Who said what: 4 powerful Parkinson’s quotes we loved this week

Perspectives

Author: Parkinson's Life editorsPublished: 14 May 2015

Prep: Cook: Serves:

A weekly roundup of our favourite Parkinson’s related quotes, as selected by the Parkinson’s Life editorial team:

“The rope is representative of that battle, the need to hold on, to be fighting every day”

– Michael McCastle, US Navy officer who is rope-climbing the height of Everest after losing his father to Parkinson’s

“I will meet this challenge with the same determination and unwavering intensity that I have displayed in all of my endeavours in life”

– Kirk Gibson, former baseball player on his diagnosis

*“With Parkinson’s, sometimes you wake up and think: ‘Why the f*** did they pick me?’ But, you know, that’s part of life”*

– Freddie Roach, trainer of boxer Manny Paquiao

“The amount of new knowledge in the field of Parkinson’s disease gained in the past five years exceeds everything we knew from the previous 200 years”

– John Jurenko, healthcare research philanthropist who recently passed away after living with Parkinson’s

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Musical therapy study to receive $20 million in funding

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is donating US $20 million to a medical trial researching the effects of musical therapy on brain conditions, including Parkinson’s. The trial will be carried out by the Sound Health initiative, a joint partnership between the NIH and The John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The initiative was created to expand current knowledge of how listening, performing and creating music could be harnessed for health and wellness. Francis S. Collins, director of the NIH, said: “We know that the beat of a metronome can steady the gait of someone with Parkinson’s disease, for example, but we don’t fully understand how that happens. “If we can pinpoint in the brain how music therapy works through the use of imaging and biomarkers, the hope is that we can improve its effectiveness and apply it more broadly to improve the lives of millions of people.”

Researchers develop automated system to diagnose Parkinson’s

In an international study, researchers from the US, Germany and Austria have used a non-invasive MRI method to develop an automated system that can diagnose Parkinson’s. As part of the study – published in medical journal ‘The Lancet Digital Health’ – researchers worked with 1,002 patients and used an imaging method that measures how water molecules diffuse in the brain. This helped them to identify where neurodegeneration is occurring. Researchers hope this will help improve the accuracy of early Parkinson’s diagnoses – which they estimate to be around 58%. Dr David Vaillancourt, who led the study, said: “Our method may help to reduce the number of misdiagnosed cases in the future. Since these diseases require unique treatment plans and different medications, and clinical trials testing new medications require the correct diagnosis, getting it right is important for patient care.”

MJFF announces $10 million competition for Parkinson’s

The Michael J Fox Foundation has launched the ‘Ken Griffin Alpha-synuclein Imaging Competition’ – a US $10 million programme aiming to develop a game-changing tool for Parkinson’s research. As part of the competition, participating teams will compete in a scientific race to build a device that is able to identify alpha-synuclein – a protein closely associated with Parkinson’s. Although almost everyone diagnosed with Parkinson’s has clumps of alpha-synuclein in the brain, these are currently only visible when analysing tissue during autopsies. The competition is named after Ken Griffin, CEO of US investment firm Citadel who has given US $7.5 million funding to the programme. Griffin – whose father has Parkinson’s – said: “If we have the imaging capability to observe the pathology that arises from protein-misfolding in real time, and understand how drugs are impacting people in real time, that would be a major advance.”

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Who said what: 4 powerful Parkinson’s quotes we loved this week

Perspectives

Author: Parkinson's Life editorsPublished: 14 May 2015

Prep: Cook: Serves:

“The rope is representative of that battle, the need to hold on, to be fighting every day”

“I will meet this challenge with the same determination and unwavering intensity that I have displayed in all of my endeavours in life”

*“With Parkinson’s, sometimes you wake up and think: ‘Why the f*** did they pick me?’ But, you know, that’s part of life”*

“The amount of new knowledge in the field of Parkinson’s disease gained in the past five years exceeds everything we knew from the previous 200 years”

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Who said what: 4 powerful Parkinson’s quotes we loved this week

Perspectives

Author: Parkinson's Life editorsPublished: 14 May 2015

Prep: Cook: Serves:

“The rope is representative of that battle, the need to hold on, to be fighting every day”

“I will meet this challenge with the same determination and unwavering intensity that I have displayed in all of my endeavours in life”

“With Parkinson’s, sometimes you wake up and think: ‘Why the f*** did they pick me?’ But, you know, that’s part of life”

“The amount of new knowledge in the field of Parkinson’s disease gained in the past five years exceeds everything we knew from the previous 200 years”

Last Month

Next Month

Share this story

Comments

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Health & Fitness

Parkinson’s Choir: Singing away symptoms

sponsored article

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In my country

‘People believe a witch doctor will cure them’

Musical therapy study to receive $20 million in funding

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*“With Parkinson’s, sometimes you wake up and think: ‘Why the f*** did they pick me?’ But, you know, that’s part of life”*