Helpful Products for living with Parkinson’s Disease

Over the years, I have collected some of the products that have been most helpful for people with Parkinson’s disease.

Here are the best of what we have found:

An awful lot of people fall after getting up at night.  It’s dark.  The Levodopa is low.  Shuffle, trip, BAM.

This is a pack of three bars of LEDs that are motion activated but only at night.  They are also magnetic and wireless – they charge with the same charger as cell phones (USB-C).

Put/stick these lights on the floor right by your bed so that when you get out of bed at night, your path is automatically lit but without lighting up the whole room.  You can put them along the way to the bathroom.  I also use them in our medicine cabinet and pantry to automatically come one when we open the door.

Lots of people with Parkinson’s have trouble rolling over in bed.  Slick sheets help but they also make it easier to fall out of bed and harder to sit on the side of the bed.   Comfort Linen make sheets that have a slick center but cotton edges.  This way it is easier to move when you are in bed but you don’t slide out of slide off the edge.

Massage can help reduce dystonia and stress to help relive symptoms.  But, some of these guns are large, loud and really expensive.  Bob and Brad (“the most famous physical therapists on the internet”) have a small, less expensive model that I love.   It is only $70.  It is wireless and a charge lasts for about 3 hours.  It has 5 speeds/intensities, comes with a nice case, 5 heads and instructions. I love this thing.

You can get a full workout with resistance bands.  Bands are small and easy to deal with at home.  I have been using Bodylastic bands with my home clients since I started training.  The Bodylastic band have clips on each end so you can clip it to stuff and use different attachments (handle, ankle cuff, bar, etc.).  

They also have an “anti-snap” string in the band which will just coil up the band and not snap you in the face if it breaks while you are using it.  They come with high quality attachments and you can “stack” them – put more than one band on to increase the resistance. I highly recommend these.

The car door handle adds another handle to help you get in and out of cars.  It hooks on to the U shaped latch in the door frame and works as a hand hold.  Now you can put one hand on the car door and one hand on the door handle and help yourself in and out of the car.  Some models have a seatbelt cutter, a window breaker and even a light built into them.

Wheel chairs can be really heavy (30 to 50 pounds) making it difficult for care givers and a hindrance to getting out of the house.   Feather Chair has a foldable wheelchair that is only 13.5 pounds (less than half the weight of a standard wheelchair).   The wheels come off easily to make the chair even smaller and lighter.  It is well made and comfortable.   They also make motorized versions that are also very light.

Chasing food around the plate, with or without tremors, is frustrating.   But, scoop plates have a high side or higher sides all the way around that give you a back stop to push food up against.   There are also plate guards that can be put on any plate to give it a back stop.  Many of them also have an anti-slip base to prevent them from sliding away.

Tremors have may have taken soups off the menu but extra heavy utensils can help dampen out tremors even more.  It helps turn sensitive fine motor movement into gross movements which can help reduce tremors while eating.  Some of them look just like any other silverware.  Some are made with larger grips and bendable necks.

One of the last memories of my dad was seeing him being taken to lunch at his rehab facility where they put a white terry cloth bib on him.  He was humiliated.  But, dropping food down your shirt isn’t much better. The “dining scarf” is a washable scarf that doubles as a bib.   It doesn’t look like a bib but it does the same job.

If grip and dexterity are a problem the Hand in Mug makes is so that you can put an insulated mug on your hand.   Pretty cool.