Mortality rate

Now here's a subject you wont find too many talking about. Most people don’t like to think, let alone talk about the shortened mortality rate of having Parkinson's disease. Undoubtedly, Parkinson's is not a terminal disease such as cancer, and there are many who live with Parkinson's until a ripe old age. Even young on-set Parkinson's cases, such as Michael J. Fox who was diagnosed over 20 years ago, is still going strong and will hopefully be with us for many years to come. Parkinson's by very nature is so individual; each case different, the manifestations and degree of severity, along with the unknown additional element of whether some instances are hereditary whilst others are clearly not, makes life expectancy predictions almost impossible. In my particular case, where Parkinson's is more than likely hereditary (my father and brother both had Gaucher and Parkinson's like myself), when I found that no insurance company was willing to cover me for life insurance, clearly there are justifiable reasons to question the mortality rate of a person in my individual situation. I was once very upset to hear someone question me harshly, after my father passed away, as to the cause of death. I told the person it was written on his death certificate "Cause of death: Parkinson's". How much clearer can one be? Yet the person insisted that one could not die of Parkinson's, and although there were contributing factors that finally led to his death, those affects were undeniably caused by Parkinson's. The National Parkinson's Foundation quote: "While Parkinson's disease itself is not fatal, The Center for Disease Control rated complications from Parkinson's disease as the 14th leading cause of death in the United States." I have brought this subject matter up, as little information on any of the major Parkinson's sites refer to this, and I think it is a very valid question, that let's face it, is in the back of all our minds. By not asking difficult questions or talking about unpleasant topics is merely behaving like an ostrich who sticks his head in the sand. Many things I have been called, but an ostrich is not one of them! To leave you with a positive thought, please take a minute and look at this link telling a courageous woman's inspiring story.