Newswise — Dr. Joohi Jimenez-Shahed from Mount Sinai Health System comments on Parkinson's Disease and NFL players:
"Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative condition that can result in a combination of symptoms including tremor, stiffness of the muscles, slowness of movements and coordination, and gait and balance changes, often due to loss of the cells in the brain that make a chemical called dopamine. Dopamine is important for the precise control and coordination of movements, and treatment of PD often centers around replacing dopamine or increasing dopamine levels or dopamine signaling with medications. While the exact causes of PD are not completely known, amongst NFL players, it is thought that the high rate of repeated concussions is related to an increased risk of developing PD, and PD is, in fact, one of the 6 neurodegenerative diseases covered under the NFL Concussion Settlement."