The Silence and “the Shakes”
Dominique Thomas, a clinical coordinator at Ochsner Health in New Orleans, notes that her family members have been reluctant to seek medical care for Parkinson's disease, despite several being affected. Research suggests Black Americans may be underdiagnosed for Parkinson's due to factors like insurance access and mistrust in healthcare.
Dominique Thomas's family has been heavily impacted by Parkinson's disease, with three members dying from related complications and at least four others living with symptoms. Thomas, clinical coordinator for the Movement Disorder and Memory Division at Ochsner Health in New Orleans, is part of a global research study on Parkinson's and Black populations. Black Americans are disproportionately exposed to environmental pollutants linked to Parkinson's, such as pesticides. Research indicates that Black patients are diagnosed with Parkinson's at half the rate of white patients, but this may be due to underdiagnosis driven by insurance access, under-reporting of symptoms, and mistrust in healthcare. Thomas grew up in Raceland, Louisiana, where she was exposed to paraquat, a toxic weed-killer associated with Parkinson's. Many of her family members worked at a Monsanto chemical manufacturing plant, now owned by Bayer AG, which produces glyphosate, a key ingredient in Roundup.
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