Stanford PD Community Blog

This spring, over 5400 Parkinson's patients, including 51 who had COVID-19, took an online Fox Insight survey, organized by the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research.  According to Caroline Tanner, MD, PhD, of the University of California San Francisco, "What was really remarkable was the number of people who didn't have COVID, but who did suffer from the experience of the pandemic."  MedPageToday noted that "Medical care (64%), exercise (21%), and social activities (57%) were disrupted for these patients, and many reported worse Parkinson's motor (43%) and non-motor (52%) symptoms."  While the survey showed the resilience of the Parkinson's community, it also highlighted disparities, Tanner pointed out. "People with lower incomes or people who are nonwhite have less

California HOPE (CalHOPE), a program run by the California Department of Health Care Services, delivers crisis support for communities impacted by a national disaster, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.  CalHOPE builds community resiliency and helps people recover from disasters through free outreach, crisis counseling, and support services.  For California residents, CalHOPE offers a call-line — (833) 317-HOPE (4673) -— to talk about your struggles and get emotional support from someone who has persevered through tough situations.

His research into dopamine led to the mainstay treatment still used today to treat millions of people with Parkinson’s.

At first, Hardy-Fanta thought her repeated stumbles had a simple cause: She was distracted. But when she racked up more than 30 falls in a three-year period — some for no apparent reason — she repeatedly asked her doctors whether an undiagnosed medical problem might be causing her to “drop like a log.”

The Stanford Parkinson's Community Outreach team -- Robin, Steven, Denise, Adrian, and Lauren -- would like to wish you a happy first day of spring.  Though we are working from home (as the San Francisco Bay Area is all sheltering in place), we are all available online.  Try to get outside to get some spring sunshine and fresh air.

Here's useful info from the American Parkinson Disease Association (APDA) on COVID-19 and Parkinson's Disease.

The Michael J. Fox Foundation offered a webinar on Eating Well with Parkinson’s Disease, featuring a panel of speakers including a doctor, a patient with PD, and two nutritionists. They discussed what makes up a “healthy” diet, what specific diet plans are out there, how to foster a healthy diet in everyday living, ways to adjust diet to accommodate medications and symptoms, and the role of vitamins and supplements. We at Stanford Parkinson's Community Outreach listened to the webinar and are sharing our notes.  

The Stanford Parkinson’s Community Outreach team would like to wish you and your family warm and happy holidays!  The office is closed until Monday, January 6th.

Excerpt:  "Now, Dr. [Christian R.] Baumann warns all patients with stimulators never to go into deep water alone.  ... How the devices could interfere with swimming is not known. Dr. Baumann and his colleagues suggested that in some patients the signals may somehow affect a brain region that is crucial for coordinating limb movement. He said other complicated, learned skills might also be affected: Some patients said they could no longer ski after receiving stimulators, and one said he could not play golf anymore." 

Excerpt: "The 83-year-old actor, who announced last year that he is living with Parkinson’s disease, plays a ...lawyer. The film ... doesn’t mask Mr. Alda’s shaking hands but keeps them in the frame, a visual contrast to the slick moves of the sharklike lawyers elsewhere in the movie. The actor ... learned he had the nervous-system disorder in 2015 after his wife Arlene Alda told him he wasn’t swinging his arms when he walked. He began acting out his dreams in his sleep too, another early sign of Parkinson’s. Soon after, Mr. Alda got the diagnosis. To cope, he wedged a pillow between himself and his wife of 62 years to make it harder to reach her in those sleeping episodes and began an exercise regimen to lessen his symptoms that included boxing and marching to Sousa music."