Stanford PD Community Blog

This is the second of three webinars in a new “Let’s Keep Moving with APDA: Your PD Exercise Toolkit” series by the American Parkinson Disease Association (APDA).  The speaker is a physical therapist with the APDA National Rehabilitation Resource Center for Parkinson’s Disease (PD).  The focus of the Thursday, November 18th webinar is how to plan your fitness program so you know how often to exercise and how hard to work. 

Everyone should exercise for physical and mental well-being. But being active is particularly important for people with Parkinson’s disease (PD).  A recent PD Active webinar focused on the effects of exercise on Parkinson’s disease, including motor function improvement, cognitive function improvement, neuro-transmitters equilibrium, and oxidative stress reduction.  We at Stanford Parkinson’s Community Outreach attended the webinar and are sharing our notes below.

In October, the Parkinson Association of Northern California (PANC) hosted a session on the prodrome of Parkinson’s disease (PD). A “prodrome” is when we can see some symptoms of early Parkinson’s disease (PD) but not enough to warrant a diagnosis. Another term for prodrome is “preclinical.”  The session focused on the prodromal stage’s symptoms and genes that may predict a future PD diagnosis. The speaker was movement disorder specialist Dr. Kathleen Poston, with Stanford.  The session was part of the PANC’s 2021 Annual Education Conference.  

The Parkinson and Movement Disorder (PMD) Alliance held a webinar in October  where the speaker described different types of pain in Parkinson’s disease (PD) and how to manage these types of pain.  Pain is an often overlooked non-motor symptom.  Although pain is not the first symptom that describes PD, about 75% of people with PD have some degree of pain.  The speaker was movement disorder specialist Dr. Johan Samanta.  We at Stanford Parkinson’s Community Outreach attended the webinar and are sharing our notes.

Our Palo Alto Parkinson’s Support Group meetings have resumed, albeit virtually.  Since there are so many PD-related webinars happening, our guest speakers focus on cutting edge research going on at Stanford.  At next Wednesday’s November 10th, 2:30-4pm, virtual support group meeting, the guest speaker will be Birgitt Schüle, MD, a researcher with Stanford Pathology.