From: American Parkinson Disease Association
Sent: Tuesday, November 23, 2010 11:21 AM
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Subject: November tip of the month from American Parkinson Disease Association
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As we prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving with our relatives and dearest friends, we'd like to show our gratitude to those who mean so much to us—you and other APDA supporters like you!
In your honor, this month, we are featuring a few reader-submitted tips. Enjoy!
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Getting out of bed can often be a difficult process for those with Parkinson's disease. One of our readers, Kathie McWilliams, contributed the following tip about a product that makes mornings easier for her husband:
My husband has had Parkinson’s for 26 years and is now 81. For the last eight years we have had a Super Pole (www.healthcraftproducts.com) by the bed. It is a floor-to-ceiling tension pole with a movable bar and trapeze. We could not have made it without it for moving him into and out of bed. So many people have never heard of it and are amazed when they see its usefulness. My husband sits on the side of the bed, holds on to the trapeze and I can weightlessly lift his legs on to the bed. It’s a winner for home care and well worth its price.
Freezing episodes (freezing of gait) and other problems that occur while walking are commonly experienced by those with Parkinson’s disease. Reader David Black sent in a helpful tip that he discovered to help him combat his walking problems.
I often don’t “know” where my feet are unless I can see them while I walk, and I’ve also experienced freezes. I’ve noticed that focusing on lifting my big toe will often quickly get me out of a freeze.
After trimming a pair of replacement silicone insoles to fit my shoes, I had a crescent-shaped bit left over. I trimmed this to roughly fit the length and width of my big toes, and after adjusting to get the placement right with the shoes on, I used a wee daub of contact cement to affix the extra bits to the insoles. It only takes a daub on one surface, let it cure for about two minutes, and then press in place. (Perhaps draft someone to help you with the trimming, affixing, etc.) I set a sealed quart jar of rice on top for about 10 minutes to let it cure a bit. You can use two layers affixed together if it seems better, it’ll still be quite thin and compress more as you walk.
The happy result is 1) more tactile feedback, letting me “know” where my feet are quite a bit better when not watching them as I walk, and 2) this seems to lessen the curb/stairway freezes I experience.
For me, just raising the default position of my big toes by about 3/8"–1/2" seems to do the trick. Of course, there’s the possibility that this might increase balance or stability problems in some PWP; you’d certainly want to experiment indoors at home before venturing out. But, it’s basically free—pretty much everybody needs to pare a bit of any replacement insole to get them to fit a given shoe, and the leftover bits can yield enough to do two sets or even more.
Many of the most frequently prescribed drug treatments for Parkinson’s disease come with an unfortunate side effect: nausea. While we have included past tips on the subject (remember the candied ginger?), here are a few new tips from readers that might also help nausea sufferers.
I recently found that if I take my medicine after I eat half my meal and then finish my meal, I do not have nausea. This was a great discovery, since I have had nausea since I started taking my medication three years ago.
— Mickey L. Otto
Upon awakening from surgery, I felt nauseated. My nurse took an alcohol swab and placed it under my nose, and the nausea went away. She couldn’t explain why it worked, but I just know that it did.
— Dianna Caffee
Hand tremors, weakness in grip strength and loss of manual dexterity often cause people who are living with Parkinson’s disease to experience. Reader Wendy Ferrell contributed the following tip for dealing with zippers:
Make using zippers easier! Place a car key ring (just the little metal ring purchased from your local hardware store—it doesn’t have to be very large) in the pull tab on the zipper. It’s much easier to grasp and pull.
Patti Meese offers this month's final tip: We often wonder about all of the pesticides on our fruits and vegetables—even when they're organic. We never know for sure. So, I like to use an organic wash.
You will need:
a.. 1 spray bottle
b.. 1 lemon
c.. 2 tablespoons of distilled white vinegar
d.. 1 cup of water
Squeeze the juice of the lemon in the spray bottle. Then add the water and vinegar. Spray or wash all fruits and veggies before eating them. Enjoy!
Do you have a tip that you would like to share with us? Click the button below to share your healthy tip!
Or e-mail your tip to [log in to unmask], and be sure to let us know if you'd like us to use your name and/or tip on our Web site or in one of our healthy tip of the month e-mails.
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The American Parkinson Disease Association, Inc. was founded in 1961 to "Ease the Burden - Find the Cure" for Parkinson's disease. Headquartered in New York, the organization focuses its energies on research, patient support, education and raising public awareness of Parkinson's disease.
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