Early symptoms of Parkinson's disease in women

Studies have shown that women are older than men when they first develop the disease, with the main symptom being tremors, and their striatal dopamine levels are higher when women are first diagnosed than men. To put it simply, female Parkinson's patients diagnosed for the first time have a large number of functional dopamine receptors in their brains that can function properly, which may be related to the protective effect of female estrogen on dopamine receptors. Let’s discuss what are the early symptoms of Parkinson’s disease in women.

In the early stages of the disease, in fact the most critical symptom is slow movement and the inability to catch up. The presenting history of Parkinson's disease is that people become very slow when repeating movements. For example, women who do housework regularly may beat eggs very quickly before, but now they can't beat them anymore and they beat them more slowly. They are also slow when doing any fast exercise. As a result, the patient blinks less frequently, and often stares with few facial expressions. We feel as if the person is wearing a mask on his face, with motionless and rigid expressions.

In addition, some people may also have tremors. A typical tremor is a stationary tremor, which is common in one upper limb. It is N-shaped within 2 years and gradually progresses to the other limbs. The typical vibration occurs when the patient is standing still, with one hand between the straight thumb and bent ring finger, like rolling a ball, with a frequency of 4-6Hz. This type of resting tremor occurs when you are at rest, is relieved by activity, and disappears when you sleep. When examined by a doctor, a gear-like or lead-pipe-like increase in muscle strength may be found.

In the early stage, there may be an abnormality of foot drop, which means it is very difficult to start. When standing up and walking, the foot drop is very small and does not follow the posture. When walking fast, the patient walks hurriedly and rushes forward, and cannot stop his feet. The patient cannot stand immediately. We call it panic foot drop. Posture abnormalities are common in the late stages, so the early symptoms of Parkinson's disease are the same for both men and women.