Can there be anything beautiful in Parkinson’s disease? It’s so easy to see the ugly and clutch the feeling that all is lost. I hate to say it, but sometimes we need to experience loss to break through to another level of understanding. This certainly has been true in…
The Impatient Patient — Doc Irish
Doc Irish is a “patient research scientist,” not a real doctor. He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s at age 49 in 2020. He has an amazing family, is married with four children, owner of a healthcare market research firm. Believed to have eventually developed the disorder due to herbicide exposure while working for a landscaping company in high school and college – initial concerns were all about possible causes and trying to rule out genetic links. Now, focused on how can we try to make sense of brain-body dynamics… and how to accelerate real-world therapies.
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One of the strangest things about living with Parkinson’s disease is how inconsistent it can be. A movement that feels nearly impossible one moment can sometimes become easier a few seconds later. A person may struggle to initiate a step but then walk fluidly once they get going. A…
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…
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?…
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…
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