WPC2019

This Week's Highlights: Is Laughter Still The Best Medicine - Carbidopa/Laughodopa Therapy; Best Blogs from World Parkinson Congress 2019; Gut bacteria ate my Parkinson's meds; magnetic button adapters; Performing DBS while you sleep (the patient that is, not the surgeon); what is the glymphatic system; somatic genetic mutations; PD Summer School; 50-state Rock Steady Boxing Tour; Ping Pong Parkinson; What's in the pipeline for PD; Hype or Hope for treatments in the news; and more ...

World Parkinson Congress 2019 in Kyoto was educational, inspirational, and a great excuse to visit Japan again. And in 3 years time, it'll give us an excuse to return to Barcelona for WPC 2022. What did we learn this time? I mean, aside from the fact that serving lunch at a Parkinson's Disease conference with chopsticks as the only utensil is a sick and twisted form of torture. We've highlighted some of the best official and unofficial blog reports from the conference: ...

Weekly Update Highlights: Parkinson's Disease and the nagging spouse; Parkinson's Si Buko (the must-read inspiring effort in Uganda to educate that PD is not witchcraft); Generic Carbidopa/Levodopa Extended Release; Gut Bacteria Interferes with Parkinson's Disease Medication; PD research updates; diet and nutrition for Parkinson's; PD exercise programs in the news; and more ...

My wife went to one session at the World Parkinson Congress 2019 without me.  It is my fault. I suggested it. I had another time commitment, so I suggested that she use the time to go to a panel discussion about living well with Parkinson's. I wasn't there, so I don't know exactly what was said, or the context in which it was said. I only know what she told me she heard. Her takeaway from this session was that one of the panelists said that one of their keys to living well with Parkinson's was that it was very helpful ...

From the perspective of people with Parkinson's, one of the most interesting presentations at World Parkinson Congress 2019 was Laurie Mischley's talk "Is there any evidence that nutrients modify PD?" during the session "The Microbiome and Diet in Parkinson's disease". Dr. Laurie Mischley of Bastyr University is a leading researcher on diet and nutrition as it relates to Parkinson’s Disease. She wrote a book on the topic that was published back in 2009, and has continued to focus on this topic over the decade since. She is currently leading the CAM Care in PD study (Complementary & Alternative Medicine Care in ...

The opening ceremony of World Parkinson Congress 2019 was a definite highlight of the event. As expected, it featured a moving tribute to Tom Isaacs, who passed away in 2017. Tom was a co-founder of Cure Parkinson’s Trust (CPT) in the UK, one of the premier global charities funding Parkinson’s research. In addition to leading CPT, Tom’s outsized personality encouraged us all to live well with Parkinson’s Disease, and he was an active participant in past WPC events. Anders Leines’ video, which was in large part, a tribute to Tom Isaacs, was selected as grand prize winner of the WPC ...

My favorite part of World Parkinson Congress is the people with Parkinson’s, particularly the ones you encounter in the Book Nook and Poster Hall. Yesterday, I had the pleasure of meeting John Hall, author of one of my favorite books about living with Parkinson’s, “Living Well, Running Hard: Lessons Learned from Living with Parkinson’s Disease” ...

Wow...my words are inadequate to describe the inspirational intensity of WPC2019 opening session keynote speaker Linda K. Olson. In 1979, at the age of 29, Linda lost both her legs above the knee and her right arm in a “train vs. car accident” in Germany. She told her husband of 2 years, who was less seriously injured in the accident that if he wanted to leave her, she’d understand.  He responded “I didn’t marry your arms and your legs … if you can do it, I can do it.” They chose to focus on what they could do, not what ...

Lyndsay Isaacs speech was one of the highlights of the WPC2019 opening session.  A large portion of the WPC2019 opening, not just Lyndsay’s portion, was dedicated to remembering her husband Tom Isaacs, co-founder of UK-based charity Cure Parkinson’s, who passed away since the last WPC. Obviously, any discussion of Tom Isaacs is going to be a mix of sorrow at his passing and smiles recalling memories. But I found her personal story as a caregiver to be extremely insightful, as she touched on her struggles, reaching her breaking point, and finding a way forward. When she was struggling, she found ...

I'm still scratching my head over the World Parkinson 2019 video competition. This video is better than most, but it did not even make the final 12 that people were allowed to vote on. Are organizations like WPC afraid that humor will offend? (By all accounts, this is pretty safe/tame humor.) ...

As the Parkinson’s community prepares to convene in Kyoto next week for #WPC2019 (World Parkinson Congress 2019), my observation for today is that there is one tradition of Asian cultures that is not particularly Parkinson’s friendly or accommodating ... chopsticks. People with Parkinson’s in this part of the world must have serious challenges with traditional meals. The western world’s “Parkinson’s vs. the soup spoon” is trivial in comparison and hardly seems worth complaining about. I’ll be curious if there is any increased awareness of this issue in Kyoto next week. We’re visiting Beijing and Tokyo enroute to Kyoto. Tonight’s dinner ...