The Biden administration is being forced to fend off uncomfortable questions about whether the president has Parkinson’s disease.
Visitor logs show that a doctor specializing in Parkinson’s disease — a general term for brain disorders that cause slow movement, stiffness and tremors — visited the White House eight times in eight months last year.
The official explanation for at least one of those visits was inaccurate and had to be corrected by the president’s press secretary last night, raising growing suspicions and concerns about Biden’s health.
Several doctors told DailyMail.com months ago that they suspected Biden, 81, had Parkinson’s, though many insisted on remaining anonymous for fear of backlash.
Now, they are talking about what the next four years might look like if the President does indeed get the disease.
They say the public should know what they’re getting into.
The three signs of Parkinson’s include forgetting words (shown)
A stiff step
Walking problems affect 90 percent of Parkinson’s patients
Dr. W. Chris Winter is a neurologist in Virginia who has treated hundreds of Parkinson’s patients.
Dr. Abhi Kapuria is also a neurologist at the University of North Carolina. Both declined to make an “online diagnosis” and reiterated that they had not examined him in person.
But they said they suspected he had neurological problems. Dr. Winter said the president had an “endless list” of the disease’s hallmark symptoms, from a stiff gait and balance problems to a muffled voice and slurred speech.
In an attempt to reassure voters and Democrats that Biden is fit enough to win the election year and serve another term, the president and his team have promised that he will get more rest and stop performing duties after 8 p.m.
But Dr. Kapuria and Dr. Winter told this website that if the president has Parkinson’s, the symptoms cannot be relieved by rest.
They said that five to ten years after diagnosis, patients’ speech becomes increasingly soft and slurred.
Walking becomes more difficult and patients also suffer from persistent fatigue.
But if patients don’t get treatment — and the White House says Biden doesn’t — their condition could deteriorate much more quickly.
Doctors warned that over the next 12 months, the president will likely continue to suffer from “more of the same” symptoms that occur “with increasing frequency.”
“That means more falls, more cognitive decline – I saw him freeze on Juneteenth – it’s actually more of that,” Dr. Winters said.
Dr. Winters warned that Biden could be at risk for further complications within three or four years.
These include long nights of difficulty falling asleep, as well as nightmares and hallucinations that make him feel increasingly fatigued and confused during the day.
It’s also possible that he may decline to the point where he’s “not around much” cognitively, meaning he appears distant, distracted, and has difficulty relating to his assistants and advisors.
Parkinson’s has five stages, and moderate Parkinson’s is considered to be stage 2 or 3, when symptoms are noticeable and restrict a person’s daily life.
Dr. Winters doesn’t use the staging system, but he believes Biden definitely has at least moderate Parkinson’s and says it’s definitely affecting his daily life.
In the severe stage of Parkinson’s, stage four, patients can stand without assistance, but may need to use a cane or walker to stay upright.
Biden at a Democratic candidates debate in 2019 looking dapper (left) and the sick president in 2024
They are also likely to suffer cognitive decline or dementia: the Parkinson’s Foundation states online that only 30 percent of patients do not develop dementia when they have the disease.
In the fifth stage, the last of the disease, patients are often bedridden and can only move around in a wheelchair due to stiffness in their legs that prevents them from standing or walking.
Dr. Kapuria warned that if Biden had Parkinson’s, he would see further decline during his second term.
He said the president still appeared to be well enough to avoid needing a wheelchair at the end of his term, but added that those with Parkinson’s can deteriorate quickly, especially when they are not receiving treatment.
After about ten years with the disease, most patients have at least one major problem, such as dementia or a physical disability.
Experts fear that the lack of treatment combined with a demanding schedule (such as his four-month campaign for the presidency) will only increase the risk of the disease progressing more quickly.
They also stressed that if the President has Parkinson’s, his condition will not improve, but will remain the same or worsen.
Approximately one million Americans suffer from Parkinson’s, the second most common neurodegenerative disease in the country, behind Alzheimer’s.
It is a progressive disease. caused by the deterioration of neurons in the basal ganglia, an area at the base of the brain that regulates movements.
This causes less dopamine, a neurotransmitter, in this area of the brain, which causes problems with movements and makes them more rigid.
Reduced dopamine is also thought to be linked to associated cognitive problems such as attention problems, memory and language problems, and slower mental processing speed.
Doctors say the disease is not fatal, but it does increase the risk of life-threatening complications.
Patients are at increased risk of falls due to balance and movement problems, which can prove fatal over time in older individuals due to the risk of serious injury.
Patients may also be at higher risk of swallowing and coughing fluids into their lungs, increasing the risk of pneumonia, which is also more dangerous in older adults.
For those with stage five Parkinson’s, patients can typically only expect to live between six and twelve months, according to estimates.
Nearly 50 percent of people diagnosed with the disease by age 70 die within a decade, a study suggests, compared with 20 percent among those without the disease.
Biden was photographed tripping on the stairs of Air Force One in Atlanta, Georgia, in 2021. The stairs have since been shortened.
There are drugs available to treat this disease and doctors claim that they are “very effective” and can “bring someone back from the dead.”
Chief among these is Levodopa, a pill taken orally several times a day that provides the building blocks of dopamine, increasing its levels in the brain to help a person behave normally again.
Patients have experienced dramatic transformations with the drug, Dr. Winter said, allowing them to behave almost normally again.
“This drug can ‘bring people back from the dead,'” he said. “I have family members of patients who come in and say, ‘Oh my gosh, Dr. Winter, your speech changed overnight, you walk with more confidence, and your facial expressions have returned.
‘For some patients, when they wake up they are very dull, but when they take Levodopa within a few minutes they are quite bright again, but then seem to fade as the effect wears off.
“It really becomes a coordinated effort where you dose it frequently enough so you don’t have any crashes.”
Other treatments include physical therapy and yoga, which are used to strengthen muscles and help patients walk in a way that minimizes the risk of falls.
