"Where Life Meets Parkinson's." A blog for Parkinson's education, research advances, treatment strategies, and personal reflection. The goal is to provide support and resources to anyone either with Parkinson's disease or with any neurodegenerative disorder.
"Life is difficult. This is the great truth, one of the greatest truths-it is a great truth because once we see this truth, we transcend it." M. Scott Peck "Life is hard. Life is beautiful. Life is difficult. Life is wonderful." Kate DiCamillo Introduction: A student and loyal reader of this blog recently asked “What …
Continue reading "Living and Working with “HOPE” in the Presence of Parkinson’s"
"I choose to make the rest of my life the best of my life." Louise Hay "Avoiding problems you need to face is avoiding the life you need to live." Paulo Coelho Try to live following the advice of the opening quotes: Today, renew your lease for the rest of your life, and enjoy it …
"Some remedies are worse than the disease." Publilius Syrus "Each patient carries his own doctor inside him." Norman Cousins Summary: Dopamine agonists are widely used in the treatment of Parkinson's, especially as a first-line therapy. Some patients on a dopamine agonist experience side-effects that require either tapering or discontinuation of the drug. First described in …
Continue reading "Dopamine Agonist Withdrawal Syndrome (DAWS) in Parkinson’s"
“Kites rise highest against the wind – not with it!” Winston Churchill "Energy and persistence conquer all things." Benjamin Franklin Introduction: On January 1, LinkedIn announced that I had a work anniversary of 32 years at The University North Carolina at Chapel Hill ( if you include my postdoc at UNC-CH, this is a grand …
Continue reading "64 Quotes on Persistence to Help Your Journey With Parkinson’s Disease"
With Parkinson’s, exercise is better than taking a bottle of pills. If you don’t do anything you’ll just stagnate.” Brian Lambert “With Parkinson’s you have two choices: You can let it control you, or you can control it. And I’ve chosen to control it.” US Senator Isakson Introduction: Having one of the numerous neurodegenerative disorders …
"Nothing will work unless you do." Maya Angelou "The best preparation for good work tomorrow is to do good work today." Elbert Hubbard Précis: Over the past eight weeks, some loyal readers and several friends have asked me: "Is everything okay?"; "Has my health taken a downturn?"; "Have you stopped writing your blog?"; "I have …
Continue reading "7 Tips and Healthy Habits for Working with Parkinson’s"
"When you forgive, you in no way change the past - but you sure do change the future." Bernard Meltzer "The first step in forgiveness is the willingness to forgive." Marianne Williamson Précis: Recently had a friend go through a difficult break-up from a marriage. The notion of getting past the failed relationship, achieving forgiveness, …
"The excitement of vitamins, nutrition and metabolism permeated the environment." Paul D. Boyer "A substance that makes you ill if you don't eat it." Albert Szent-Gyorgy Introduction: Claire McLean, an amazing-PT who is vital to my life managing my Parkinson's, posted a very interesting article about the generation of homocysteine from the metabolism of levodopa …
"When diet is wrong medicine is of no use. When diet is correct medicine is of no need.’’ Ancient Ayurvedic Proverb ‘‘What is food to one man may be fierce poison to others.’’ Lucretius (99 B.C.-55 BC). Précis: Last month in London, England, at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference (AAIC) 2017, there were several presentations …
Continue reading "Diet and Dementia (Cognitive Decline) in the Aging"
"Just put one foot in front of the other." Austin Peck "Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success." Henry Ford Introduction to Part 1: From May 28-June 3, >100 people came to Scottsdale, Arizona for the PWR! Retreat. The final tally had >50 people-with-Parkinson's, more than 30 care partners …
Journey with Parkinson's 