Q 01/05

Which actor hid a Parkinson's diagnosis for seven years, then founded its biggest research charity?

A) Robin Williams

B) Michael J. Fox

C) Alan Alda

D) Christopher Reeve

Answer · why

B) Michael J. Fox

Michael J. Fox was diagnosed in 1991 but only went public in 1998, while starring in the sitcom Spin City. The foundation he launched in 2000 has rais...

Q 02/05

Which heavyweight champion with Parkinson's syndrome lit the flame at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics?

A) Joe Frazier

B) Sonny Liston

C) Larry Holmes

D) Muhammad Ali

Answer · why

D) Muhammad Ali

Muhammad Ali lit the Olympic cauldron in Atlanta 12 years after his diagnosis. He and his doctors disputed reports that blows taken in the ring had ca...

Q 03/05

Which sense, often dulled years before Parkinson's is diagnosed, does Joy Milne use to detect it?

A) Hearing

B) Touch

C) Smell

D) Sight

Answer · why

C) Smell

Smell is how Joy Milne picks out skin swabs taken from people with Parkinson's; she first noticed a change in her husband's scent. Her nose led chemis...

Q 04/05

James Parkinson first described the disease in an 1817 essay, calling it by what name?

A) The shaking palsy

B) The trembling sickness

C) The creeping paralysis

D) St Vitus's dance

Answer · why

A) The shaking palsy

The shaking palsy was his plain-English name for what he also called paralysis agitans. No portrait of Parkinson is known, so the faces sometimes prin...

Q 05/05

Which pope with Parkinson's was beatified after a French nun was declared cured of the same disease?

A) Paul VI

B) Benedict XVI

C) John Paul II

D) John XXIII

Answer · why

C) John Paul II

John Paul II was confirmed to have Parkinson's in 2001. Sister Marie Simon-Pierre, bedridden by the same illness, recovered after her community prayed...