I used to think that biology was a bit boring - endless lists of names to remember and something you couldn't really use to find a job. But not anymore. Biology is life. I have my Parkinson's Disease diagnosis to thank for that realization. 

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I'd heard of Parkinson's before my diagnosis and even knew someone with it. But I knew nothing about it. So when the neurologist said to me  "You have Parkinson's Disease" I wasn't particularly worried. I decided that for now I was going to carry on with my life as if nothing had changed.

​Something had changed, of course, and I just needed a trigger to get me moving. That trigger was the podcast "Movers and Shakers". I liked the way they talked about the disease (with typical British humor), the theme music (a bit jarring, just like Parkinson's), the depth of the information in their episodes, and how they touched on so many aspects of the disease that were relevant to me.

​I continued to learn about the subject from the podcasts of the Michael J. Fox Foundation, "Substantial Matters - life and science of Parkinson's" of the Parkinson's Foundation and others. A turning point came when I heard the Davis Phinney Foundation for Parkinson's  podcast called "The Effects of Forced Exercise on Parkinson's Motor and Non-Motor Symptoms" with Dr. Jay Alberts. This was the first time that I had come across the idea that exercise could actually improve Parkinson's symptoms, rather than just slow down the disease progression. I talk about this more on the exercise page - here I just emphasize that by learning about my condition and by using that knowledge to make changes, I can, to a certain extent, manage the course of the disease.

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I find it very satisfying that at my age and in my condition, I have been able to learn neuroscience concepts such as neurons, neurotransmitters and neuromodulators, receptors, synapses, ATP, how sleep works (or doesn't work), the biology of energy conversion in the brain, how exercise affects the brain positively and much more. 
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This website serves two purposes. Its a place where I can record the large number of podcasts, YouTube lectures and articles that I have listened to and read. I also hope that it can serve as a source of information for other people with Parkinson's who want more than just "Live Well with Parkinson's" - for those who want to UNDERSTAND their condition, and want to use that understanding to manage it.
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The text on this site is almost all AI generated, either by Google Gemini, ChatGPT or the WIX ai engine. I used Gemini to create a Python script which convers and audio podcast to text. I put the text it creates into ChatGPT or Gemini and ask it to create an article or summary. Sometimes I try both AI engines to see which gives result closer to what I'm looking for. And sometimes I use the structure created by the one engine to instruct the other engine.

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Hope you find this interesting and useful. 

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Alan

December  2025