Some interesting facts about PD

1. The incidence of Parkinson's disease is increasing at a rate that is faster than the population is aging.

2. Parkinson's disease affects an estimated 1 in 1,000 people over age 55.

3. Parkinson's disease affects about 1 in 100 people age 65 and older.

4. Some 20 percent of people with Parkinson's disease may be diagnosed under the age of 50.

5. About 8 percent to 10 percent of people with Parkinson's disease may be diagnosed under the age of 40. Well-known people who have had or have Parkinson's disease include Pope John Paul II, Francisco Franco, Muhammad Ali, Yasir Arafat, Janet Reno, Sir Michael Redgrave, Adolf Hitler, Vincent Price, Morris Udall, Margaret Bourke White, Pierre Elliot Trudeau, and Michael J. Fox.

6. There has been excellent progress with research into the treatment of Parkinson's disease. This includes stem cell technology in which very basic cells are grown in the laboratory, and can be easily cultivated into large populations. Researchers have succeeded in turning these stem cells, in the laboratory, into dopamine producing nerve cells, like those cells in the substantia nigra of the brain that produce dopamine.

7. Human trials have already begun and been published using retinal epithelial cells, and human trials using stem cells for the treatment of Parkinson's disease should begin in the foreseeable future.

Intellectually, people with PD usually remain normal. But because speech and everyday tasks take longer to execute, it may appear that they lack comprehension or understanding - when actually they know exactly what they want to do but are unable to process their thoughts or actions in a timely manner.

(source: http://ehealthmd.com)


Try this to see if you are a "great mind":

Only great minds can read this!!

fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too
Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.

i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

Trip from hell, part II (see last August 12 for part I)

Right now I am sitting in Toronto International Airport. My plane to Winnipeg is an hour late. My hand is jumping around badly. As I type,I keep repeating letters and having to correct. Why is that? You might ask.

Sit tight and I will tell you why I may never go to Miami again.

We got on the plane in Miami, on time, but didn't move because there was something wrong with the cargo door and maintenance had to fix it. We sat there for about an hour until it was fixed. We began to taxi. The flight attendants seemed to be rushing to and fro. Something was up! The captain came on the intercom and said, "Sorry folks, we have to return to the gate as a piece of paneling has come loose and is falling on a passenger's head." WHAT? "We will be going back to the gate and maintenance will repair it." ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I turned to look and sure enough, part of the ceiling (2' x 2') had come loose and was hanging by some wires. The plane was falling apart! This did not inspire confidence. An hour passed; the ceiling was fixed and we began to taxi. We stopped when the pilot advised there was a "ground hold in effect but it should only last 15 or 20 minutes." I chose 15, but I lost. So two hours and 20 minutes later, we actually took flight, only to arrive in Toronto to discover, as I said, our connecting plane was an hour late.

I was just glad we made it, seeing as how our plane appeared to be a lemon.

Is it any wonder my hand is doing a two-step!

An announcement was just made......"We will be further delayed as there is a slight maintenance problem on the plane."....... NOW WHAT?

The Richter Scale

About 30 years ago, I practiced law downtown and each lunch hour I would go to the public library to relax. One day I was sitting in an easy chair in the library when I felt a rumble go through me. I wondered what it was and looked to see the reactions of other patrons. There were none. Now we don't have earthquakes here on the Canadian prairies, so I put it down to the rumble of traffic; although, the rumble had been quite dramatic. Over the next few weeks, it happened a few more times, in various locations, with never any reaction from others around me. That is when I realized, it was an internal rumble or tremor. It was inside me!! I was going to go to the doctor to complain, but the rumble disappeared and never returned.

Now I wonder if that was not the first warning symptom of PD. It seems possible.

Speaking of earthquakes, here is my Richter scale for hand trembling down here in Miami Beach. (1 = minor tremor; 5 and above = major tremor.)

Doing morning stretches = 1

Walking with my right arm unengaged and hanging loose = 3

After a hard run on the beach in cool weather (74F) = 5

After a hard run on the beach in warm weather (85F) = 5.5

Relaxing on the beach trying to read a book = 6

Relaxing on the beach with my hand in my lap doing nothing = 7

Running along the topless beach = WHOA!!!

For any of these, I have strategies to reduce the tremor including, for higher Richter values, for example, I carry an ipod in my right hand and hold it tightly and for lessor Richter values, I make a fist in my right hand and squeeze it tightly. For the topless beach, I employ a face-saving strategy; I try to keep my eyes straight, while trying to avoid running into other runners.

For, as Will Rogers once said, "I never expected to see the day when girls would get sunburned in the places they do today."

Wall-to-wall people

It is spring break down here and I hate crowds. I have never seen the beach this crowded so, with the exception of my two runs today, I have stayed indoors. Too bad, because the tremor I experienced yesterday, and had to hide in my pocket when I went out, has all but disappeared and I am feeling good again.

So, I complain about crowds. How trivial is that?

A man endures misfortune without complaint (Shubert)

Screw that!

PD is trying my patience!

I had a good day yesterday with a visit from a special person and her husband. I showed no symptoms of my PD, except for a softening of my voice. I gave myself a "good" on the Patients Like Me website.

It was too good to be true. Today was less than good. My wife and I went for a walk and my right hand was jumping around and I couldn't control it. Add to that a couple of quick twitches in my left hand and you can imagine my disappointment. I took extra mirapex and went for a 4 mile walk and my hand settled down. As I write this, 6 hours later, I have not had a recurrence of the hand jive, but I feel like there is a boulder hanging above me waiting to crush me. Of course, I hope that doesn't happen, but I realize, somewhat pessimistically, that tomorrow's hope is just a disguise for today's disappointment.

I remind myself of D.D. Eisenhower's words that pessimism never won a battle (or something like that). I will keep you posted.

My God! It is hot down here.

I don't feel old. I don't feel anything till noon. That's when it's time for my nap.

Addendum to yesterday's post. An old friend read yesterday's blog and reminded me that age is a factor in word retrieval. I wondered how much aging was involved in the inability to retrieve words. So I googled it. How did we ever get along without google! Anyway, here is what I found:

It is normal for word-finding problems to increase as we age

It is normal for us to be slower in processing information as we age

Difficulty in retrieving words does not mean the words are lost; there is no evidence that we lose vocabulary in normal aging

There is little evidence for any change in semantic structure (the organization of words in memory) with age

Older adults probably have more trouble dealing with large amounts of information

Older adults may develop different strategies as they age, probably to accommodate their decline in processing speed and processing capacity


Google is a third lobe of our brains. It is getting harder to remember a time when I would have had to go to a library to look in a book to discover this information. Who knows, there may come a day when we all will long to do just that, because as someone once said, "True knowledge is knowing that you know nothing."

Some guy hit my fender, and I told him, 'Be fruitful and multiply,' but not in those words. (Woody Allen)

I am losing my ability to find words when I speak. Awkward hesitations haunt my daily speech. Consequently, I am loath to contribute. The other day, while talking about the fact that Israel was surrounded by Hamas, Hezbollah and Fatah and the possibility of them losing a war with Iran, I said, "Remember the 6 day war? 50 million arabs against 2 million.........hesitation..." I could not think of the word "Israelis", so I quickly substituted "Jews". I am afraid that substitution did not make me sound too scholarly.

I googled the condition and found the following:

"Speech is about expressing ideas via the use of language. Language is a cognitive ability that can be present even when you cannot speak. In the case of people with PD, they may exhibit word-finding difficulties and grammatical difficulties. They tend, for example, to use simplified sentence structures with an increase in the ratio of open-class items (nouns, verbs, adjectives) to closed-class items (determiners, auxiliaries, prepositions, etc.), as well as an increase in the frequency and duration of hesitations and pauses." (Patrick McNamara, Ph.D.)

I my case, I find that misused words generate misleading generalities. The solution is to remain silent and be thought a fool rather than opening my mouth and removing any doubt as to my intellectual ability.

Th-Th-Th-Th-Th-hats all folks....(Porky Pig)