pain

This Week’s Highlights: Battling neurotransmitters; Interrupted Sleep - why recent changes in Restless Legs treatment may be relevant for some with PD; acetylcholine’s role in PD symptoms; Why Hope Is Important; PD Summer School; positive deviancy; magic therapy; Judas Priest; research briefs & more ...

If you have Parkinson’s disease and pain or discomfort that interrupts your sleep, then I think I have some fresh insight, and for some, something to discuss with your doctor. (I can’t believe I’m writing an article to explain another article that I wrote, but I’m still processing a lot of this myself.) Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS) is a horribly misleading term for a condition that is estimated to affect 5% of the U.S. population. The branding, at least for my mind, connotes a playful condition, when it is actually a painful condition at worst and a sleep-depriving condition at ...

Restless Legs Syndrome and Parkinson’s disease have interesting dopamine connections. Some Parkinson’s pain may actually be restless legs or arms. Could changes in RLS treatment over the past few years be relevant to getting a good night’s sleep with PD? To those unfamiliar with the condition, the terminology "Restless Legs" makes it difficult to accept as the serious condition that it is. Whenever I hear the term Restless Legs Syndrome, my brain thinks "ants in my pants". I picture myself back in elementary school, being forced to sit at a desk, when I’d rather be running around outside.  That is far from ...

An article about an exercise research study prompted me to partially rethink my Parkinson’s Disease exercise philosophy. Exercise intensity may slow Parkinson’s progression, but in the long run, exercise sustainability is essential to a better quality of life ...

This Week's Highlights: It began with a gut feeling, the latest on the gut-brain connection and Parkinson's; Yale study challenges a long held assumption about Parkinson’s effect on neurotransmitters other than dopamine; Merck Discontinuing Sinemet CR; is PD causing your pain, or just contributing; taking control of your PD, encouraging people with PD to exercise; plus more news and insight ...

Is pain a symptom of Parkinson’s? Or do the motor symptoms of PD directly or indirectly cause pain? Or is pain a symptom of something else? Arthritis? Aging? Or is pain a result of lack of exercise? Over exercise? Improper exercise form? Improper exercise instruction? Some combination of factors? Those are interesting questions, but more importantly does pain contribute to the severity of other Parkinson’s symptoms? ...

This Week's Highlights: Parkinson's humor at the supermarket checkout; more evidence that PD starts in the gut; Blue Water Navy Vietnam vets finally get disability benefits; Michael J. Fox Foundation plans to take their show on the road; brain changing benefits of exercise; Parkinson's and Pain - is your mattress trying to kill you; Photobiomodulation and a stroll through the PD Red Light District ...

I've been thinking a lot about Parkinson's and pain lately...not because it is a particularly fascinating topic, but let's just say that it is a topic of personal relevance. Recently, I was chatting with a friend who also has PD, and we were discussing our mutual enjoyment of travel. He remarked on how his (early stage) PD symptoms seemed to bother him less while traveling. He wonders if it is the distraction or break from the routine that helps. Normally, I'd steer the discussion toward dopamine and the placebo effect, because this is great example of creating your own placebo ...