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After that, you need to start exercising  What? Did you think I didn’t know you haven’t yet started? I have my sources. They are those dedicated care givers, your doctors, your nurses and your physical therapists. I meet these people in the supermarket, at the drug store, on the street and at weddings. And they are talking about you and how you know you can and should exercise but for some no good reason, you don’t. Do you want to explain?

I would think that if you were given the option of feeling much better than you do, and all you had to do was fight through your fatigue, aches, stiffness and tremors for an hour a day so that you feel better for twenty-three other hours a day, you wouldn’t have to think too hard to start a program. It’s not my opinion. It’s a medical fact that exercise is the most effective therapy for reducing Parkinson’s symptoms.. There are cases where patients have gotten out of their wheelchairs and started walking again due to exercise. But, hey, if your approach works for you, you must have a different mindset.

I had intended to write about talking to others about what it’s like to have PD. But I got on my soapbox to preach about exercise again. Let me just add this thought. When I started talking about my having Parkinson’s I became much less self-conscious and more relaxed in public. By talking about my Parkinson’s I find more people who are thoughtful and accepting of my condition and who have made my life better by knowing them.

The photo is in the Catskills, upsate New York, from the top of Kaaterskill Falls. I was able to take this photo because I exercise everyday as physical therapy.