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People with Parkinson’s disease (PwP) often hear doctors and others say, “You won’t die from Parkinson’s, you’ll die with Parkinson’s.” According to a recently published article (The elephant in the room: critical reflections on mortality rates among individuals with Parkinson’s disease), this is misleading. For example, if you fall and break your hip and later die from the injury, the official cause of death will be the hip fracture, even though you fell because you had freezing of gait due to PD.
One of the study’s authors (Bastiaan Bloem) was recently interviewed on YouTube (see below), and he cited the three main ways PwPs die from PD:
- You fall and fracture your hip or another important bone.
- You end up with aspiration pneumonia because you inhale food or liquid into your lungs when you swallow.
- You develop a urinary tract infection (UTI), which, according to the National Library of Medicine, “is a common precipitant of acute neurological deterioration in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) and a leading cause of delirium, functional decline, falls, and hospitalization… Sepsis due to UTI is a feared consequence of untreated or undertreated UTI and a leading cause of morbidity in PD.”
Dr. Bloem says it’s more truthful for doctors and others to tell PwPs that they will live a long life but with increasing complications. However, even that is somewhat misleading. As the article’s abstract notes, “…although the survival of PwP has improved over time, PwP still live fewer years than their age- and sex-matched population comparators, albeit at older ages the differences can be small.”
To clarify this, the article includes an easy-to-understand graph that shows the life expectancies of PwPs at various ages, compared to the life expectancies of the general, non-Parkie population. For example:
- A 55-year-old non-Parkie male can, on average, expect to live another 25 years, whereas a 55-year-old recently-diagnosed PwP male can expect to live only another 14 years.
- Similarly, a 75-year-old non-Parkie male can expect to live another 10 years, whereas a 75-year-old recently-diagnosed PwP male can expect to live only another 5 years.
Women, both non-Parkie and PwP, do much better:
- A 55-year-old non-Parkie female can expect to live another 28 years, whereas a 55-year-old recently-diagnosed PwP female can expect to live only another 22 years.
- Similarly, a 75-year-old non-Parkie female can expect to live another 12 years, whereas a 75-year-old recently-diagnosed PwP female can expect to live only another 9 years.
What does Dr. Bloem suggest Parkies do to ward off impending death? Here are some of his suggestions:
- Science supports the idea that physical exercise can slow PD’s progression. How often should you exercise? Every day. If your goal is to exercise three times a week, you can put it off by saying “I’ll get to it tomorrow.” If you make it a habit to exercise every day for, say, 30 minutes, you’ll see better results.
- Stay away from pesticides and other toxic chemicals.
- Eat a healthy diet and avoid foods that may have toxins, such as fruit that’s been treated with pesticides – Dr. Bloem says that following the Mediterranean diet is best.
- Practice mindfulness by, for example, trying yoga.
What can I add to the discussion?
- Click here to see exercises you can do at home to combat choking and swallowing problems. I learned these from a speech therapist who also has PD.
- Singing out loud will also help you resist choking and swallowing problems.
- Click here to see me swim two races, back when I was a mere 65 years old. I plan to resume swimming as soon as our town reopens its indoor pool, which currently is under repair. Care to join me?
Photo by DrStew 82 – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0,
