5 health risks linked to Parkinson's disease

Parkinson’s disease, a debilitating condition in its own right, doesn’t operate in a vacuum. Once it starts progressing, it puts you at risk for a number of other conditions.

Parkinson’s is a brain and movement disorder. When you have it, the cells of the brain producing the chemical dopamine—responsible for movement, among other things—degenerate, leading to less and less dopamine over time. This produces classic Parkinson’s motor symptoms like tremors, stiffness, slow movement, and poor balance.

Since Parkinson’s affects the brain, related symptoms and diseases can arise at the same time. “There’s been a sea change in the last few years in that we think about how Parkinson’s disease affects the whole brain instead of just the motor centers,” says neurologist Matthew Robertson, MD, with Portsmouth Regional Hospital in New Hampshire. 

Here are five other symptoms or conditions that people with Parkinson’s might encounter.