Ed Begley Jr. is giving an update on how he’s been managing his Parkinson’s disease.
The actor, 75, appeared on the March 19 episode of SiriusXM’s Where Everybody Knows Your Name podcast and told hosts Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen that he’s been able to continue working with the disease because of the progress he’s made with hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
“ I finally started to get scientific about it after the first time I did the hyperbaric chamber or the NAD or the glutathione,” he explained.
A hyperbaric chamber is a contained, highly pressurized space that increases the delivery of 100% oxygen to the body. As the patient relaxes and breathes, the lungs — and therefore, the body’s tissues — receive up to three times the normal amount of oxygen. A study from the National Institutes of Health found that hyperbaric oxygen therapy is a safe and effective treatment for Parkinson’s that improves motor function.
Begley admitted that every time he left the hyperbaric chamber, he was “always better on the way out.”
“So I kept doing it and here I am,” he boasted.
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The actor said that he “easily” has had Parkinson’s since 2004, despite not receiving an official diagnosis until more than a decade later.
“All the signs were there,” he said. “We didn’t know what it was, but things were happening to me. No one could explain. But since 2016, I’ve been diagnosed by the top neurologist at UCLA in Cedars. So I definitely have it. And here I am still working.”
Begley said that managing his symptoms was going so well that two different production companies he worked with didn’t even realize he had the disease.
“I told them after a second year on the show,” he recalled. “I said, ‘Thank you for being so understanding of my Parkinson’s.’ They went, ‘What? Your what? What did you just say?’ They didn’t know I had it.”
“I was shocked,” he admitted. “I thought they had seen me. Not that I trembled a lot, but occasionally I’d shake a tiny bit. I thought they were on to me. Nobody was on to me. So that’s pretty good if people don’t know it.”
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Parkinson’s disease is a progressive brain disorder that affects the nervous system, the National Institutes of Health says. It causes unintended or uncontrollable movements, such as a tremor in the hands, arms, legs or head, muscle stiffness and difficulty with balance and coordination.
Symptoms typically worsen over time and as the disease progresses, and people may have difficulty walking and talking. Parkinson’s can also cause mental and behavioral changes, sleep problems, depression, memory difficulties and fatigue.
In addition to Begley, other stars who have opened up about being diagnosed with Parkinson’s include Michael J. Fox, Ozzy Osbourne, Billy Connolly, Linda Ronstadt, Brett Favre and more.
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