"Berry" Interesting...

According to an article published in WebMD (www.webmd.com) April 5, 2012, blueberries and strawberries may protect against Parkinson's Disease. In a study done with 130,000 participants, who were followed for 20 years, of whom 800 developed PD, those who consumed 2 or more servings of berries a week were nearly 25% less likely to develop PD than those who ate less than one serving per month.  Men appear to have benefited the most.  Men who had the most flavonoids in their diet were 40% less likely to develop Parkinson's disease than those who ate the least. Flavonoids are found in abundance in fruits and vegetables, especially berries and apples...also, tea and red wine.

MY COMMENT:
They may not be able to say definatively that berries protect one from developing PD, but this is a GREAT excuse to have berries on your cereal or ice cream ALL YEAR round....
...I'll take this kind of "medicine" any day!!

Ai Chi and Water Exercise for Parkinson's

I recently came across a reference to Ai Chi (Tai Chi in the water) and became interested in it's possible benefits for Parkinson's patients. I have not tried this exercise program yet, but wanted to pass along the link for the books and CDs that I found available at aquagear.com.  They are a swimming supply company online and have many books by Ruth Sova who has developed instruction materials (including CDs and DVDs) for Ai Chi. There is, also, a book available from aquagear called "Water Exercise for Parkinson's". I'm ordering some of this material and plan to help Don "get back in the water" and try some of the exercises with him.  I'll keep you posted on how this all works out.  If anyone has had experience with Ai Chi and Parkinson's I'd love to hear from you.

Archery and Parkinson's

Just before Christmas, Don and I were at Cabela's (one of Don's favorite hangouts) when Don decided to try out one of their youth bows to see if he could pull a 15 lb. bow and maybe be able to try target shooting again.  When he enrolled at Cal State LA, low those many years ago, he found that he needed a 1 credit class.  He saw some people out on an athletic field who were shooting bows at targets and he asked if this was a class...the coach told him that it was a team, but if he could shoot well enough he could sign-up for the team and receive 1 credit for participating on the team. That sounded like fun to him, and since he had done some bow hunting, he tried out  and became a member of the team.  So, you see, archery was like anold friend that Don hadn't seen for awhile.
We bought him the 15 lb. youth bow and some arrows and he started going to the indoor range that is near our home. By mid-January it was evident that he was getting strong enough that he needed to get another bow...this time a 25 lb. recurve. Don has been going to the indoor range and shooting from his wheelchair about 3 times a week; he's made lots of friends and since I can drop him off and know that there are people around him who care and will remind him of medication times and be there to help if he needs it, I have 2-3 hours to myself; without worry.  And Don will be picking up his old college bow (a 30 lb.er) next week. Archery has strengthened his right arm and given him friends; a challenge and something to look forward to having fun.  Archery has beed good for both of us!! Sure beats using Thera-Bands and an upside down patio table to shoot day-old-bread balls to the ducks!!
SERIOUSLY...here's proof...

...and Now We are Three...

Sadly we have just learned that our 42 year old son has Parkinson's...when it comes to PD you really don't want to be just like Dad.  Although, if you must have PD being like Dad in attitude isn't all bad.  Don has kept his sense of humor and his determination to stay active in life. Don returned to shooting target archery (more about that in a seperate post) . We have contacted all eight of our children and our neurologist has refered us to the PaGeR study (Parkinson's Genetic Research Study). I have contacted them and left a message; hope to hear back from them soon. I'll post more about the Study and put a link to their website in the side bar.