Parkinson ’s disease was discovered in 1817, by James Parkinson (Haahr, et. al., 2011). It is a disease which is most commonly found in the elderly, however there are some exceptions. Parkinson’s disease is a type of disorder which originates from the central nervous system that can be classified as progressive degenerative (Ku & Glass, 2010). The disease is caused by the death of cells which contain dopamine, found in the substantia nigra – an area in the midbrain. The symptoms for the disease are related to movement, and they can be seen as the following: slowness of movement, shaking, rigidity and difficulty with walking (Huber, et.al, 2011). This disease in linked mostly to the area of the brain which controls ones movements of the muscles. As the disease progresses, there is a high probability that cognitive and behavioral problems will also surface. Later stages of the disease include dementia; however these are in the advanced stages (Haahr, et. al., 2011).

There is no known cure for the disease yet, and it affects 1 in 1000 people. The disease is caused by a breakdown of certain brain neurons; with this breakdown a person develops tremors and is unable to move steadily. A person with Parkinson’s disease loses the pigmentation in their substantia nigra; which makes the disease easy to diagnose. However, it takes the symptoms to show not until the region in the brain is 80% affected (Haahr, et. al., 2011). The section in the brain which controls the body’s muscle movements, the main cause for the disease, is a very small section; it accounts for a tiny portion of the brain however contains very important properties which link with the motor centers of a person. This means that only movement is affected primarily and how a person thinks is not.

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