Parkinson's Disease and Trauma

Parkinson's disease is a brain disorder caused due to the destruction of substantia nigra cells that produce dopamine. Though the exact cause of Parkinson's disease is not known, researches show that it has a trauma-induced origin. That means your chances of developing Parkinson's disease are high if you had any previous trauma like head injury, upper neck or back injury. Trauma may happen due to accidents, poor posture, minor bumps on the head during snowboarding, cycling, football, skiing, ice skating, gymnastics, or falls during sports and many other reasons.

Parkinson's disease and Head trauma

There are many factors responsible for the development of Parkinson's disease. Head trauma is one of those factors. It is found that the people who had a previous head injury or head trauma are four times more likely to develop Parkinson's disease than those who never had a head injury or head trauma. This doesn't mean that all the people who had a head injury develop Parkinson's disease. But the probability is more with those people. Only the more severe forms of head trauma have a chance of developing Parkinson's disease. They may face almost a 20 percent risk of developing the disease. People with mild head injuries are not found to develop any risk of Parkinson's disease.

Researches were made on the people with Parkinson's disease who had a previous head trauma. It was found that on average, head trauma had occurred 20 years before the onset of Parkinson's disease. Nearly about 20 years after the head trauma, the symptoms of Parkinson's disease begin to develop. The exact relation between the Parkinson's disease and head trauma is still not know. But there are three theories about how head trauma might promote Parkinson's disease.

• When the head injuries occur, it kills the brain cells immediately and normal aging also causes loss of further brain cells. Parkinson's disease may develop when this loss of brain cells reach a certain threshold.
• During head trauma, a blood-brain barrier is disrupted and certain damaged proteins or poisons in the bloodstream enter the brain, which triggers a process that takes up to 20 years to produce symptoms.
• Head trauma causes brain cells to make certain proteins, which normally would not have developed. These undeveloped proteins are destructive and start a cascade that leads to the death of cell.

Though there is no proven way to reduce the risk of getting Parkinson's disease after a head injury or trauma but there are some precautions that can be taken to avoid head trauma. Precautions like:

• People who ride a vehicle should always wear a helmet to protect the head from injury.
• People who are involved in any sport activity really need to wear protective headgear to reduce the risk of head injury.