What Neil Diamond's Parkinson's diagnosis means to him and the Parkinson's community
Neil Diamond has announced that he has Parkinson's Disease. At age 77, he said that this will cause him to retire from touring and cancelled the rest of his world-wide 50th anniversary tour.
Whenever a celebrity announces a Parkinson's diagnosis, I'm always asked for my response. After taking some time to think it over, it's always the same. I'm sad for the person who has Parkinson's. It will definitely change the way anyone leads their life.
While Parkinson's is a life-changing disease, it does not have to be a life ending disease. In most cases, it's not. Based on the reports from yesterday, I doubt it will be in Diamond's case.
The real question is what does it means to Neil and the Parkinson's community as a whole?
For him, it's hard to say without knowing what his symptoms are. How bad are his tremors? What about balance issues? Those are the two main ones, especially early in the disease. Some reports from the tour have stated that it looked like he was slowing down. It's impossible to say if that's from Parkinson's or simply because he's now 77 years old. The aging process and Parkinson's tend to mask each other. But apparently he has found some of the issues are enough to cause him to give up touring.
One good thing from yesterday's reports is that he will be able to continue to write and record new music. That sounds like the problems that Linda Ronstadt had with her vocal cords didn't affect Diamond.
It looks like he'll be able to continue with his career and his life will go on, with some lifestyle changes to acknowledge and deal with Parkinson's Disease. It's really not so different from any of the millions with the disease.
What does it mean to the Parkinson's community. We have a pretty large group of celebrity sufferers. Mchael J. Fox. Linda Ronstadt. Muhammad Ali. Kirk Gibson. Jesse Jackson. And now Neil Diamond. Each time a celebrity comes public with a diagnosis, it brings awareness to the cause and the general public. It's also another opportunity to raise money needed to create programs for Parkinson's patients and more importantly, finding a cure, sooner than later.
It'll be interesting to see how involved Neil gets in the community. Will he be out front in raising money like Fox and Ali or will he want to be private and live his life like Ronstadt. I'm sure it's too early in the process for a decision like that but whatever choice he makes is fine.
So Neil, from one Parkinson's patient to another.....sorry to hear about this but welcome to our club. It's not a great club but there are much worse ones. We're here for you.
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