The Effect of Parkinson's Disease on the Articulatory and Resonance System - Essay Example

"The Effect of Parkinson's Disease on the Articulatory and Resonance System" is a perfect example of a paper on the disorder. As the inevitable process of aging catches up with humans, there is a tendency of becoming prone to various diseases and conditions. Parkinson’s disease (PD) is one such health problems faced mostly once someone has attained 50 years of age. This incurable disease normally results from the shortage of dopamine (DA) in the striatum of basal ganglia. According to Schulz and grant (2004), 1 in every 1000 people in the world is usually affected by this disease. Sadly, in the United States, this disease affects close to 1.5 million people and a further 40,000 people become patients annually. This disease is characterized by rigidity, akinesia, bradykinesia, tremor, and evident postural-abnormalities. This essay’s primary focus is analyzing the effects of PD concerning the articulatory and resonance system.

The autonomic part of humans plays an important role in carrying out various tasks including heart and respiratory rate. Additionally, the actions of salivation, swallowing perspiration are done by this part. However, when PD strikes, some symptoms include Dysphagia whereby a patient finds it hard to swallow anything. The reason for this is that the muscles have weakened in the larynx and pharynx. As a result, the muscles that normally aid in the swallowing food are unable to dos leading to food being stuck in the throat. Dysarthria makes it hard for a person to communicate and when there are attempts, the communication is not clear. In addition, the muscles that work in soft palate, lips and the tongue are weak thus causing PD patients to find difficulties in pronouncing words (Sapir, Spielman, Ramig, Story & Fox (2007)

Consequently, the patients’ speech is characterized by slurred, muffled or hoarse speech and there will be many struggles in uttering words clearly. Moreover, PD could escalate to a point whereby one is biting their cheeks because of the lack of moderation of the jaws. The mandible issue causes patients to seek a dentist’s help but the real cause is the instability of the jaws. It has been reported that patients do bite their tongues secondary to the instability of the tongue.

It has been widely believed by many researchers that dysphagia is caused by the dysfunction either motor or sensory nervous system which responsible for the control of the upper part of the aero-digestive tract. When vagus nerve and cranial nerve IX cannot initiate or moderate the motor-behavior, it becomes hard for the aforementioned parts to move in the right manner (Sapir et al., 2007). Consequently, articulation by the patient becomes the hardest thing because firstly, the muscles are weakened. Secondly, the relevant parts cannot move in an expected manner and when the movement is there, the jaws will most likely end up biting the tongue of the lips.

Once these symptoms have surfaced, the best one could do is seek assistance from the physicians though the cure is yet to be found. As the disease progresses to other stages, the resonance system is affected and the person’s ability to reason properly is adversely affected. Eventually, the rigidity and stiffness lead to a patient’s inability to walk normally and the end result is that a patient can no longer walk as fast as expected (Schulz & Grant, 2004). Moreover, there is the tendency of facial unresponsiveness whereby a patient’s face hardly moves

In conclusion, the PD disease is an incurable disease, which normally is a paralyzing disease that mostly affects the central nervous and proceeds to affect other parts of the body. The stiffness in the most important parts of the body makes hard for a person to walk properly and leads difficulties in other things. For instance, a patient will hardly swallow anything due to the weakened muscles in the voice box. Additionally, the root of the mouth becomes hard and can hardly move. Finally, the mandible tends to move in a rather uncontrollable way such that biting the tongue or the lips is very common.  

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