Stillwater couple getting Parkinson's patients into treatment studies

In July 2009, during one of their daily dog walks, Libbe Erickson noticed that her husband, Kim, was dragging his feet.

A year later, Kim, a pilot for Delta Airlines, was on a layover in Honolulu. He got up one morning, went into the bathroom of his hotel and started shaving. He looked into the mirror and saw that his right hand was shaking.

"It wasn't from being tired or from working out," Kim Erickson said. "I had just woken up; I was fairly rested."

When he got home, Erickson went to see a neurologist in Stillwater. The diagnosis: Parkinson's disease, a disorder of the brain that leads to tremors as well as trouble with walking, movement and coordination.

There is no known cure, but the Ericksons, who live in Grant, are working to change that.

The couple became research advocates for the Parkinson's Disease Foundation and are working to get other Parkinson's patients involved in studies that could lead to new drugs.

"The only way we're going to make advances is if people living with Parkinson's participate in research studies," Kim Erickson said. "The real hindrance with Parkinson's research right now is the number of study participants is so low."

Only about 1 percent of Parkinson's patients participate in research studies, compared with 5 percent of cancer patients, according to the Ericksons.

Parkinson's is one of the most common nervous system disorders of the elderly and affects an estimated 20,000 people in Minnesota.

The disease

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Stillwater couple getting Parkinson's patients into treatment studies