation.

• Low blood pressure.

• Urinary problems, incontinence, or urinary urgency.
• Slow thinking (Bradykinesia)
• Depressive disorders, (Omega 3 can help and improve depression symptoms) anxiety, or apathy.
• Anosmia, loss of smell.

Relationship Between Parkinson's Disease and Oxidative Stress

There is increasing evidence linking oxidative stress with the degeneration of dopamine-producing neurons. The production of free radicals and reactive oxygen species (ROS) at levels higher than those that endogenous antioxidants (What are antioxidants in simple words) can eliminate (oxidative stress) causes oxidative damage to neurons and their components (DNA, proteins, or lipids), which is cumulative and will lead to neuronal death.
Data collected from patients with early-stage Parkinson's disease reveal that oxidative stress is present from the onset of the disease, which has led to the belief that ROS are responsible for the damage and loss of those neurons.
One factor to consider about Parkinson's, its onset, and oxidative stress, (Oxidative Stress myth or reality) is the fact that starting from the fifth decade of life, the production of endogenous antioxidants, which our body produces, is decreased, making it easier to develop oxidative stress and its consequences from that age.
Other important lines of research that also indirectly point to oxidative stress  as a contributing element to the development of Parkinson's Disease are studies with experimental or clinical models, where antioxidant supplements have been used as part of therapy against Parkinson's.
The results of multiple studies have revealed that adding antioxidant supplements to therapy has resulted in improvement in motor symptoms, as well as non-motor symptoms.

Antioxidant Supplements and Parkinson's

Alongside research on the disease, technological advances have also allowed for the emergence of new agents that could help and contribute to the improvement of patients with Parkinson's Disease.
Not all antioxidant (What are antioxidants in simple words)  are the same; they differ partly by their mechanism of action and partly by their physicochemical characteristics.
Some antioxidant agents have a simple mechanism of action, which consists of capturing or neutralizing a free radical or an ROS, but others, in addition to having this mechanism, also stimulate the production of internal antioxidants.
Regarding physicochemical characteristics, some antioxidants, like vitamin “C,” are hydrophilic, meaning they are affinity for aqueous environments, while others, like vitamin “E,” are lipophilic, meaning they are more compatible with fatty environments.
Our different tissues and organs vary in terms of the proportions of water and fat they contain; therefore, depending on the affected organ, one antioxidant will be more effective than another.
Particularly in the case of Parkinson's Disease, there is another factor to consider: The brain, the organ where the primary problem is located, is surrounded and protected by the blood-brain barrier. A set of very selective membranes that do not allow many substances to pass, including some antioxidants. (What are antioxidants in simple words) 

The New Generation of Antioxidants