The Michael J. The influence of Fox on Parkinson’s disease is undeniable, from the hundreds of millions of dollars invested in research to his efforts to lessen the disease’s stigma. And the actor has faith that scientists will achieve a new breakthrough in the following five years.
According to Fox, 57, “We’ll be able to predict it and stop the progression of the disease.”.
That would represent a significant advance in the study of Parkinson’s disease, a neurological condition that causes tremors, slowed movement, balance issues, and other symptoms. In 2000, when Fox established the Michael J. A Fox Foundation.
According to Deborah W., “the overall pace of progress was quite stalled” at that time. Brooks, the executive vice chairman and co-founder of the foundation.
“Michael going public with his disease and then going further and acknowledging that he had a role to be playing to galvanize the patient community, plus directing fundraising towards Parkinson’s research, really gave it a jolt, and was a catalyst for the entire Parkinson’s patient and research community,” says the author.
As a result of the attention they knew he would garner, “people with Parkinson’s have told me they were happy when they heard I was diagnosed,” Fox says.
I replied, “I understand.
’ ”.
Dr. This is agreed upon by Steven Frucht, director of Parkinson’s and Movement Disorders at NYU Langone Health.
“I don’t think you can understate the impact it had on the field, and also in very practical ways, in the dollars of research funding that was directed towards this disease,” he claims. “It had a huge impact. ”.
The non-profit organization has raised nearly $1 billion for Parkinson’s research in the 18 years since the foundation’s founding, which has resulted in significant advances in medicine and surgery for treating and slowing the disease.
According to Brooks, the Parkinson’s disease drug pipeline is at its best ever right now. But in addition to that, we also have a strong and expanding pipeline of therapeutic programs that we think will be able to alter the biology of the underlying disease. In addition to treating symptoms, we’ll be able to slow the progression of the illness, reverse it, and ultimately stop it from happening. ”.
“That’s a completely new direction that’s been possible in the last couple of decades, not solely by our work, but we’re a big part of being about to work quickly and aggressively around emerging priorities,” she adds. In particular over the past five years, “science has exploded.”. ”.
To learn more about Michael J. Pick up this week’s issue of PEOPLE, which hits newsstands on Friday, to meet Fox and Tracy Pollan.
Researchers studying Parkinson’s have recently improved their understanding of the disease’s fundamentals in addition to developing new treatments.
Frucht says, “We are now starting to understand that Parkinson’s disease really is a collection of related disorders, some genetic and some not. “There are likely six, eight, or ten distinct diseases involved, each of which has a similar appearance but differs. Accordingly, each Parkinson’s patient is different, with some displaying particular symptoms while others do not. “Treatments are now more likely to focus on the illness’ underlying cause. ”.
A Parkinson’s diagnosis also doesn’t feel as dire now that actors like Alan Alda and Megan Fox are still working and acting in the public eye.
This shows that a lot of patients learn to live with and cope with the symptoms of Parkinson’s. It doesn’t define who they are or what they do, according to Frucht. They claim: ‘I had it yesterday, and it has no bearing on what I do today or tomorrow. ”.
