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Parkinson's Disease

Involuntary muscles

04/26/2007

Question:

Does Parkinson`s Disease affect your involuntary muscles? Does it slow digestion, heart beat, kidney function?

Answer:

Parkinson's disease (PD) is commonly thought of as a disease causing slowness of movement, tremor, stiffness, and trouble walking. However, many people with PD also experience non-motor symptoms including:

Virtually all people with PD also have various degrees of autonomic nervous system dysfunction that can results in these symptoms.

Unfortunately, medications typically used to treat the motor symptoms of PD do not help these other areas of the body. In fact, certain medications can worsen some of these non-motor symptoms.

It is important that patients who experience any bothersome symptoms discuss these with their treating physician so they can be addressed appropriately. It is still possible that another medical issue may exist in addition to the PD.

For more information:

Go to the Parkinson's Disease health topic, where you can:

Response by:

Punit Agrawal, DO Punit Agrawal, DO
Assistant Professor of Neurology
College of Medicine
The Ohio State University

Karen M Thomas, DO Karen M Thomas, DO
Formerly:
College of Medicine
The Ohio State University