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April is Parkinson's Awareness Month

www.pexels.com

There are an estimated 9000 people living with Parkinson’s Disease right here in Southwest Florida. Parkinson’s is a disorder of the central nervous system that affects movement and speech. As it worsens, non-motor symptoms become increasingly common, and depression and anxiety occur in about a third of people with PD.

April is Parkinson’s Awareness Month, so we’re talking with two people working to help those with the neurodegenerative disease here in Southwest Florida.

Dr. Ramon Gil is a neurologist at the Parkinson’s Treatment Center Of Southwest Florida, and Mary Spremulli is a medical speech-language pathologist and owner of Voice Aerobics Speech Language Therapy in Punta Gorda. We also meet one of her clients, Mike Davidson, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s five years ago.

Local resources:

Neurochallenge based out of Sarasota

Hope Parkinson Program based out of Cape Coral

The Parkinson's Association of Southwest Florida is located in Naples

World Parkinson Program (WPP) a Canadian-based charity