Michael J. Fox admits he’s had a ‘terrible year’ while battling Parkinson’s disease.
The '80s icon sat down with Stat News to speak about his health as he recounted his gnarly fall that led to a few broken bones, including ones in his face and hand.
“It’s been a terrible year,” he revealed to the outlet.
Despite a tumultuous start to 2023, he is now ‘feeling better’, which he admitted is his ‘reward’ or Oscar, if you will.
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Part of that reward, the actor noted, was the recent scientific breakthrough that could help doctors develop a new technique to diagnose Parkinson's before symptoms show.
The research, published in The Lancet Neurology, was funded by the Michael J. Fox Foundation.
The paper says that while alpha-synuclein can only be detected by taking a spinal tap - a ‘difficult and uncomfortable procedure’ - doctors might be able to see it in the blood.
According to the paper, this could be a 'game changer’ for the early detection, diagnosis and treatment of Parkinson’s.
Fox, who was diagnosed with the disease at 29, said: “Now this is the newest chapter, which is, we got something done, something that is fundamentally going to change the world.
“I don’t say that lightly. I don’t say it with any credit. It’s the way it worked out.”
He added that this research could ‘open the floodgates'.
Next month, the actor will also release his documentary Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie, which will tell the story of how Fox became a pop culture darling of the '80s and how his shocking diagnosis altered his life.
While the 61-year-old wanted to shine a spotlight on his disease, he had one condition for the documentary.
He admitted to Entertainment Weekly that he didn’t want the film to be overly miserable.
"They're overly schmaltzy," he said.
Davis Guggenheim, who interviewed Fox in the film added: "We're not going to put him in a box as someone with a handicap.
"We're not going to say, 'Oh, poor Michael.' And you see that from the beginning of the movie. We just immediately subvert that expectation."
The two wanted the film to offer audiences a unique perspective and, most importantly, hope.
Guggenheim said: "It could be Parkinson's, it could be cancer, it could be work, it could be anything.
"But that's the appeal to me; it's a universal story. The pitch was: What happens when an incurable optimist confronts an incurable disease?'"
Charisa Bossinakis