6 Personal Strengths for Living Decisively with Parkinson’s

“How are they going to see me — as the colleague as I have always been, or as the patient I always will be? That was the beginning of my transition.” Alice Lazzarini (a Parkinson’s researcher who was diagnosed with Parkinson's) Précis: After successfully hitting a golf ball out of a sand trap and onto …

Moving Day® was a Morning to Move for Parkinson’s and a Time to be Moved

“We either make ourselves miserable or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same.”  Carlos Castenada “Don’t be ashamed of your story, it will inspire others.” Unknown Background story: Over the years, my research career has been supported by various non-Federal organizations, in particular the American Heart Association (AHA) and Susan G. …

Gender Differences as a Factor in Parkinson’s

"Men are from Earth, women are from Earth. Deal with it.” George Carlin “You can either be a victim of the world or an adventurer in search of treasure. It all depends on how you view your life.” Paulo Coelho Précis: ~10% of Parkinson's cases are linked to familial genetic mutations; whereas the vast majority …

Poetry to Parkinson’s

“The greatest wisdom is in simplicity. Love, respect, tolerance, sharing, gratitude, forgiveness. It's not complex or elaborate. The real knowledge is free. It's encoded in your DNA. All you need is within you. Great teachers have said that from the beginning. Find your heart, and you will find your way.” Carlos Barrios, Mayan elder and …

Happiness and Parkinson’s: 10 Simple Suggestions to Make Your Life Happier

“Happiness is not the absence of problems, it’s the ability to deal with them.” Steve Maraboli “No medicine cures what happiness cannot.” Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez Introduction: Happiness, being positive, and remaining hopeful are “life-elements” important to us all. To give you an idea as to how important it is for us to achieve happiness, a …

Life-Stories and Updates on Parkinson’s Science

“E.E Cummings wrote, "To be nobody-but-yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody but yourself - means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight- and never stop fighting.” Brené Brown Teaching, and more teaching: I spent most of June and July getting ready …

10 Life Lessons With Parkinson’s Disease

“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.” Oscar Wilde  “The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” Eleanor Roosevelt Life lessons.  Life is a series of lessons we gather …

The Song of the Journey Ahead is About Living Authentically in the Presence of Parkinson’s

“Choosing one path means abandoning others – if you try to follow every possible path you will end up following none.” Paulo Coelho "An awareness of one's mortality can lead you to wake up and live an authentic, meaningful life." Bernie Siegel A beginning: ~7 people/hour are diagnosed with Parkinson's in the USA; resulting in …

Golf And Parkinson’s: A Game For Life

"One of the most fascinating things about golf is how it reflects the cycle of life. No matter what you shoot - the next day you have to go back to the first tee and begin all over again and make yourself into something." Peter Jacobsen Précis: The goals are to describe the overall benefits …

Purple Haze of Parkinson’s: How Dopamine Works

"Life has many ways of testing a person's will, either by having nothing happen at all or by having everything happen all at once.”  Paulo Coelho Précis: To briefly describe the biochemistry of dopamine and dopamine receptors, dopamine physiology, and therapeutic strategies for replacing dopamine in Parkinson's.  But first, some "Purple Haze" by the Jimi …