Reno Takes on Parkinson's With Curiosity, Not Fear
Twelve years ago, Janet Reno was U.S. attorney general.

Posted on: Friday, 4 May 2007, 06:00 CDT
http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/...ource=r_health

She was _ and still is _ a woman who lives by self-discipline and routine.

When she was in office, every morning about 6:30 a.m. FBI agents came to her home and joined her for a healthy walk around the National Mall and the Capitol building.

It was on one of these walks, as she neared the National Archives building, that she first noticed a tremor in her left hand. Today, that tremor affects her entire arm but is the only visible symptom of her Parkinson's disease.

That, I tell her, is the good news. I was diagnosed with Parkinson's a year ago, have a small tremor in my right hand, and hope I do as well as Reno over the next 12 years.

"Well, one doctor said he saw some dyskinesia, some symptoms of change," she says.

Both she and I know dyskinesia _ think of Michael J. Fox and his jerky movements in a television interview _ often develops after years of using certain Parkinson's medications.

"What I see as dyskinesia is more an adaptation to balance," she says, adding:" When I go around a curve, I ..."

Then, to explain what she means, she moves her arms like she is swimming.

For the uninitiated, Parkinson's disease belongs to a group of conditions called motor system disorders. It affects various parts of the body. It can cause stiffness in the muscles, slowness, difficulty when starting movements and tremors. As the conditions become more pronounced, patients may have difficulty walking, talking or completing simple tasks.

Parkinson's is chronic and progressive.

Reno came to Newport Beach, Calif., to speak to the annual Parkinson's Wellness Symposium. She makes these appearances, she tells me, because she's been told she helps inspire people with Parkinson's.

Q: What did you do when you noticed the tremor?

A: I went to my primary-care physician. He said, "Yeah, you've got Parkinson's. You'll be fine for 20 years so use the time well. I asked him if it would affect my ability to serve as attorney general and he said, "You ought to be able to serve just fine." Then I went to a bookstore and bought books to educate myself. I told President Clinton and I announced my condition at a press availability.

Q: But your right hand doesn't have a tremor and you are right-handed. That should be a benefit because I am having trouble reading my handwriting. In fact, right now that's my only problem.

A: I can't read mine either, though. Same thing.

Q: How did you feel? Were you afraid?

A: I didn't know what to expect. I think "puzzled" best expresses how I felt. Not frightened. Nothing I read, about the first stage or the second stage, caused me fear. But, then again, it strikes everybody differently.

That's one of the things that make it such a curmudgeonly disease.

Q: What medication do you take?

A: I take Sinemet (a common medication with levodopa). I took Miraplex for a while but had to give it up.

Q: I took Requip at first but had to stop because it made me so sleepy. Now I take Azilect.

A: I had the same problem with Miraplex: falling asleep. Of course, Azilect is new. You're lucky.

Q: Yes, it's supposed to slow the progress of the disease. But even so, it has moved slowly for you?

A: Yes. ... At the conference here, one of the doctors said conditions for patients are much better overall. He said 14 years ago, when this started, many of the people in the room would show signs of dyskinesia. Now medications control much of that.

Q: I think of all the things one can get _ cancer, Alzheimer's, heart disease _ and Parkinson's doesn't seem so bad, does it?

A: No, it could be worse. I haven't had any discomfort. But things change. The doctors seem to know the answers to some things, but in other instances ... like my eyesight. I go to the eye doctor and he says I'm doing fine but then I start having eye reactions and I don't know if it's the medications or what. And they can't tell me. I have a feeling we're just bouncing neurons around.

Q: They don't know what causes it?

A: They know some things. Pesticides, well water, workplace solvents. Maybe they ought to encourage people to change their habits. I was about 10 and I fell off a horse. I hit my head on a rock, not on the grass. I often think that injury started the neurons bouncing around.

Q: Has the disease changed your lifestyle?

A: Well, I've taken up kayaking. I used to do canoeing. One day I took a kayak and I went over a three-foot rapid and I got hooked on it. But I do spend less time doing whitewater. I haven't perfected my Eskimo roll (when the kayak rolls under the water and resurfaces) and I don't want to overdo and wrench my back. I walk a lot.

Q: You ran for governor of Florida?

A: Yes. I didn't win the primary. I was told I had too much baggage, the Parkinson's and the Elian Gonzalez decision. (The Cuban youngster was at the center of a custody battle between Miami relatives and his father in Cuba. Reno ordered him returned to his father.)

Q: What else are you involved in professionally?

A: I work with the Innocence Project, which uses DNA testing and other legal strategies to seek the release of people wrongfully convicted of crimes.

Q: Any way you think people can avoid Parkinson's?

A: Don't clunk your head.

Q: Any way you think people can avoid Parkinson's?

A: Don't clunk your head.

Avoid pesticides (don't marry a farmer like I did), don't teach (like I did ) & don't clunk your head!!

my parkinson's manifested after taking reglan says the VA

Don't fracture your skull (2 times) and get a concussion (more than twice), don't drink well water, don't be a teacher, but do smoke.

Better choices: Be alert in your baby carriage while a little boy takes aim with a rock, stay seated in your high chair so you don't fall out on your head. When you graduate to a regular kitchen chair, don't lean back but instead keep all four legs of the kitchen chair on the floor (not two off). Avoid standing behind your brother while he practices his golf swing (age 8 and 7), move to a house with public water, get out of the teaching career, and see cigarettes as your friend.

Ann