theconversation.com · 34 days ago

Jesse Jackson’s Misdiagnosis of Parkinson’s Is Common – New Genetic Discovery Could Lead to Treatment for This Deadly Disease

A son describes his father's first fall-backward in the driveway on his 65th birthday-the beginning of a decade-long decline that doctors attributed to Parkinson's disease. The diagnosis was wrong. The father had progressive supranuclear palsy, a rare and aggressive brain disease that shares Parkinson's symptoms but offers no specific treatments and kills more quickly. Now neuroscience researchers have identified a protein, DLX1, that may finally distinguish PSP from Parkinson's, opening a path toward both accurate diagnosis and treatment for the estimated 30,000 Americans-likely many more-living with a disease that has remained invisible even as it destroys lives. For families watching loved ones deteriorate under the wrong diagnosis, as Jesse Jackson's family did, the discovery carries a particular weight: the possibility that what has been unnameable might finally be seen.