2 Quotes by Jon Palfreman

People with Parkinson’s are very lucky to have L-dopa. There is no equivalent therapy for other neurodegenerative conditions like Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s, or Lou Gehrig’s disease. Whatever its limitations, L-dopa turned Parkinson’s from a condition in which victims experienced a rapid slide toward immobility and death into a chronic disease with a gradual trajectory of decline. A.

While L-dopa was vastly superior to what came before, the drug fell far short of being a cure. On the one hand, the L-dopa allowed “frozen” wheelchair-bound individuals to walk again and increased patients’ life expectancy. On the other hand, virtually all patients taking levodopa were sentenced to future disabling motor complications. And that’s as true today as it was in 1970.