Continuing our series on healthcare insurance options. Next up, Medicare. There are more choices than when your parents became eligible. In this episode, we learn from an expert on what option is the best one for your situation and when and if you can change your choice when your circumstances change. No matter what age you are, this is an important topic to understand. It can be very confusing. We break it down and make sense of the confusion.

This is the second episode in our series on healthcare choices and picking the best options for you. Next up – online pharmacies.  Where do you get your medications? The ones you need to treat an ongoing condition. Most people use the corner pharmacy. It’s convenient. Have you wondered about switching to an online pharmacy? One that can source drugs from Canada and other countries with lower costs for their medications? Thousands of people use them and save a lot of money. Is it safe? How does it work? Stay tuned and find out.

Healthcare in the US and, more specifically, healthcare insurance is a very difficult, confusing and frustrating industry to navigate and understand.  It can also be expensive. Yet, it is so important to our wellbeing. How do you make the best choices of you and your family? Even if this doesn’t affect you so much now, it will. Therefore, the Parkinson’s Experience will be producing its first series of episodes on one topic – understanding your healthcare insurance options.  I guarantee you will learn at least one thing in each episode. First up, the individual marketplace for healthcare insurance.

Fundraising for PD research can be fun. This episode is a recap of the 3rd annual Box4Bucks fundraiser for MJFF. It includes interviews from the many stakeholders in the event. Listen as representatives from MJFF, sponsors and participants describe what this year's pivot to virtual meant to them and how much fun it can be to do good.

Fatigue, daytime tiredness, sleepless nights are experiences by a lot of people. It has a significant impact on their quality of life. For PWP, there is a 78% they will experience fatigue. Today we will learn more about this non motor symptom from a Mayo Clinic neurosurgeon researching fatigue in PD and if DBS can help.

Today’s topic takes us to the intersection of dancing and Parkinson’s disease.  Dancing isn’t just another exercise recommended for PWP. Dancing combines the intense workout of an aerobic exercise class with other classes focused on strength, flexibility and balance.  Plus, it is set to music and fun. The dancer needs to connect the mind with the body in order to perform the dance moves. Yet, PD dancing classes are for everyone and for all mobility levels.  So, channel your inner Fred Astaire and keep listening to this episode to find out more from a PD dance instructor and student.

A healthy diet packed with nutrition isn’t just good for Parkinson’s patients. It’s good for everyone. However, there are a few changes you can make to your diet that can help with symptoms as well as your overall health outcomes. While there is no one-size-fits-all diet plan for PD, there are some guidelines we can follow to live our best life and enjoy some good meals. 

Today, our guests will review general food categories, discuss organic foods versus non-organic and what incremental changes we may want to consider in our meal planning.  Stay tuned!

In this episode, we will be speaking with a movement disorder specialist and a patient about the next generation of Deep Brain Stimulation technology – just approved by the FDA.  This new BrainSense system is the next step toward a closed loop communication between brain activity and the smart software and hardware that can make a huge difference in a PD patient’s quality of life.

This episode is for everyone. It is about ending Parkinson’s disease. My guest is one of the authors of the newly released book appropriately titled “Ending Parkinson’s Disease.” In it, he and his colleagues describe some of the preventable causes of the disease and propose 25 concrete steps all of us can take to end PD. He takes us through how some of the same tactics were used to change the course of diseases like HIV, polio and breast cancer. It will be difficult NOT to be inspired to take action after listening to this podcast episode.

When I think of motivation and inspiration, whether in the context or not in the context of Parkinson’s disease, I think of today’s guest – Jimmy Choi. When I mention this to my non-Parkinson’s friends, they get excited because they think I know the famous shoe designer and just mispronounced his name.  Nope. This Jimmy is truly an inspiration. As you’ll learn from listening today, Jimmy was in complete denial for about 8 years until something happened that shook him to his core and got him to focus on living his best life with PD.  This is a very compelling story of denial to world record holder and TV phenomenon.