BRETT Favre gave details about his private health issues after dealing with thousands of concussions in his Hall of Fame career.
The NFL legend has battled Parkinson’s disease over the last year.
Favre played in the NFL for 20 seasons.
He spent most of his time with the Green Bay Packers, where he won the Super Bowl in 1997.
Last September, Favre revealed that he had Parkinson’s during a congressional hearing.
He has previously opened up about his battle with Parkinson’s.
Last week, Favre appeared on The Sage Steele Show and explained that his struggle is progressing.
The 55-year-old explained that his joint pain from his playing days has now worsened due to the disease, and he’s finding it tough to swallow.
“Everyone attributes Parkinson’s with shaking, and most people [tell me], ‘I don’t see much shaking.’ I have a little shaking, but not like Muhammad Ali or Michael J. Fox,” Favre said on former ESPN star Sage Steele’s podcast.
“Mine is rigidity and stiffness.
“The problem with that is I have rigid and stiff joints on my right side – really on both sides, but the right side is bothering me.
“So the Parkinson’s is making it worse.
Favre continued, “I have a hard time swallowing. One of the doctors, out of the blue, said, ‘How’s your swallowing?’ And I was like, ‘It’s not as easy as it was.’
“He said that’s one of the things that’s affected.
“There are times where I think I’m choking.
“So it’s sort of scary because they can’t fix that.”
What is Parkinson’s disease?
PARKINSON’S is a progressive neurological condition.
This means that it causes problems in the brain and gets worse over time.
People with Parkinson’s don’t have enough of the chemical dopamine in their brain because some of the nerve cells that make it have stopped working.
Around 145,000 people live with Parkinson’s in the UK.
It’s the fastest growing neurological condition in the world.
Symptoms start to appear when the brain can’t make enough dopamine to control movement properly.
This usually happens around the age of 50, but some people might see the first signs in their 40s.
There are over 40 symptoms, but the three main ones are:
- A tremor (shaking)
- Slowness of movement
- Rigidity (muscle stiffness)
There are several different treatments, therapies and support available to help manage the condition.
Source: Parkinson’s UK
Favre also recalled a conversation with Dr. Benjamin Omalu, who was the first to discover and publish findings on chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, in NFL players.
Omalu, whose work was expanded into the book Concussion and later into a drama film with the same name, told Favre has probably suffered thousands of concussions.
Favre told Steele he takes medicine every four hours to attempt to delay the progression of the disease.
“I can only imagine what I look like, but I feel like a pretzel,” Favre said.
“Everything is so rigid.
“I take the medicine and 20 minutes later, at least in my mind, it’s like a total new body.”
Parkinson’s disease is a chronic and progressive neurological disorder that affects movement.
Symptoms can include depression, anxiety, hallucinations, apathy, sleep disorders, etc.
Close to one million people are living with Parkinson’s in the United States.
