Some medical experts estimate that patients being diagnosed with Parkinson’ disease is on the rise, despite this, they cannot give an accurate number. Getting an accurate count of the number of cases is difficult because many people in the early stages of the disease may assume their symptoms are the result of normal aging and do not seek medical attention (National Institute). Parkinson’s disease is one of the most difficult cases to diagnose because its symptoms are very vague and that they also appear in other neurological disorders, in viruses, and even in bacterial infections from the common cold to UTI infections. Most symptoms fall into two categories: motor and non-motor symptoms. Motor symptoms primarily deals with movement and coordination and non-motor symptoms does not have anything to do with movement. Example of symptoms includes non-motor and motor symptoms such as postural instability, slowness, rigidity and tremor in the upper and lower extremities (Understanding Parkinson’s). In addition, one should remember other key factors play into the development of Parkinson’s disease such as genetic, psychological, and environmental factors. There is no known test to exactly specify if a patient’s symptoms are related to Parkinson’s disease. If that is the case of the matter, how do they diagnose a person and determine if they have Parkinson’s …show more content…
Most often a patient with Parkinson’s disease does not develop motor symptoms in the early stages of the disease, they actually develop non-motor symptoms before the onset of their motor problems. Non-motor problems often go unnoticed for years because the early indicators include sleep disruptions, mood disorders, orthostatic hypotension, and loss olfactory senses. However, just because a person were to develop one or more of these symptoms, it does not mean an individual is going to develop Parkinson’s disease. As Parkinson’s progresses the number of symptoms increases and the development of sialorrhea is no exception. Patients that develop siahlorrhea often lose their ability to control the muscles within their mouth and lose control of the salivary ducts leading them to over produce saliva and prevents the patient from swallowing properly. With this is mind why does someone develop non-motor symptoms before the motor symptoms, some doctors conclude it’s from a person’s genetics, environmental factors, chemical and radiation