Michael J Fox?

Question

I saw an add with Michael J Fox in it last night, and it got me thinking, does Parkinsons kill you or can you live as normally as you can with it?

Answer 1

PD is not by itself a fatal disease, but it does get worse with time. The average life expectancy of a PD patient is generally the same as for people who do not have the disease. However, in the late stages of the disease, PD may cause complications such as choking, pneumonia, and falls that can lead to death.

The progression of symptoms in PD may take 20 years or more. In some people, however, the disease progresses more quickly. There is no way to predict what course the disease will take for an individual person. One commonly used system for describing how the symptoms of PD progress is called the Hoehn and Yahr scale.

Another commonly used scale is the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS). This much more complicated scale has multiple ratings that measure mental functioning, behavior, and mood; activities of daily living; and motor function. Both the Hoehn and Yahr scale and the UPDRS are used to measure how individuals are faring and how much treatments are helping them. It should be noted that neither scale is specific to Parkinson's Disease; that patients with other illnesses can score in the Parkinson's range.

With appropriate treatment, most people with PD can live productive lives for many years after diagnosis.

Answer 2

The symptoms of Parkinson's usually begin slowly, develop gradually and in no particular order. It is important to remember that everyone with Parkinson's is very different and may have a different collection of symptoms and response to treatment.

The nature and severity of symptoms and the rate at which the condition progresses will also be individual. The symptoms may take years to progress to a point where they cause major problems and when they do, many of these symptoms can be treated.

There have been many advances in treatments for Parkinson's that can offer a much better quality of life to people with Parkinson's than was possible a few years ago. This trend is likely to continue.

the site below may give futher info and details.

Answer 3

I knew that eventually someone would answer your question and comment on the political message and not the disease. I hope that a cure for Parkinson's will be found tomorrow and that people like Michael will get the relief that they deserve.

That said, the commercial is misleading. The politicians who Michael is speaking against are NOT against stem cell research. What they are is against the federal government financing Embryonic Stem Cell research.

There are two other kinds of stem cells. Adult and Umbilical Cord. These two have actually produced treatments that have helped people with any number of medical problems. The same cannot be said for embryonic stem cells. They are too unstable.

At one time in my life I was an embryo. That embryo is now SPLATT. We share the same DNA. We are the same person, just at a different stage in our lives. I'd hate to think that the person who was SPLATT so long ago would have been used in some 'scientific' experiment that cost me my life.

I'd hate to think that the person who Michael was be used in that experiment.

Embryos are people, just like Michael, you and me. It's immoral (and I don't mean that in the religious sense) to sacrifice people for some possible scientific benefit.

Do you think that something like that never happened? Here are just two horrendous experiments that took place during the 20th century.

Answer 4

Parkinson's can, and does, kill people. Basically, what Parkinson's does is interrupt the normal messages that go from the brain to the nerves and muscles. It affects voluntary movements at first, then involuntary actions, which include such things as making the lungs breathe and the heart beat.

Answer 5

Parkinson's Disease may affect your ability to control how you move. There is no known cure for it, furthermore, the disease progresses slowly. The disease progresses differently form person to person though. If you would liek to find out more, go to a Health website, such as www.health.yahoo.com, and enter Parkinson's Disease it the search. You an look at all of the symptoms, diagnosing issues, progression, treatments, etc. Good Luck.

Answer 6

Parkinsons is not a fatal disease, but it does get worse with time. People with parkinsons usually live as long as people without it. It can cause complications such as choking and falls that can lead to death. But normally, just having the disease alone, doesn't brand you for death.

Answer 7

As long as people like Patricia Heaton fight against stem cell research people like Michael J Fox will continue to die from Parkinsons.

Answer 8

You can't live normally with it as it robs you of your co-ordination and bodily function. It's such a cruel disease as your brain stays mainly ok trapped inside your near useless body. It's like a lot of degenerative diseases; it doesn't directly kill people but it puts your body and mind under so much stress that you don't tend to live as long because of the strain.

Answer 9

There is a surgical implant which, to an extent, controls the tremors but, like life, it will kill him eventually. (Unless the country side alliance starts Michael J Fox hunting)

Answer 10

The sad part is that No it doesn't kill you, but I think as the sickness develops you probably wish it would. My Moms freinds has it and it is terrible. Some days you can't even keep water down!