April is Parkinson’s Awareness Month, a time to raise awareness and help advance research toward a cure for the fastest growing neurological disease. While common symptoms of Parkinson’s include hand tremors, loss of smell, shuffling of the feet, and small handwriting, Marcia Parrish says the disease affect everyone differently:
“About 10 million people in the world have Parkinson’s. It is one of the fastest growing neurological diseases right behind Alzheimer’s. We have about 90,000 people who are diagnosed a year in the United States, which means about every six minutes someone is diagnosed. Parkinson’s appears differently in everybody. Everyone’s experience of Parkinson’s is a little bit different. They also think it is a combination of environmental and genetic factors that cause Parkinson’s, so they do have some things that will help, but they don’t have a cure yet,” informs Parrish.
“Exercise is the number one thing that they have proven to help keep it from progressing faster,” Parrish adds.
Locally, on the second Monday of the month, a Parkinson’s Support Group is held at the Warren County YMCA at 4 pm.
