Daryl Dragon, Essential Tremors and Parkinson's Disease
Daryl Dragon died yesterday. If the name doesn't ring a bell, I'm sure the above photo does. He was the Captain in pop duo, The Captain and Tenille. Among their famous songs were "Muskrat Love", "Do That To Me One More Time" and the number one hit/ Grammy Award winning "Love Will Keep Us Together." The cause of death was renal failure. Dragon was seventy-six years old.
Those are the basics. His health story is more complicated.
In 2009, Dragon said he was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. It turned out it was a misdiagnosis.
What he actually had were Essential Tremors. Those are tremors that occur during movement. Because of them, Dragon was unable to play the keyboards. He was forced to give up his musical career.
With Parkinson's Disease, the tremors happen while the body is not moving. They're called resting or Parkinsonian tremors. If Dragon had PD, he would have been able to continue to play his musical instruments. The tremors would not be occurring during those movements. The similarities make it easy to become confused. It's also one of the major reasons why the misdiagnosis of Parkinson's Disease is common.
Among the celebrities misdiagnosed with Parkinson's were Dragon, Johnny Cash and George H.W. Bush. All were originally diagnosed with Parkinson's, but actually had another similar disease.
Hopefully, this clears up the confusion. If not, don't worry about it. Plenty of so-called experts make mistakes with this.
Related Post: Johnny Cash and the Misdiagnosis of Parkinson's
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