What Year Was Parkinson's Disease Discovered?

As far back as 5,000 years ago, there was a system of folk medicine called Ayurveda in India that diagnosed and treated people for Parkinson's disease. About 2,500 years ago in China, the Nei Kung, a medical and spiritual text, explored the shaking disease and the herbs prescribed to allay the symptoms. Early in the 19th century, a British physician wrote an essay named "The Shaking Palsy," catapulting the disease into modern medical recognition. Now, in the first decade of the 21st century, research is moving us closer to understanding the cause and developing treatments for Parkinson's disease.

Dr. James Parkinson

• Dr. James Parkinson published his paper on the disorder in 1817 after observing six of his patients suffer from the shaking disease during walks around his London neighborhood. He urged the medical world to find a cure for the malady.

Naming the Disease

• Sixty years after the publication of Parkinson's paper, French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot took up the challenge to find a cure for the disease, and, recognizing the critical contribution by Parkinson, named the disease after him.

Founding Research and Assistance

• The Parkinson's Disease Foundation was founded in 1957 to study and raise money to fight the degenerative disease, which primarily attacks those over the age of 60. Since then, many other organizations have begun to participate in funding and research.

Discoveries in the 1960s

• In the 1960s, researchers discovered that patients who suffered from Parkinson's had a lack of the chemical dopamine in their brains, and they started prescribing a drug called levodopa, which helped minimize uncontrollable muscle movement, loss of balance and slurred speech among patients. Doctors also concluded that genetic characteristics contributed to members of the same families contracting the disease.

21st-Century Research

• Popular television and movie star Michael J. Fox became perhaps the highest-profile celebrity to suffer from the disease, and his foundation has raised more than $90 million for Parkinson's research. It has helped spur many studies and experimental treatments to cure this disease, which is second only to Alzheimer's disease in affecting older individuals.