Posted on 10/23/2006 12:04:37 PM PDT by Dane
This is a well written and informative article, Michael.
I am 64 and have had PD for about two years. I shared emotions you expressed, especially denial. But now I have come to accept it and am tryiing to make the best of my life. I have avoided medications for as long as possible but started a newly approved medication yesterday, called Azilect. It presumably slows down the disease, but, as you indicated, everyone is different regarding how they are affected by Parkinson's.
I have read the Michael J. Fox book too and found it interesting. He appeared recently in a documentary and I was stunned by seeing his condition when off meds. But he has had the disease about 18 years having contracted it in his late 20s.
Best wishes to you and thank you for your article.
Tobias Van Rossum Daum, Novato, California, USA
JMO, the above shows the cynicallity that Ms. McCgaskill and Michael J. Fox will use to promote a political issue, in that Michael J. Fox would lay off his medication to make a cynical political statement.
JMO, typical liberal democrat Hollywood manipulation of a serious issue.
It's a terrible step into outright lying to "use" Mr. Fox in this completely dishonest way.
The facts surronding this "trick" will result in a terrible blow to the Democrat struggle to re-establish themselves on America's politics.
Rush Limbaugh could hardly compose himself with glee as he clearly explained today how outright dishonest this effort has been contrived.
Major public blowback is anticipated.
My great grandfather had Parkinson's disease for the entire duration of the years that I knew him. In the 20 odd years that our lifetimes overlapped my grandfather could barely communicate let alone care for himself.
The medications available to Fox are a hell of a lot better than were available for my grandfather. I'm sure my grandfather would have given nearly anything to regain control of his body and cure the disease, but he would never sacrifice the life of the unborn to save himself.
The comment from his publicist will probably be, "no comment".
What gets me is his comment about "being an American too". Maybe North American. He's from Canada. Besides the US Gov't isn't banning stem stell research, they just don't want to use taxpayer money to force-fund it. Private funding is still fine, like with most other disease research. Pathetic ploy, and MJF lowered himself to throw a lame punch. Sad....
Fox became an american around the post 9/11 time when many hollywood types were afraid that post 9/11 patriotism would mean more work for american citizen actors and actresses.
See Jim Carey
See Peter Jennings
The RATs and their willing accomplices in the media will use anyone, especially those with afflictions, to further their agenda, i.e., Christopher Reeve, Michael J. Fox, et al. The RATs sank to a new low with the Wellstone "memorial", using it as a political rally. Are these people so blind that they don't realize they are being used?
Not trying to be cynical, but (I hope I am wrong) I wonder if Christoper Reeves and Michael J Fox would be so gung ho on this issue if they were not personally involved.
forgot to mention...
FOx claims DUAL citizenship.
Odd that he is not demanding CANADA's much leftist applauded medical system spend more of ITS government money on Parkinsons.
Fox is under canada's FREEE FREEE FREEEE healthcare. Why isn't he bothering them?
Jennings was already working towards his citizinship when 9/11 occured. He bacame a US citizen in 2003.
Because their healthcare system is garbage. Very little basic research being done there. And not much care, according to the horror stories I've heard from some friends living there.
I'm pretty sure he became an American citizen about 5-6 years ago.
>>>The medications available to Fox are a hell of a lot better than were available for my grandfather. I'm sure my grandfather would have given nearly anything to regain control of his body and cure the disease, but he would never sacrifice the life of the unborn to save himself.>>>
There ARE medications that work out there. Maybe not a 'cure', but Senemet helped my father tremendously well. He went from not even being able to eat (from shaking fork/spoon) to eating, bathing and even shaving (cause as he says, I'll be able to shave him as well as he can himself)
He went in front of Congress without his meds....it was very, very effective. He has it bad.
This is a link to a May 06 interview with K. Couric. He openly talks about how his medication does control his symptoms and how he has to plan for interviews so that his tics will be under control.
In this interview he still is moving quite a bit, but no where near as much as in his ad for McCaskill
"A promising new experimental brain procedure. Known as a thalamotomy, this procedure destroys the part of the thalamus involved in movement control. In 1996, Fox underwent the operation, and it helped relieve the worst of the tremors."
I had suspected as much.
"A small number of Parkinson's disease patients, like actor Michael J. Fox, first develop symptoms at a much younger age...It usually takes 12-14 years before a patient declines to the stage where drugs afford only limited benefit....Spain, where researchers working with monkeys extracted cells from a site near the carotid artery in the neck and transplanted them into the monkey's own brain, where they produced the key neuro-chemical dopamine at 35 times the rate of fetal cells. This raises the possibility of a Parkinson's patient being able to be his own donor, utilizing a group of cells with potentially far greater efficacy...
Parkinson's disease expert Dr. Mark Guttman of the University of Toronto points out that up to 3% of brain cells in a person's gray matter may actually be a form of neural-based stem cell. A pool of these cells can be extracted from brain tissue removed from humans for a variety of therapeutic reasons, then cultured, stored, and eventually encouraged to mature into dopamine-producing cells, suitable for transplant. -- "Media Sugarcoats Fetal Tissue Transplant Failure", Paul Ranalli, M.D.
I'm not even sure what your issue is here, but you obviously don't know anything about Parkinson's medication. The drugs are by no means constant in their effects. They kick in, work for a few hours, and then the effects start to wear off. A big challenge for patients is to manage the cycles so that they can function in public before another "off" time hits. It's a delicate balance because if you take too many drugs, you can start to have other symptoms, including hallucinations.
My boyfriend had Parkinson's for 12 years and he sarted out every day pretty much immobile. It took about an hour and a half for him to be able to dress and go out.
I've seen Fox on several occasions when his medication was obviously on the wane -- including one time when he was testifying before Congress. I doubt this was deliberate -- stress makes the symptoms worse and can throw off the medications' cycles.
Also, I've noticed that he uses tricks like keeping his left hand in his pocket to hide his tremor.
If this is about embryonic stem cells -- as I suppose -- I fear that many sufferers have been misled about their promise. Still, I don't see anything cynical about Fox letting himself be photographed as he really is for a good part of every day.
Then if it is not cynical, how come Michael J. Fox doesn't appear on television in such roles such as guest roles on TV series in his real appearance.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.