We’re on to part 2 in the series “7 Things Women with Parkinson’s Disease May Not Know About.” We learned in part 1 that PD is less prevalent in women and women have different symptoms. Let’s get started on part 2!
Women experience loss of interpreting emotion.
One study suggests that both men and women with PD can have difficulty interpreting anger and surprise. However, women report being more upset by their inability to interpret emotions. Stereotypically women are nurturers and use intuition to pick up on subtle signs, so it understandable losing the ability to pick up on facial expressions can feel like a big loss. Knowing this is important because women with PD can practice facial drills in class or with your family.
There are sleep differences.
Men are much more likely to experience rapid eye movement behavior disorder (RBD) and to act out their dreams. One of my male fighters jokingly said that boxing did not improve his RBD, but his aim is a lot better now. His wife did not think this was as funny as he did. Evidently, humor is still intact in men and women with PD, but we knew this already; there is plenty of laughter and joking in all my classes.
Estrogen provides protection.
It seems likely that estrogen exposure protects women from some PD progression. Hooray for estrogen! A study published in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry found that women who experience later menopause or have more children are more likely to have delayed the onset of PD symptoms. These are both markers of estrogen exposure over her lifetime.
What is not yet fully explained is why estrogen has this effect. A study in the American Journal of Psychiatry has shown that women have more available dopamine in key areas of the brain. Estrogen may serve as an anti-inflammatory which may be neuroprotectant for dopamine activity. These findings might represent a new approach to control excessive brain inflammation. The research results were presented in March 2016 by researcher Professor Colin Saldanha.
While inflammation is a vital and normal part of the body’s immune response, it affects the brain in a different way when compared to other parts of the body. Research has shown that chronic and excessive inflammation is linked to neurodegeneration, leading to cell damage and neuronal death in areas of the brain that control movement and memory. These results reveal that estrogen controls inflammation and its production happens in response to brain injury.
Up next, the last 3 differences women with PD experience.