The Parkinsons Association of Ireland has informed Be Independent Home Care that to mark May Month of the Brain, they are holding a coffee morning in the Carmichael Centre, North Brunswick Street on Friday 24th May from 10.30am-12.30pm.

They will be holding their Annual raffle at this coffee morning and it will be a fun filled morning with lots of nice prizes to be won.

Parkinsons at its simplest, is a progressive neurological disorder, which so far cannot be cured. It is variable in its progression, i.e. some people progress more slowly than others, and the symptoms can be effectively controlled with medication for many years. Parkinson’s results from a shortage of dopamine, a chemical that helps instructions from the brain to cross from one nerve cell to the next, in a part of the brain called the substantia nigra, which has to do with controlling movement. We all lose some of this chemical as we get older, and the loss starts at birth! However, it is only when we have lost about 80% of our dopamine we start to have symptoms. So people with Parkinson’s have lost this chemical at a slightly faster rate than others.

To read more about Parkinsons please see http://www.parkinsons.ie/aboutparkinsons_whatisparkinsons