This post was originally published on my Martha's Quest Substack, and I thought it would be interesting to share a snippet here. You can read the full post here. I grew up with Carly Simon’s music, and I have always loved her. So when she announced last month that she has Parkinson’s disease at the age of 83, it caught my attention in more ways than one. From the announcement, she spoke candidly about some of the non-motor aspects of the disease, particularly the apathy and depression that...

In the quiet hours of the morning, many living with Parkinson’s feel like a machine trying to start in sub-zero temperatures. The limbs are rigid, the mind is foggy, and the internal "engine" feels stalled. Standard medicine tells us this is simply a lack of dopamine. But if we look closer—at the level of our core temperature, our blood vessels, and our internal clocks—a more profound story emerges. We aren't just looking at a movement disorder; we are looking at a body that has lost its...

There was a time in my life when I never imagined I would spend so much time thinking about something as ordinary, and as overlooked, as poop. And yet, here we are! Because when you begin to look closely at the body as a system, as an interconnected ecosystem rather than a collection of isolated parts, you start to see patterns. Signals. Clues. And sometimes, those clues show up in the most humble places. That’s exactly what makes my new book, My Search for the Perfect Poop such a meaningful...