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1 month ago | 
parkinsonsnewstoday.com | Jamie Askari |Jacob Harney |Mollie Lombardi |Margarida Maia
My family was feeling very helpless and alone after my husband, Arman, was diagnosed with early-onset Parkinson’s disease in 2009. He was only 38 years old then, and we were left floundering for a sense of hope. Soon after his diagnosis, close friends and family members approached me with the idea of fundraising for Parkinson’s disease. This seemed like a great way to contribute to the fight against this disease in my own small way.
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1 month ago | 
parkinsonsnewstoday.com | Mollie Lombardi |Michela Luciano |Jo Gambosi |Lori DePorter
It can be hard not to catastrophize everything that happens to you when you have an underlying chronic disease like Parkinson’s. Indeed, Parkinson’s can cause myriad symptoms. Stiffness and joint pain, gait problems, slurred speech, difficulty typing or using touch-screen technology — this disease is insidious and can show up in so many ways. Teasing out what is Parkinson’s-related and what might be caused by another issue is tricky.
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1 month ago | 
parkinsonsnewstoday.com | Jamie Askari |Margarida Maia |Mollie Lombardi
When I think about the word “learning,” it conjures up vivid memories of my school days. I can picture myself riding a bright yellow school bus and covering my textbooks with folded-up brown paper bags. I often daydreamed about how great life would be when I was finally done with schooling and my education. As a middle-aged adult, I now recognize that learning is not confined to the lecture rooms of a university or the walls of my high school.
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1 month ago | 
parkinsonsnewstoday.com | Margarida Maia |Mollie Lombardi |Andrea Lobo
A rare mutation in the LRRK2 gene found in 17 individuals with Parkinson’s disease or a family history of Parkinson’s — all of European ancestry with a shared genetic background — appears to be a likely cause of the condition, according to a study of thousands of people. The study, “The LRRK2 p.L1795F variant causes Parkinson’s disease in the European population,” was published in the journal npj Parkinson’s Disease by an international team of researchers.
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1 month ago | 
parkinsonsnewstoday.com | Margarida Maia |Mollie Lombardi |Andrea Lobo
Researchers for the first time visualized how PINK1, a protein linked to early-onset Parkinson’s disease, binds to mitochondria and how it’s switched on to protect these energy-producing structures when they’re damaged. Using a high-resolution microscope to map the structure of the human version of PINK1 bound to damaged mitochondria, the researchers at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Australia gained insight into the protein’s role in Parkinson’s.
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1 month ago | 
parkinsonsnewstoday.com | Mary Beth Skylis |Mollie Lombardi |Jamie Askari
I don’t know about you, but I’m still having a hard time believing it’s 2025. I know we’re three months in already, but I still feel like we just unwrapped Christmas presents and embraced our loved ones while surrounded by twinkling lights. As I work to get myself into the 2025 spirit, I’ve been thinking a lot about the “big party,” which is what my sister Anne Marie and her fiancé, Vijeet, are calling their upcoming wedding.
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1 month ago | 
parkinsonsnewstoday.com | Jamie Askari |Margarida Maia |Mollie Lombardi
“Yes, I’m bein’ followed by a moonshadow/ Moonshadow, moonshadow/ Leapin’ and hoppin’ on a moonshadow/ Moonshadow, moonshadow.” — Cat StevensIf I had to choose only one musician to listen to for the rest of my life, it’d likely be Yusuf Islam, better known as Cat Stevens. His melodies, which echoed through my childhood on my dad’s stereo, evoke memories of the simplicity of life while growing up in the 1970s.
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1 month ago | 
parkinsonsnewstoday.com | Andrea Lobo |Mollie Lombardi |Margarida Maia |Lindsey Shapiro
Among people with rapid eye movement (REM) sleep behavior disorder, blood biomarkers associated with dementia may help identify those at risk of developing Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB), a condition that shares symptoms with Parkinson’s disease. Particularly, blood levels of two proteins — amyloid-beta 42/40 ratio and p-tau 181 — significantly linked, respectively, with a 10 and 15 times higher risk of DLB.
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1 month ago | 
parkinsonsnewstoday.com | Mollie Lombardi |Lindsey Shapiro |Marisa Wexler |Patricia Inacio
I’m not the only person in my family to have experienced Parkinson’s disease. About 25 years ago, my maternal grandfather was diagnosed with it. His was a more typical diagnosis, coming in his 70s, unlike my diagnosis, which came in my 30s. I don’t remember many of the details of his day-to-day struggle, because I was across the country at college, starting my career, and didn’t take time to visit enough. My grandpa was lucky in that he had terrific care.
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2 months ago | 
parkinsonsnewstoday.com | Mollie Lombardi |Margarida Maia |Mary Beth Skylis
Note: This column describes the author’s own experiences with deep brain stimulation surgery. Not everyone will have the same response to the procedure. Consult your doctor before considering any particular therapy or treatment. Last in a series. Read parts one, two, and three. In part three of this series, I’d just left the hospital after my second surgery. It was the final surgical step required for the deep brain stimulation (DBS) system I was hoping would alleviate my Parkinson’s symptoms.
