"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.
"It is foolish to pluck out one's hair for sorrow, as if grief could be assuaged by baldness." Marcus Tullius Cicero "Anyone can be confident with a full head of hair. But a confident bald man - there's your diamond in the rough." Larry David Introduction: When you play golf, they frequently pair you up …
Continue reading "Brief Report: Hair Loss Linked to Dopamine Agonists"
"Symbiosis is a much higher reflection of intelligent life." Frederick Lenz "Why do we do basic research? To learn about ourselves." Walter Gilbert Overview: Reading the article entitled "Discovery and inhibition of an interspecies gut bacterial pathway for Levodopa metabolism" from V. Maini Rekdal et al., Science 364, eaau6323 (2019) (DOI: 10.1126/science.aau6323- open access) made …
Continue reading "Human Gut Microbes Identified That Process Levodopa"
"There is a single light of science, and to brighten it anywhere is to brighten it everywhere." Isaac Asimov “Live neither in the past nor in the future, but let each day’s work absorb your entire energies, and satisfy your widest ambition.” Sir William Osler Introduction: For the following reasons, I would like to introduce and …
Continue reading "Journey with Parkinson’s: Brief Reports on Current Research/Issues"
"Whenever you are immersed in compulsive thinking, you are avoiding what is. You don't want to be where you are. Here, Now." Eckhart Tolle "Somewhere between obsession and compulsion is impulse." Alexander Pushkin Introduction: In the latest issue of Neurology (June, 2018), Dr. Corvol and collaborators in Paris, France, present the results of a long-term …
Continue reading "Dopamine Agonists and Impulse Control Disorders in Parkinson’s"
"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"
"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 …
"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes." Marcel Proust "The process of scientific discovery is, in effect, a continual flight from wonder." Albert Einstein Preface: Happy birthday to James Parkinson (neurologist, geologist, scientist, activist), born April 11, 1755 and died December 21, 1824. World Parkinson's Day …
Continue reading "Milestones in Parkinson’s Disease Research and Discovery"
"Life is 10 percent what you make it, and 90 percent how you take it." Irving Berlin "My attitude is that if you push me towards something that you think is a weakness, then I will turn that perceived weakness into a strength." Michael Jordan Précis: (1) A brief review of the major classes of …
"I have a form of Parkinson's disease, which I don't like. My legs don't move when my brain tells them to. It's very frustrating." George H.W. Bush "I discovered that I was part of a Parkinson's community with similar experiences and similar questions that I'd been dealing with alone." Michael J. Fox Summary: Two hundred …
Continue reading "200 Years Ago James Parkinson published “An Essay On The Shaking Palsy”"
“The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science.” Albert Einstein “Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won't come in.” Isaac Asimov Summary: (Part 1) …
Journey with Parkinson's 