Morten Harket diagnosed with Parkinson's disease

Gorgeous, talented man. So sad.

And Keanu still walks healthily among us!

[quote]"The problems with my voice are one of many grounds for uncertainty about my creative future," he said.

That's an understatement: Parkinson's causes a softening of the voice and issues with breathing and swallowing. Speech therapy can help quite a bit with it but it would be a minor miracle if he ever knocked "Take On Me" out of the park again.

Even with all the advancement in special effects, his band's video from the 1980s still impresses.

For the newbies.

^ 2,178,830,890 views. Over 2 billion!

Shake On Me

That's sad to hear. Linda Ronstadt is dealing with Parkinson's too. She lost her singing voice about 8-10 years ago.

He’ll fade into a ghostlike shell of his former self.

[quote]That's sad to hear. Linda Ronstadt is dealing with Parkinson's too. She lost her singing voice about 8-10 years ago.

She has progressive supranuclear palsy, which is very similar to Parkinson's but even worse. It's impressive she's still hanging in there after having it for so long, because it often moves (and kills) quickly.

Sending him my best wishes and playing my favorite a-ha single:

[quote] That's an understatement: Parkinson's causes a softening of the voice and issues with breathing and swallowing.

He could end up with a feeding tube.

r11, I love that one too even though 40 years on I still have no idea what the lyrics mean. I'm assuming something got lost in translation from Norwegian to English.

Regardless this remix still fucking rules:

R10 You're right. I forget her diagnosis was initially Parkinson's disease, but a few year later re-diagnosed to supernuclear palsy.

He is super right wing btw.

We were talking about him on another thread a few months back.

Beautiful man with a matching talent; may he always give thanks for his full and perfect health.

Be well, Morten.

R5- I never cared for 80's music even though I was a teenager at the time.

[quote] He is super right wing btw.

Not disputing this but I'm wondering if he said something that would qualify him as such? I know he had studied to be a priest before joining a-ha but I've also read interviews with him where he expressed strong environmentalist views. Other than that, I'm not aware of anything overtly political about him.

I don't know anything about his politics but he was supportive of gay rights in the past and marched with friends in a Pride parade (pics at link).

r15 Great link for proof!

A study blaming Parkinson’s on gluten or ultra-processed foods or another common suspect just came out. Hopefully a breakthrough will come soon.

r21 Thanks for sharing the link

He seems gay friendly at least

Ok, lazy. R22.

r24 No, sweetie, when we post comments such as yours, we always include a reference link. You'll do better next time.

R7, you are evil and awful.

Meanwhile the majority of Parkinson's sufferers can provably trace it to head trauma.

Prove it.

Prove what?

The Parkinson's misinformation that's now cropping up here is exactly what Harket warned about in his official statement on the band's website, when he asks people to please not bother him with their theories and DIY cures because none of them know more about this than his doctor.

This is terrible news. Wasn’t there a clip posted here recently, maybe it was on Reddit, of him singing Take Me On and still hitting the high notes? It’s so unfair.

Is this the pic Michael Jackson took to his plastic surgeon surgeon and said, "Make this happen"?

Do you have it r30? Have you known anyone who has?

7 years ago.

[quote]Do you have it [R30]? Have you known anyone who has?

Yes, I'm in my early forties and have early-onset Parkinson's disease, which is one of the reasons misinformation irritates me as much as it does Morten.

Then you should know that head trauma is the primary cause. R35

He seems like a lovely man.

[quote] He seems like a lovely man.

A-ha.

The primary cause of Parkinson's remains famously unknown and it's believed to be a combination of factors that vary among patients. The Parkinson's Foundation directly addresses possible environmental factors and concludes "even though pesticides and head traumas are associated with PD, most people do not have any obvious exposure to these environmental factors." The same is true of a hereditary link to Parkinson's, which is only found in a minority of cases. Its mysteriousness is why treatments are still lacking.

But this thread isn't about that, it's about Morten, and the full article the band commissioned for its website is very much worth reading.

The cause od Parkinsons is degredation of the Substantia Negra. The most common cause of that is head trauma.

Nice that you can presume a first name basis with him. When did you meet him?

Parkinson’s was described in medical journals in the 1800s, if not earlier—long before processed foods like hotdogs were being consumed.

My best friend in Greece has Parkinsons, he is late 60’s and was diagnosed over 10 years ago. He has eaten a healthy Mediterranean diet his entire life, in Greece it’s often referred to as village food and most younger Greeks no longer know how to cook this food. He is doing ok but is taking a ton of medication.

R40 You ok?

I could understand how Muhammad Ali may gotten it but Michael J Fox? Genetics probably played a big part.

My father recently died after almost a decade of dealing with Parkinsons.

The hereditary aspect really scares me - to think the same might happen to me.

He also drank like a fish and drank several cans of soda every day for 40+ years, so I wonder if anything about those environmental factors led to his illness.

Take On Me is such a catchy tune. And the music video is gorgeous. But let’s admit we still talk about them today because they chose the name A-Ha, so they are always the first band on the list in a digital device.

R45 - look into Coq10, Omega-3, Resveratrol, and the right type of Vitamin B and D supplements. Studies have shown they reduce or prevent development of Parkinson's. The point is - there has been massive breakthroughs in the past 10 years in how supplements that increase former levels as you age can have a massive impact on preventing brain degeneration and other diseases. And they're not that expensive - plus you feel better as well.

For example:

COQ10: The most popular nutritional supplement, Coenzyme Q10 (also known as ubiquinone or CoQ10) has gained popularity as a neuroprotective compound in the prevention and management of Parkinson’s disease. CoQ10 is a vitamin-like, fat-soluble quinone that is widely distributed in the liver and the brain. Because CoQ10 has a special electron-accepting property, it can link mitochondrial complex I to other complexes, making it particularly important to mitochondrial dysfunction. CoQ10 is essential for maintaining normal electron transfer in the mitochondrial electron transport chain and, therefore, for the Synthesis of ATP [Citation2]. Mitochondrial dysfunction is widely known to occur in Parkinson's disease and appears to play a crucial role in the progression of the disease. CoQ10 blocks the electron transport between complex 1 and other complexes, hence preventing MPTP-induced neurotoxicity [Citation5]

Many masturbatory fantasies about Mr. Harket in his prime.

😢

[quote]I could understand how Muhammad Ali may gotten it but Michael J Fox? Genetics probably played a big part.

Genetics is a factor in only 8% to 15% of Parkinson's cases. Environmental causes have been implicated in Fox's case because an unusually high number of people who worked on "Leo and Me" with him in Canada in 1977 later developed Parkinson's.

R49 - When asked about the cluster by Howard Stern in a September 25, 2013, interview on The Howard Stern Show, Michael J. Fox stated, "Believe it or not, from a scientific point of view, that's not significant."[4] Donald Calne, a Vancouver neurologist, said the incidence of Parkinson's in society is about 1 in 300, but that four of the 125 people on the Vancouver set of Leo and Me developed the disease.

4 out of 125 is more coincidental than any proof.

But yeah - environment can always play a role. That's why you have to protect yourself against some of this stuff with a good diet and some of the supplements I described above.

R50, Fox has gone back and forth about that over the years (in print and in filmed interviews) and usually repeats the line most doctors say about it probably being a combination of genetic and environmental factors. The "Leo and Me" cluster remains a topic of research interest in Canada and is revived in the press every few years, though nothing definitive has ever been found.

Genetic factors are more complicated than having a relative with the disease or possessing a particular gene variant. Just adding that so as not to freak out anyone who's had Parkinson's in their family, because usually their worry would be for nothing.

There are no known ways to prevent Parkinson's disease, as the Fox Foundation mentions in some of its resources. Vigorous exercise is the only tool for potentially slowing its progression, but stress reduction, a good diet and adequate sleep are important to disease management and those are some of the reasons (besides voice problems) that the future of Harket's career is in question.

Shit happens. Stop arguing.