I have been intrigued for several years about what seems to be a correlation between Hand Dominance and Parkinson’s onset on the same side.  I noticed this in a Dance for PD class several years ago.  Most of the people seemed to have a right hand tremor.  I did not ask anyone if that was their dominant hand.  Just tucked it away in my brain for future reference.

When I met a newly diagnosed Parkie last week, the topic came up.  She is left-handed and yes, her symptoms started on the left side.  So I went home and checked out the research.

There have not been a lot of studies, and the few recent ones seem to indicate that there may be a correlation.  According to a study by Sara M. Scharoun et al, University of Waterloo, from 2015:  ” One question of interest here is whether the motor symptoms of PD which give rise to PD initially in the preferred hand are the same as those seen when first expressed in the nonpreferred hand.”

Another study from 2011 by Barrett MJ, Harrison MB and Wooten GF showed a “significant association between handedness and the side of the initial symptom; that is, the dominant side was affected first in the majority of both left- and right-handed patients. Compared with patients with non-dominant side onset, more patients with dominant-side onset presented with bradykinesia, while fewer patients presented with gait difficulty. Patients with dominant-side onset were diagnosed and began dopaminergic medication after a longer symptom duration than patients with non-dominant-side onset.”

I tested out my theory at boxing class today.  Eight out of nine were certain the symptoms began on their dominant side (8 righties and one lefty); the ninth wasn’t sure.  That, of course, is a ridiculously small sample size, so, to expand my own (very) non-scientific follow-up on this, please complete the following survey.  I will provide an update in a couple of weeks once I get a significant number of responses.

A number of you have asked about the Path Finder Laser Shoes from last week’s post. Dan is doing very well with the Path Finder.  I am hoping that Vince will have a chance to try them before next week.  Stay tuned …….