What Patients Need to Know About Parkinson's Disease

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DENVER (CBS4)- April is Parkinson's Awareness Month and while there is no cure for the disease yet, doctors want to give patients hope. CBS4's Makenzie O'Keefe spoke with Dr. Matthew Mian, he's the director of functional neurosurgery at Swedish Medical Center.

Almost a million people live with Parkinson's and that number is expected to increase to 1.2 million in five years.

Dr. Mian says patients and their families need to know the disease is a progressive disease and it does affect lots of different aspects of your life.

(credit: CBS)

A Parkinson's diagnosis can lead to disappointment and depression. Parkinson's disease relates to a loss of cells in the brain that make a chemical called dopamine.

Dr. Mian says, "many of the therapies that we start with initially are intended simply to replace that dopamine with medications and patients can often see many of their early symptoms disappear or get much better for years."

For more information you can check out the Parkinson Association of the Rockies at https://parkinsonrockies.org