- Reaction score
- 1,283
- Points
- 940
Really? He knows when he's going to be uncoordinated or have muscle tremors?? ???Nix said:There are other conditions like this, such as Parkinson's which my father has and he as well knows when he should and should not drive.
According to the Merck Manual
No offense, but I wouldn't want to be anywhere near your father when he is driving. He is putting himself and others at risk.Parkinson's disease results from degeneration in the part of the brain that helps coordinate movements.
Usually, the most obvious symptom is tremors that occur when muscles are relaxed.
Muscles become stiff, movements become slow and uncoordinated, and balance is easily lost.
When the brain initiates an impulse to move a muscle (for example, to lift an arm), the impulse passes through the basal ganglia (collections of nerve cells located deep within the brain). The basal ganglia help smooth out muscle movements and coordinate changes in posture. Like all nerve cells, those in the basal ganglia release chemical messengers (neurotransmitters) that trigger the next nerve cell in the pathway to send an impulse. A key neurotransmitter in the basal ganglia is dopamine. Its overall effect is to increase nerve impulses to muscles. In Parkinson's disease, nerve cells in part of the basal ganglia (called the substantia nigra) degenerate, reducing the production of dopamine and the number of connections between nerve cells in the basal ganglia. As a result, the basal ganglia cannot smooth out movements as they normally do, leading to tremor, loss of coordination, slow movement (bradykinesia), and a tendency to move less (hypokinesia).