Stanford PD Community Blog

Do you move around a lot during your sleep? Or have you lost your sense of smell? New insights into Parkinson’s disease suggest that these might be the early signs of changes in the brain that mean you are at greater risk of developing Parkinson’s.

Today, the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors declared April to be Parkinson’s Awareness Month.  In April alone, nearly 5,000 people in the US will learn they have Parkinson’s.  Robin Riddle with the American Parkinson Disease Association (APDA) Information & Referral Center at Stanford accepted the proclamation and spoke about the challenges of Parkinson’s Disease. 

In this recent blog post on the American Parkinson Disease Association (APDA) website, movement disorder specialist Dr. Rebecca Gilbert discusses the cognitive skills most frequently affected in PD — attention, working memory, executive function, memory, language, and visual reasoning.  Of course changes in the cognitive skills concern those with PD, their family members, and friends.

In this recent blog post on the American Parkinson Disease Association (APDA) website, movement disorder specialist Dr. Rebecca Gilbert discusses what is freezing of gait, why it happens, tips, strategies, and walking devices that can help, as well as potential future treatments.