Alda hopes to inspire
Actor Alan Alda, known for his roles on M*A*S*H, The West Wing and more, has announced he has Parkinson’s disease. Speaking Tuesday on CBS This Morning, Alda said he has had “a full life” since he received the diagnosis nearly four years ago. “I’ve acted. I’ve given talks. I help at the Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook. I started this new podcast. And I noticed that I had been on television a lot in the last couple of weeks talking about the new podcast, and I could see my thumb twitch in some shots,” said Alda, 82. “I thought, it’s probably only a matter of time before somebody does a story about this from a sad point of view, but that’s not where I am.” Parkinson’s disease is a nervous system disorder affecting movement, though symptoms may not show up in the early stages. Although there is no cure, there are medications and other options that can help patients with symptoms. There is no specific test for Parkinson’s, though there is a scan that can help support a doctor’s observations and diagnosis. Alda said he had read an article about a study that showed acting out one’s dreams could be a very early indicator of Parkinson’s, when no other symptoms show. So he asked doctors for a scan “because I thought I might have it.” “And by acting out your dreams, I mean I was having a dream that someone was attacking me and I threw a sack of potatoes at them,” Alda said. “But what I was really doing was throwing a pillow at my wife.” There is a center at Stony Brook University named after Alda that is focused on helping medical professionals and scientists communicate with patients and the public.
With that in mind, “it would be kind of ironic if I get quiet about this,” Alda said.
“Because I’m sort of well known, it might be helpful to people to hear the message that there are things you can do, if you learn about things and not follow quackery but found out what real science is coming up with that helps.”