Hello. This is Tenmei Watanabe from Seito Medical School. This time, as a medical school report, I would like to research Parkinson's disease and its treatment methods.
Parkinson's disease presents with movement disorders, such as tremors in the hands and difficulty moving or walking. Although it is considered to be a progressive neurodegenerative disease, onset is most common in middle-aged people over 40 years of age, especially in people over 65 years of age. (Quoted from Family Medicine)
Some of the symptoms of Parkinson's disease are similar to how humans react to the cold in winter.
In Japan, it is said to be caused by damage to dopamine neurons in the substantia nigra. Conditions other than Parkinson's disease that have similar symptoms are called Parkinson's syndrome. Dementia often develops as a secondary disease to Parkinson's disease.
Parkinson's disease is a disease caused by a lack of dopamine, and schizophrenia is a disease caused by an excess of dopamine.
Let's make an assumption here.
Hypothetically, a deficiency in metabolism is associated with Parkinson's disease, and an increased metabolism is associated with schizophrenia. In other words, it can be divided into Parkinson's disease, which is dominated by the parasympathetic nervous system, and schizophrenia, which is dominated by the sympathetic nervous system.
Parkinson's disease causes low blood pressure, low body temperature, and poor metabolism. I have symptoms similar to a reaction to enduring the winter cold, and I don't sweat enough. Blood vessels dilate, body temperature falls, and because the parasympathetic nervous system is dominant, patients often have problems such as frequent urination.
Parkinson's disease symptoms are caused by an illusion of thermoregulation, such as the winter cold. Because there is not enough amino acids, there is no metabolism and body temperature does not rise.
On the other hand, people with schizophrenia have high blood pressure, high body temperature, and a fast metabolism. My mental health often worsens in the summer, and I sweat excessively. Blood vessels constrict, body temperature rises, and the sympathetic nervous system predominates. The positive symptoms of schizophrenia correspond to manic depression, and the negative symptoms correspond to depression. The difference is whether there are temporary stable symptoms.
"In some cases, dementia affects the autonomic nervous system that regulates sweating and blood volume, making it difficult to regulate body temperature. For example, in Lewy body dementia (*1), symptoms include excessive sweating, night sweats, and dilated blood vessels in the skin. However, increased sweat and blood flow unrelated to ambient temperature can lower body temperature and cause hypothermia.
(https://www.citizen-systems.co.jp/health/column/article/article_10.html)
The above quotation is consistent with the vasodilation and hypothermia of Parkinson's disease, and the symptoms of Parkinson's disease patients include excessive sweating in the upper body and less sweating in the lower body, so it may be similar to Lewy body dementia. seems to be related to abnormalities in the autonomic nervous system.
The future challenge is to explore the possibility of Parkinson's disease from the negative side of schizophrenia and the positive side of dementia, which are the opposite of Parkinson's disease.