About twelve months ago, I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease (PD). My balance hasn’t worsened, but my tremors have. So I joined a Facebook support group to learn more. I was justifiably concerned about my PD, because no disease is good, but I learned it isn’t necessarily a death-sentence.
In the US, there are, perhaps, one-million people with Parkinson’s, so that means less than one percent of the population is affected by the disorder. I guess I’m just one of the lucky ones.
One of the more common problems is tremors in the arms, which frequently causes eating difficulties. That’s one of my challenges, so I set out to see if there was any potential solutions.
I Googled “Eating utensils for Parkinson’s” and found a lot of options like weighted spoons, swivel spoons, but I was really intrigued by a utensil produced by a company called Liftware. Technically, it’s called an “active cancelation of tremor (ACT) device technology,” or as I call it, “a fancy spoon.”
It was expensive, but the staff at Reviewed.com offered to buy it for me so see how it works. I excitedly accepted, but it occurred to me that a lot of people wouldn’t be able to afford it either so I thought I’d look for other options. Because I live in Massachusetts, someone in my support group suggested I contact Bill Patjane, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Chapter of the American Parkinson’s Disease Association (APDA).
I asked him if he knew of any studies that covered varieties of eating utensils for PD sufferers. He graciously connected me with Dr. Rebecca Gilbert, VP, and Chief Scientific Officer of the APDA.
Dr. Gilbert referred me to one of her blog posts where she interviewed Lisa Carson, OTD, OTR/L.
“My recommendation as to which [utensil] is best really depends on the person,” she said.
I immediately realized my opinion alone wouldn’t suffice for this article, so I needed to dig deeper. Dr. Gilbert already knew I was looking for studies, so she also sent me a copy of one published in The American Journal of Occupational Therapy (Adapted Feeding Utensils for People With Parkinson’s-Related or Essential Tremor – Sabari 2019). It compared a standard spoon to four others, allegedly adaptive for those with PD. Coincidently, it included the one made by Liftware, which is owned by Google.
It made no practical sense to do a detailed write-up on the entire study (And, yes, it was quite boring), so I thought I’d recap each of the spoons. The study included 22 participants.
Weighted spoon
One participant said he preferred it over all the others. Another said it created a better eating experience. One said he favored it because it felt more natural than the rest. There were minuses as well where one participant stated it increased her rigidity, and another said it caused shoulder pain.
Weighted spoon with a built up handle
Several said it was bad as it would cause pain in the arms and shoulders of the elderly suffering from weak muscles. Another said it was a total disaster. Quite simply, one said that it plainly didn’t work.
Swivel spoon
The swivel spoon, for the most part, earned negative comments. Regardless, it was noted that for some, there was a smaller degree of spilling cereal.
