Editing Michael J. Fox (section)

=== Parkinson's disease ===
Fox started displaying symptoms of early-onset [[Parkinson's disease]] in early 1991 while shooting the film ''[[Doc Hollywood]]'' and was diagnosed shortly thereafter.<ref name="QuitsSpinCity" /> Though his initial symptoms were only a twitching little finger and a sore shoulder, he was told that within a few years he would not be able to work. The causes of Parkinson's disease are not well understood, and may include genetic and environmental factors. Fox is one of at least four members of the cast and crew of ''[[Leo and Me]]'' who developed early-onset Parkinson's. According to Fox, this is not enough people to be defined as a [[Cluster analysis|cluster]] so it has not been well researched. In 2020, he told [[Hadley Freeman]] of ''[[The Guardian]]'': "I can think of a thousand possible scenarios: I used to go fishing in a river near [[paper mill]]s and eat the [[salmon]] I caught; I've been to a lot of farms; I smoked a lot of [[Cannabis (drug)|pot]] in high school when the government was [[Paraquat#"Paraquat pot"|poisoning the crops]]. But you can drive yourself crazy trying to figure it out."<ref name="Gdn20201121">{{cite news| last=Freeman| first=Hadley| date=November 21, 2020| title=Michael J Fox: 'Every step now is a frigging math problem, so I take it slow'| newspaper=[[The Guardian]]| url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2020/nov/21/michael-j-fox-every-step-now-is-a-frigging-math-problem-so-i-take-it-slow| access-date=November 21, 2020| issn=0261-3077| archive-date=November 24, 2020| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201124092040/https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2020/nov/21/michael-j-fox-every-step-now-is-a-frigging-math-problem-so-i-take-it-slow| url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:0522 ma big (cropped1).jpg|thumb|left|Fox and [[Muhammad Ali]] in 2002 testifying before a U.S. Senate committee on providing government funding to combat Parkinson's]]
After his diagnosis, Fox began [[Alcohol abuse|drinking heavily]] and grew [[Major depressive disorder|depressed]].<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://people.com/celebrity/michael-j-fox-stunned-by-robin-williamss-parkinsons-diagnosis/ |title=Michael J. Fox 'Stunned' by Robin Williams's Parkinson's Diagnosis |first=Melody |last=Chiu |date=August 14, 2014 |magazine=People |access-date=August 20, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190820215753/https://people.com/celebrity/michael-j-fox-stunned-by-robin-williamss-parkinsons-diagnosis/ |archive-date=August 20, 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref> In 1992, he eventually sought help and stopped drinking altogether.<ref name="guardian">{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/apr/11/michael-j-fox-parkinsons |title=It's the gift that keeps on taking |newspaper=The Guardian |date=April 11, 2009 |access-date=June 29, 2009 |location=London |first=Emma |last=Brockes |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131008000425/http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/apr/11/michael-j-fox-parkinsons |archive-date=October 8, 2013 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://people.com/tv/michael-j-fox-stopped-drinking/|title=Michael J. Fox Reveals the Moment He Realized He Had to Stop Drinking|magazine=People|last=Cagle|first=Jess|date=August 15, 2018|access-date=January 23, 2023|archive-date=January 22, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230122093209/https://people.com/tv/michael-j-fox-stopped-drinking/|url-status=live}}</ref> Fox went public with his Parkinson's disease in 1998 and has become a strong advocate for Parkinson's disease research.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/movies/2023/01/22/michael-j-fox-parkinsons-still-documentary/11101412002/|title=Michael J. Fox says he became an alcoholic, hid Parkinson's diagnosis: 'There's no way out'|newspaper=USA Today|last=Ryan|first=Patrick|date=January 22, 2023|access-date=January 23, 2023|archive-date=January 22, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230122230736/https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/movies/2023/01/22/michael-j-fox-parkinsons-still-documentary/11101412002/|url-status=live}}</ref> His foundation, [[The Michael J. Fox Foundation]], was created to help advance every promising research path to curing Parkinson's disease.<ref name=AARPMag/><ref name=FoxFoundation/> Since 2010, he has led a $100-million effort, which is the Foundation's landmark observational study, to discover the biological markers of Parkinson's disease with the Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI).<ref name="ppmi">{{cite web| url=https://www.michaeljfox.org/ppmi-clinical-study| title=Key Initiatives: PPMI Clinical Study| website=The Michael J Fox Foundation| access-date=August 30, 2020| archive-date=August 14, 2020| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200814003846/https://www.michaeljfox.org/ppmi-clinical-study| url-status=live}}</ref>

Fox manages the symptoms of his Parkinson's disease with the drug [[carbidopa/levodopa]].<ref name="NPR Fresh Air">{{cite episode| url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1142526| series=[[Fresh Air]]| title=Actor Michael J. Fox| people=Terry Gross, interviewer| date=April 30, 2002| access-date=April 17, 2022| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181216031331/https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1142526| archive-date=December 16, 2018}}</ref> He had a [[thalamotomy]] in 1998.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://edition.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/01/06/parkinsons.deep.brain.stimulation/index.html |title=Brain implant better than meds for Parkinson's disease |work=[[CNN]] |date=January 6, 2009 |access-date=August 13, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120202200436/http://edition.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/01/06/parkinsons.deep.brain.stimulation/index.html |archive-date=February 2, 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref>

In ''Lucky Man'', Fox wrote that he did not take his medication prior to his testimony before the [[United States Senate Committee on Appropriations|Senate Appropriations Subcommittee]] in 1999 ([https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4400604/michael-j-fox-testimony-parkinson partial C-SPAN video clip]).<ref>{{cite news| url=http://edition.cnn.com/SHOWBIZ/Movies/9909/28/fox.parkinsons/| title=Michael J. Fox pitches for Parkinson's research| date=September 28, 1999| website=CNN| access-date=January 21, 2013| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140203011936/http://edition.cnn.com/SHOWBIZ/Movies/9909/28/fox.parkinsons/| archive-date=February 3, 2014| url-status=dead}}</ref>
{{Blockquote
|quote = I had made a deliberate choice to appear before the subcommittee without medication. It seemed to me that this occasion demanded that my testimony about the effects of the disease, and the urgency we as a community were feeling, be seen as well as heard. For people who had never observed me in this kind of shape, the transformation must have been startling.<ref name=FoxFoundation/> 
}}In an interview with [[NPR]] in April 2002,<ref name="NPR Fresh Air"/> Fox explained what he does when he becomes symptomatic:

{{Blockquote|quote = Well, actually, I've been erring on the side of caution—I think 'erring' is actually the right word—in that I've been medicating perhaps too much, in the sense [that] ... the symptoms ... people see in some of these interviews that [I] have been on are actually [[dyskinesia]], which is a reaction to the medication. Because if I were purely symptomatic with Parkinson's symptoms, a lot of times speaking is difficult. There's a kind of a [[cluttering]] of speech and it's very difficult to sit still, to sit in one place. You know, the symptoms are different, so I'd rather kind of suffer the symptoms of dyskinesia ... this kind of weaving and this kind of continuous thing is much preferable, actually, than pure Parkinson's symptoms. So that's what I generally do ... I haven't had any, you know, problems with pure Parkinson's symptoms in any of these interviews, because I'll tend to just make sure that I have enough [[Sinemet]] in my system and, in some cases, too much. But to me, it's preferable. It's not representative of what I'm like in my everyday life. I get a lot of people with Parkinson's coming up to me saying, 'You take too much medication.' I say, 'Well, you sit across from [[Larry King]] and see if you want to tempt it.'
|source = Interview, April 30, 2002, ''[[Fresh Air]]'', [[NPR]]
}}