Because it is World Parkinson’s Day….

On April 11, 2019April 16, 2019 By skrischerIn Education & Advocacy, Inspiration, Living Well, Parkinsons Disease, Research & Clinical StudiesLeave a comment

There are many things I want to share with you.

Yesterday, the first #ParkinsonsEve took place in Great Britain. I wish I could have attended, but going to Kyoto is a priority this year. However, those of us who stayed home will have an opportunity to watch at least some of the conference in the next few days. Stay tuned for the info on where you can watch it online. For more info go to parkinsonseve on Facebook.

Update 4/15 Click on the video to see all of the conference speakers:

This month, the Parkinson’s Foundation wants to know your 🔑 to living well with PD.

Whether you are living with PD, are a caregiver or a healthcare professional, tell us your tip. From managing freezing to sleeping and bathroom tips — no topic is off limits. Our hope is that others can replicate your tips and make their life just a little easier.

Click here: #KeyToPD to share yours.

My #KeyToPD: Finding new friends with PD who understand how you feel.

12 Things You Don’t Understand About Parkinson’s Unless You Have It

Are you familiar with the website The Mighty? I was not until contacted earlier this week by them to contribute a few quotes for 12 Things You Don’t Understand About Parkinson’s Unless You Have It, which was published today. The Mighty, according to their website, is a digital health community created to empower and connect people facing health challenges and disabilities. There is a Parkinson’s community on the website that you can subscribe to, and you can also share your stories, ask questions and connect with other Parkies.

And finally, there were problems with the survey that I sent out a few weeks ago asking how YOU are living well with Parkinson’s Disease. I want to thank the 139 people who completed the survey, but unfortunately, I will not be able to use the data.

I am going back to the questions as originally posted on Facebook.

Please list the top 3 things that help YOU to live well with Parkinson’s. Then the flip side – the top 3 things that are obstacles for you:
For example:
Positive: Exercise, Advocating for myself with my doctors, Friendships with other women with PD.
Negative: Poor sleep, Tremor gets in the way of doing things, Daytime fatigue

Click here to take the survey. Any answers sent by email will not be included in the final report. Please respond by April 22. Thank you in advance for helping out.

Clinical Trials for Parkinson’s Need You!

On March 31, 2019 By skrischerIn Exercise, Living Well, Research & Clinical StudiesLeave a comment

The answer is truly in all of us, working together. International collaboration is essential for speeding a cure for the 5 million Parkinson’s patients worldwide.

— Michael J. Fox

You may ask why you should participate in Clinical Trials for Parkinson’s Disease. After all, aren’t they always drug trials? You say you don’t want to be a guinea pig for a pharmaceutical company. Well, the good news is, not all clinical trials involve drugs. The bad news is that many researchers cannot complete their studies because not enough people participate in them.

Since being diagnosed 10 years ago, I have participated in a number of studies. Some of them on-line, some by telephone, and others in person. Many provide some form of compensation. One study was a long-term study though the Alzheimer’s Center at UCLA which recruited people with Neurological disorders to look at cognitive differences. Three years in a row, I was given a 3 hour cognitive test by graduate students, doing tasks such as recalling as many items as possible from a list of 20 words – our brains usually can process a string of 7 items, which is why your phone number is 7 numbers. Anything over 7 can be difficult to retrieve. Other tasks included looking at shapes and being asked to replicate them from memory, repeating paragraphs that are read to you, counting, etc. Unfortunately this study was discontinued due to lack of funding.

This past week I went to USC – University of Southern California (I had to give the other LA university equal time), to work with Dr. Giselle Petzinger, whose research focuses on the effects of exercise on Parkinson’s. This time, she is looking at the association between fitness and cognitive performance in Parkinson’s Disease. She wants to see which PwP’s are doing well cognitively and if there is a correlation with the types of exercise they are doing. This is an 18 month study that involves 3 visits to USC and using wearable devices for 1-week every 3 months. I was number 15 in the study. She needs 35 more people to complete the study, but recruitment is going very slowly.

The first day included a 3 hour cognitive assessment! I remembered a lot of the exercises from the tests at UCLA. I think everyone uses the same resources for measing cognitive ablility. Day 2 began with a brain MRI. Then the fun began. I was escorted to a lab where I got to try out Virtual Reality. After putting some sensors on my arms and legs, I put on the VR headset, excited to check it out. I was in a waiting room of some sort, with all kinds of video games on the shelves. The 360 view was amazing as I turned my head. But no, that wasn’t for me to use. Instead I was to walk down a long hallway (I did this on a treadmill) stepping over obstacles of 2 different heights. Then I had to do it over and over, each time with different instructions.

Day 3 was even more interesting.

I repeated the task from Day 2 two more times and then I spent the next half hour getting even more sensors for my last walk on the treadmill. Have you ever seen how CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) is done to animate a computer designed animal? That is what I looked like. Mr. Twitchy says I looked like a Christmas tree! This last task was to look at gait and balance. The treadmill has two separate treads that you walk on. While I was walking at a fairly quick pace, one of the treadmills would slow down or speed up with no warning. My job was to keep my balance. I was tethered by a harness so that I would not fall. After more gait and balance tests I was sent home with my wearables (watch and heart monitor). I am looking forward to seeing the results of this trial.

How do you find a study that works for you? You can start with Fox Trial Finder. It is easy to register, and you will receive notices of trials that you qualify for. The Parkinson’s Foundation has been following over 12,000 people in 5 countries with the Parkinson’s Outcomes Project. Check it out to see if you can participate. Ask your Movement Disorders Specialist or Neurologist if they know of any trials near you. Ask your PD friends if they know of anything. If you are interested in the USC trial, contact me at twitchywoman18@gmail.com and I will forward your info to Dr. Petzinger.

April is Parkinson’s Awareness Month. My challenge to you for April is to find a way to get involved in research. You can make a difference in your life and the lives of others. Think about it. But not too long. As the Nike ads say “Just Do It“

Women and Parkinson’s: Closing the Gender Gap in Research and Care

On March 23, 2019 By skrischerIn Education & Advocacy, Living Well, Parkinsons Disease, Research & Clinical StudiesLeave a comment

When I first experienced PD symptoms, they were explained away as the stress of a working mom. I was prescribed medication for anxiety and the eventual diagnosis of Parkinson’s was not made for another two years. – Carol Clupny, MS, Women and Parkinson’s Advocate

Five years ago, a question was posed to the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation (now the Parkinson’s Foundation) by a woman with Parkinson’s Disease: “Why are women with PD treated as little men?” Most research did not include women, medications tested only on men were given to women in the same doses, symptoms varied, and more often than not, it took women much longer to be diagnosed and then treated for PD. This one question led to the Women & PD Initiative hosted the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation in September 2013. I was one of 25 women who attended and it changed my outlook on life with PD.

A year later, I was asked by Ronnie Todaro, MPH, Executive VP, Parkinson’s Foundation, to be part of the leadership team, along with Allison W. Willis, MD, MS, Assistant Professor of Neurology and of Epidemiology University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and Megan Feeney, MPH, from the Parkinson’s Foundation, to explore these issues more deeply in order to identify what was needed for better care and treatment of women with Parkinson’s. This nationwide study titled The Women and PD Teams to Advance Learning and Knowledge (Women and PD TALK) was made possible through a Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) Eugene Washington PCORI Engagement Award (3998-PDF).

A research and care agenda was derived from 10 regional forums, as well as a national forum, hosted across the United States, to understand the experiences of women with PD. This agenda reflects the priorities identified by women with PD, medical professionals and care teams at these forums. The purpose of this agenda is to promote research and care practices that enable women with Parkinson’s disease to maximize their quality of life. I have included the 9 priority areas that have been identified below. You can read the entire publication here.

Women and PD Research Needs

Research

Inclusiveness: Parkinson’s cannot be fully understood without increased representation of women in PD research, the mechanisms, progression of and treatment response.
Relevance: Parkinson’s research must examine the effects of biological sex — including sex hormones as they relate to PD risk, progression and response to treatments.
Quality: Existing data should be pooled and analyzed for information about women with PD.

Care

Accessibility: Parkinson’s care must be more accessible to women. Programs should target health, wellness and management of PD and should help women feel comfortable and included.
Personalization: Parkinson’s care should be personalized to women. Biological and gender/cultural differences influence PD health outcomes and programs should be designed to address these differences.
Communication: Medical professionals and women with PD should utilize shared decision-making tools to better communicate and work together to identify goals for treatment.

Education and Empowerment

Self-management: Provide women with Parkinson’s with the knowledge and tools early in their diagnosis to maintain a desired quality of life.
Shared Responsibility: Care teams should better understand the needs and priorities of women with PD, being more involved and not relying on the woman to understand all aspects of her disease.
Advocacy: Additional education efforts are needed to increase public awareness about PD.

I personally want to thank everyone who attended our 10 Forums and the National Forum, along with Ronnie Todaro, Dr. Allison Willis and Megan Feeney, who worked so hard with me to ensure the success of this project. My hope is that with this agenda, we now have the tools to reach out to physicians, other health care professionals, family members and anyone else who helps to provide care and treatment of women with PD, so that we, as women with PD, will no longer be treated just as “Little Men”.

What helps you to live well with Parkinson’s Disease?

On March 14, 2019March 16, 2019 By skrischerIn Living Well, Parkinsons Disease, Research & Clinical StudiesLeave a comment

You must do the things you think you cannot do. – Eleanor Roosevelt

Since March is Women’s History Month, I will be including some quotes from some amazing women who have made a difference. Look for more scattered throughout the blog posts this month.

And speaking of women, I submitted an abstract to the World Parkinson’s Congress about a survey that I posted on a women’s Parkinson’s Disease Facebook group. My abstract was accepted and I will be showing the results on a poster in the Poster Display during the conference.

As a blogger who writes about living well with Parkinson’s, and having been a co-lead on the Parkinson’s Foundation’s groundbreaking study on women with PD last year, Women & PD TALK*, I was curious about what other women with Parkinson’s think contributes to their continuing to live well with Parkinson’s.

I asked the following questions in November, 2018.

Please list the top 3 things that help YOU to live well with Parkinson’s. Then the flip side – the top 3 things that are obstacles for you:
For example:
Positive: Exercise, Advocating for myself with my doctors, Friendships with other women with PD.
Negative: Poor sleep, Tremor gets in the way of doing things, Daytime fatigue

I now want to open the survey to anyone who is interested in participating. The difference is that this time I am asking you to choose 3 things from the list of the most common responses that I received last time. And of course, there will be room for additional comments at the end.

This survey will self destruct, in about 10 days so that I will have time to look at the results and write a summary and create a poster for the WPC which starts on June 4. Being the Parkie that I am, I need the pressure to get this done. So please respond quickly so that I don’t have to scramble like Cinderella to get to the ball!

Be kind, have courage and always believe in a little magic.
― Cinderella

And the survey says……..click here to participate

Watch for the Women & PD TALK outcomes here in the next few weeks!

Is There a Coming Pandemic of Parkinson’s?

On February 7, 2019 By skrischerIn Education & Advocacy, Parkinsons Disease, Research & Clinical StudiesLeave a comment

pan·dem·ic\/panˈdemik/ adjective: occurring over a wide geographic area and affecting an exceptionally high proportion of the population “The 1918 flu was pandemic and claimed millions of lives.” noun: an outbreak of a disease that occurs over a wide geographic area and affects an exceptionally high proportion of the population: “a pandemic outbreak of a disease”

The alarm that there could be a “pandemic” of PD was sounded last week in a report in the Journal of Parkinson’s Disease, “The Emerging Evidence of the Parkinson Pandemic” by E. Ray Dorsey, Todd Sherer, Michael S. Okun and Bastiaan R. Bloem. (Mr. Twitchy, always on the lookout for Parkinson’s news, ran across the study today and sent me several articles today based on this report.)

The authors* are all highly respected researchers in the Parkinson’s world. They have been following the growth of Parkinson’s Disease since 1990. From 1990 – 2014, the number of people with Parkinson’s Disease worldwide doubled to over 6 million. The authors predict that those numbers will double again to 12 million by 2040, They say that “The Parkinson pandemic is fueled by aging populations, increasing longevity, declining smoking rates, and the by-products of industrialization.”

Yes, the population is aging. Life expectancy has increased by 6 years in the last 2 decades and will most likely continue to increase, putting more people at risk for PD after age 65. The impact on our health system and support systems will be enormous as the number of people with advanced PD increases.

Declining smoking rates??? Many studies over the years have shown that smoking decreases the risk of PD by about 40%. As smoking rates decline, there could be an increase in PD. However, if you are not a smoker, please don’t consider starting just to reduce your PD risk.

The “by-products of industrialization” include pesticides, solvents and heavy metals. However, they emphasize that exposure to these agents is preventable in the workplace. The big question is, how many employers will take the necessary steps to protect their workers from being exposed. This is definitely a cause of PD that can be reduced.

But the news is by no means all doom and gloom. Quite to the contrary. According to two articles, one from Science Alert and another from Eureka Alert, researchers are getting closer to finding what actually causes Parkinson’s, and many new treatments for PD are being approved every year. We may not have a cure for a while, but we are getting closer to slowing down the progression of PD to make our lives much better.

Against that background, the Dr. Dorsey proposed that the Parkinson’s community form a “PACT” to Prevent, Advocate for, Care, and Treat the disease through understanding the root causes (environmental, genetic, and biological), expanding new care models that seek to bring expert care to all, and developing new highly effective therapies. They point out that, the most effective therapy we have today (levodopa) is now fifty years old. It is time for something new. Now.

Pandemics in the past, such as — polio, breast cancer and HIV are a fewe recent examples — have been reduced successfully and substantially because of activism coming from the community. We can both prevent potential the PD pandemic and help those who already have it by supporting research, participating in clinical trials for new treatments, and raising awareness about Parkinson’s. The key, the authors say, is that we all work together to accomplish this goal.

*E. Ray Dorsey, Department of Neurology and Center for Health+Technology, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY, USA. Todd Sherer, Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, New York, NY, USA. Michael S. Okun, Fixel Center for Neurological Diseases, Program for Movement Disorders and Neurorestoration, Department of Neurology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA. Bastiaan R. Bloem, Radboud University Medical Center, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior, Department of Neurology, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.