An estimated 25 million people worldwide will be living with Parkinson's disease by 2050. FG Trade/iStockphoto/Getty Images

The “Shaking Palsy.”

Those are the words Dr. James Parkinson used in an essay more than 200 years ago to group together symptoms and describe a mysterious infirmity afflicting six individuals in London. The British physician was the first to identify and document the condition now known as Parkinson’s disease, a progressive movement disorder. Its hallmark is damage to the dopamine-producing neurons in the brain that can lead to muscle stiffness, slowness, balance issues and a host of other problems.

Dopamine is a crucial neurotransmitter involved in our brain’s reward system. The chemical plays a central role in motivation, as well as executive function (w

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