More than a decade after retiring from football, Brett Favre says he has Parkinson’s disease. Read this article for free: Already have an account? To continue reading, please subscribe: * More than a decade after retiring from football, Brett Favre says he has Parkinson’s disease. Read unlimited articles for free today: Already have an account? More than a decade after retiring from football, Brett Favre says he has Parkinson’s disease.
Favre told a congressional hearing Tuesday that he had been recently diagnosed. There are nearly 90,000 new Parkinson’s cases each year in the U.S.
, according to the Parkinson’s Foundation. Here are some questions and answers about the disease: What is Parkinson’s? Parkinson’s is a neurologic disease that robs people of control over their movements. It typically starts with tremors, and is characterized by slow movement, a shuffling gait, stiff limbs, balance problems and slurred speech.
Who gets it? About 1 million Americans are living with Parkinson’s, and 10 million people worldwide, the foundation estimates. It usually appears after age 60, although sometimes it can develop before age 50. What causes it? The exact cause isn’t known but Parkinson’s develops when cells that produce one of the brain’s chemical messengers, called dopamine, begin to deteriorate and die.
Dopamine transports signals to parts of the brain that control movement. Parkinson’s symptoms appear after enough dopamine-producing cells die that there.