The Impatient Patient - a Column by Doc Irish

With Parkinson’s disease, can we teach old dogs new tricks?

Do you ever notice how symptoms of Parkinson’s disease sometimes seem to start at the perimeter? You might first get a twitch in your pinkie finger or thumb, or it might be some other subtle problem, possibly starting on one side of your body or the other. At the…

How I imagine a ‘flex capacitor’ could help me time-travel with Parkinson’s

Flash back with me to the mid-1980s to early ’90s, the acting heyday of our beloved Michael J. Fox and his “Back to the Future” film series. Remember how time travel in the films was made possible by retrofitting a DMC DeLorean vehicle with a flux capacitor device?…

Turning to science to paint a better picture of Parkinson’s disease

When you’re asked about Parkinson’s disease, how do you describe it? Do you have any particular ways of imagining Parkinson’s that are helpful for you to understand or explain the disorder? Any pictures, diagrams, or frameworks that provide meaningful context? Or when you’re trying to motivate yourself to…