NOV 17 2017, 3:05 PM ET
Rev. Jesse Jackson, 76, reveals he has Parkinson’s disease

Prominent civil rights activist the Rev. Jesse Jackson has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, he announced Friday.

“My family and I began to notice changes about three years ago,” Jackson, 76, said in a statement. “After a battery of tests, my physicians identified the issue as Parkinson's disease, a disease that bested my father.”

A neurological disorder with no known cure, Parkinson’s is commonly associated with tremors, stiffness and difficulty with walking and balancing.

Northwestern Medicine in Chicago said in a statement that Jackson was diagnosed with the disease in 2015 and has been treated as an outpatient in the years since.

Congressman Danny Davis, D-Chicago, told NBC Chicago that those who have been close to Jackson recently "have noticed some of the signs."

Jackson also said that “recognition of the effects of this disease on me has been painful” and that he has “been slow to grasp the gravity of it.”

Jackson was born in Greenville, South Carolina, and later became known for participating in civil rights demonstrations alongside the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. He later ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988.

In 1999, Jackson was credited with successfully negotiating the release of three U.S. soldiers who were held in Yugoslavia, and was awarded with the Presidential Medal of Freedom for those efforts from President Bill Clinton in 2000.

“I know Jesse Jackson will keep hope alive as he battles Parkinson’s disease and continues his tireless commitment to justice and civil rights,” Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., said on Twitter. “Praying for him and his family.”

In an Instagram video, the Rev. Al Sharpton said he spent the last few days with Jackson and others in New York and reflected on his impact on American politics and civil rights movement.

“As I watched him, I thought about the greatness of this man,” Sharpton, an MSNBC host, said in the video. “How he continued Martin Luther King’s movement for justice, how he cemented it in the North and made the King movement truly national … He changed the nation, he served in ways he never got credit. No one in our lifetime served longer and stronger. We pray for him, because he’s given his life for us.”

Rev. Jesse Jackson reacts after projections show that Sen. Barack Obama will be elected to serve as the next president during a gathering in Grant Park on November 4, 2008, in Chicago. Joe Raedle / Getty Images
Jackson described his Parkinson’s diagnosis as “a signal that I must make lifestyle changes and dedicate myself to physical therapy in hopes of slowing the disease's progression.”

“It is an opportunity for me to use my voice to help in finding a cure for a disease that afflicts 7 to 10 million worldwide,” he said in a statement. “Some 60,000 Americans are diagnosed with Parkinson’s every year.”

Although Parkinson’s is considered to be the most complex disease in medicine, it is also very treatable, Dr. Michael Okun, the national medical director for the Parkinson’s Foundation and chair of the University of Florida's neurology department, told NBC News.

“It’s pretty common for 76-year-old men to have Parkinson’s disease,” Okun said. “As the population ages, we’re going to see more and more people, particularly men, diagnosed with Parkinson’s.”

Jackson’s plan to combat Parkinson’s is likely to help slow the progression of his symptoms, but won’t cure the disease, NBC News medical correspondent Dr. John Torres said.

Jackson already has the two major risk factors for Parkinson’s disease, Torres said.

“Basically he’s got an advanced age, and he’s got a family history of Parkinson’s, so that’s going to make his outlook worse,” Torres said. “What’s going to make it better is more physical activity, family and social support and appropriate medication to slow the symptoms. But eventually the disease going to catch up with him.”

Parkinson’s patients typically live for six to 22 more years after their initial diagnosis.

Most recently, Jackson spoke out against President Donald Trump’s proposed wall at the U.S.-Mexico border, comparing Latinos and Mexicans who would help build it to “blacks building slave ships.” He also urged Hispanics and communities of color to unite under shared values.

Jackson also spoke about the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown of Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, generating a national conversation about race relations with law enforcement.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/u...on-s-disease-n821876

Hopefully he's got obamacare

I don't have anything nice to say about the poverty pimp/race hustler so I'll just leave it at that.

Hope he bought the gold plan....

Karma perhaps?

Parkinson's has been whittling away at my saint of a mother-in-law for over 12 years. It's a cruel disease that we usually "wouldn't wish on anyone". In this case, however, can I wish that he'd take her share as well?

Yes, it's a cruel disease, but I am not goingh to pretend for one millisecond that I don't want something to happen to that useless rabble rouser that will make him SHUT THE FUCK UP AND DISAPPEAR FOR GOOD.

Best wishes for a swift decline, Jesse. Get worse soon.

Jesse Jackson has been a blight on this nation for decades. His felon of a son, too.

Adios, troublemaker.

He'll be awesome at making Martinis.


But terrible at stealing tambourines...

I remember hearing that if I couldn't say anything nice about someone, I should say nothing at all. So here goes.

Nothing at all.
Nothing at all.
Nothing at all.

Well praise the Lord and pass the antiparkinsonian. Finally.......something he can't blame on "whitey".

I can’t help thinking this is just another fund raising effort, and as usual, not for charity.

quote:

Originally posted by kz1000:
He'll be awesome at making Martinis.


But terrible at stealing tambourines...

I don't wish ill health on anybody, even if I do wish they'd disappear from the face of the Earth. Same goes for Jesse Jackson.

quote:

Originally posted by Jim Shugart:

quote:

Originally posted by kz1000:
He'll be awesome at making Martinis.


But terrible at stealing tambourines...

Me in real life...Deciding I'm not going to comment on this thread and then seeing this post.

quote:

Originally posted by kz1000:
He'll be awesome at making Martinis.


But terrible at stealing tambourines...

First time I LOLed today!

quote:

Originally posted by kz1000:
He'll be awesome at making Martinis.


But terrible at stealing tambourines...

Marty McFly and Jessie Jackson walk into a bar...(I'm going to hell...I accept that. )

quote:

Originally posted by kz1000:
He'll be awesome at making Martinis.


But terrible at stealing tambourines...

Opens an ice cream shop, only makes shakes.

Just arrived at our monthly ham radio club meeting at the Salvation Army Center Building. There are a LOT of cars here this morning, I was informed they're training the bell ringers for Christmas.

I quipped that jesse would be good at ringing the bell, and the retort was that his other hand would be reaching in the bucket and skimming the money.

Parkinson's is a horrible disease and normally I'd have complete sympathy, but in this case, my big box of give-a-fucks is empty.

I'd never wish ill health on anyone that isn't truly evil. But since I'm not responsible for Jackson's condition, can't say that I'm sorry to hear of it.

Jesse is just perfecting the old shake and jive.