"Amy Lindberg spent 26 years in the Navy and she still walked like it-with intention, like her chin had someplace to be. But around 2017, her right foot stopped following orders. Lindberg and her husband Brad were five years into their retirement. After moving 10 times for Uncle Sam, they'd bought their dream house near the North Carolina coast. They had a backyard that spilled out onto wetlands. From the kitchen, you could see cranes hunting. They kept bees and played pickleball and watched their children grow."
"The diagnosis took all of five minutes. Lindberg had Parkinson's disease, the neurologist said, with all the classic symptoms. PD-as the scientists she would meet call it-is a neurological disorder, and a life sentence. Sufferers gradually lose control of their muscles, their bowels, their esophagus. Doctors told Lindberg that there was no way to know what had caused it."
A Navy veteran developed tremors, speech lapses and a dragging right foot beginning around 2017 and soon received a rapid diagnosis of Parkinson's disease. Parkinson's is described as a progressive neurological disorder that can erode motor control and autonomic functions over time. The veteran had lived and retired near military installations, including areas where service members later raised concerns about cancers and birth defects linked to contaminated water. Medical professionals stated the cause of her condition was unknown. Emerging research linking environmental exposures to chronic illness suggests new directions for diagnosis and treatment.
Read at WIRED
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]