Lifestyle Approaches To Parkinson’s disease

Running head: LIFESTYLE APPROACHES TO PARKINSON’S DISEASE
Lifestyle Approaches To Parkinson’s disease
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

LIFESTYLE APPROACHES TO PARKINSON’S DISEASE1
Response to question 2(b):
The
databases
searched
were:
Reason(s):
PubMed This database was used because it provides free access
to a wide variety of research paper and review articles on
health care and biomedical science.
Medline This database was used because it contains millions of
journal articles, some newsletter, magazines and
newspaper articles related to health and biomedicine
which would assist in providing a detailed knowledge
regarding the topic.
PsycInfo This database was used to access research papers
related to mental health and behavioural sciences to gain
an in-depth knowledge of all aspects of the topic.
Google
Scholar
It was used to obtain a customized search by filtering the
research papers and journal articles according to their
year of publishing (from 2013-2019). This was done to
ensure that the search and the literature review was
based on the most recent advances in Parkinson’s
disease.

LIFESTYLE APPROACHES TO PARKINSON’S DISEASE2
Response to question 2(c):
When searching the above four databases the search techniques I used were:
 Boolean search – This search technique was used to narrow down the research to
obtain authentic content that were highly relevant to the topic of research. The
Boolean operators that were used for Boolean searching were – ‘OR’ and ‘AND’.
Search was conducted using these operators as follows – levodopa and Parkinson’s
disease, lifestyle approaches and Parkinson’s disease, levodopa or dopaminergic
medications, complementary or alternative approaches to Parkinson’s disease.
 Search limiters – This search technique was used to filter the research to the latest
articles in order to obtain matter based on the recent and current findings in the field
of Parkinson’s disease. This search was conducted by limiting the year of publishing
in Google scholars from 2013 to 2019.
Response to question 3 (Literature review):
Parkinson’s disease and its prevalence
Parkinson’s disease (PD) may be described as a progressive neurodegenerative
disease which results in impairment of both motor and non-motor functions in the body (Lee
et al., 2018). Rizek, Kumar & Jog (2016) have explained that Parkinson’s disease primarily
occurs due to disorder of the extrapyramidal motor system, which leads to decreased motor
function because of loss of function of the dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra
region. Furthermore, it is often accompanied by formation of Lewy bodies and accumulation
of Lewy neuritis (intraneuronal aggregates of α-synuclein) due to mutation in the synuclein
alpha gene (PARK 1). They have also described that the exhibition of non-motor symptoms
is because of the degeneration of serotonergic, cholinergic, adrenergic, peptidergic and
histaminergic neurons. Hence, this disorder is characterized by a complex array of symptoms

LIFESTYLE APPROACHES TO PARKINSON’S DISEASE3
that include motor symptoms (such as tremors, bradykinesia/akinesia, rigidity and postural
instability) and non-motor symptoms (such as autonomic disabilities, cognitive impairment,
sensory abnormalities and psychiatric disorders (Tibar et al., 2018).
According to Reeve, Simcox & Turnbull (2014), it is the 2nd most prevailing
neurodegenerative disease in the world, which impacts 1% of all individuals over 60 years in
developed countries. This disease generally occurs in the elderly however, a small proportion
of the population may present with the symptoms of this disease at around 40 years of age
(DeMaagd & Philip, 2015). According to (Nag & Jelinek, 2019), a few pharmacological,
surgical and complementary/supportive therapies may diminish the effects of the disease and
treat it symptomatically. However, the researchers have stated that there is no effective cure
for this disease at present. Hence, there exists a need for extensive research to find a cure that
can prevent the occurrence of this disease or permanently cure it.
Treatment of Parkinson’s disease
Two main approaches that have been used for the treatment of this disease include
drug therapy and surgery (Gazewood & Clebak, 2013). According to Rizek, Kumar & Jog
(2016), dopaminergenic medications are primarily used to provide symptomatic relief for
motor symptoms in Parkinson’s patients. They have explained that this is because many
motor symptoms are because of the lack/deficiency of the endogenous neurotransmitter,
dopamine and hence, the motor function control may be improved by providing drugs that
can temporarily increase dopamine levels in the brain. According to Salat & Tolosa (2013),
levodopa is a drug that is generally used for treating Parkinson’s patients. They have
explained that after intravenous administration of this drug, it crosses the blood-brain barrier
and improves the motor function by getting converted to dopamine. However, they have
stated that levodopa has a short life span and frequent administration leads to cardiac