About Parkinson's Disease

Parkinson's disease is a slowly progressive neurodegenerative disease caused when a small group of brain cells that control body movements die. This disease was first described by James Parkinson in 1817. The disease occurs in about 1% of the people over the age of 65 years. The peak onset of the disease is in the sixth decade of the life. However young onset Parkinson's disease is not uncommon. Though we do not have a clear statistics for Indian population, we are aware that it is more common in Parsi community. According to one estimate it affects more than one million people in United States.