Parkinson\u2019s disease is unfortunately fairly common; 1 in 500 people<\/strong> suffer with its varied and difficult symptoms, and 127,000 people have been diagnosed with it<\/strong> in the UK alone. There is currently no cure, and so the main focus for patients until this changes\u00a0is on how the symptoms can best be\u00a0managed.<\/p>\n The most common symptoms for those who have\u00a0Parkinson\u2019s disease include\u00a0physical manifestations\u00a0such as rigidity, slowness in movement and tremors.\u00a0Mental health problems\u00a0such as anxiety, dementia and depression are also a common occurrence. Sadly though, these are just a handful of the major and debilitating symptoms that can be associated\u00a0with this disease.<\/p>\n A common but often overlooked symptom of Parkinson\u2019s disease, Micrographia is a condition that gradually makes a person\u2019s handwriting smaller and cramped, and therefore harder to read. Micrographia can actually be an early warning sign of PD, and whilst it may not sound like a \u2018big deal\u2019 to some, it can be both inconvenient and devastating to the patient.<\/p>\n Micrographia makes letter-writing, drawing, filling out forms and other activities either difficult or impossible. This can take not only pleasure but a sense of independence away from the patient, as they then have to rely on others to write for them. For artists or keen writers in particular, this would be a highly distressing situation.<\/p>\n Some patients start writing in a larger font and then it gradually gets smaller, and some just always write in a very small and illegible way. Both of these situations are not desirable, and so a group of college students in the US, collectively called Dopa Solution, started to look into ways this could be improved for patients.<\/p>\nWhat Is Micrographia?<\/h1>\n
The ARC Pen by Dopa Solution<\/h1>\n