Parkinson’s, 30 years on

[jon-nyc]

Depressing read about Michael J Fox

"I broke my cheek, then my hand, then my shoulder, had a replacement shoulder put in and broke my [right] arm, then I broke my elbow," he said. "I'm 61 years old, and I'm feeling it a little bit more."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/michael-j-fox-parkinsons-disease-broken-bones-people-magazine/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab6a&linkId=187689207#app

[George K]

Fox was a regular on a TV series - "The Good Wife," iirc. He played an asshole attorney who capitalized on his Parkinson's disease to gain sympathy from jurors and judges.

[taiwan_girl]

Does Parkinson make your bones more easy to break, or is it just more falling because of balance?

[George K]

@taiwan_girl said in Parkinson’s, 30 years on:

Does Parkinson make your bones more easy to break, or is it just more falling because of balance?

As far as I know, there's no correlation between the two - just falling, I assume.

However, it's interesting that Fox broke bones at a relatively young age.

Another thing is that Fox's movement disorder is not typical Parkinson's. Parkinson's usually manifests itself as skeletal muscle rigidity, where "getting going" is difficult. Getting out of a chair, and starting to walk can be a challenge. His movements are more characteristic of tardive dyskinesia - which is more typical as a side effect of various psychotropic drugs, though it can occur in Parkinson's.

Another atypical thing is that Parkinson's patients frequently have "masked facies," - an expressionless appearance to their facial musculature. One of my neighbors has PD, and I could tell, on first meeting, that he had it. He never told me about it, and it was only after about 4 years that his wife mentioned it.