{"id":111352,"date":"2025-09-01T07:20:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T07:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/111352\/"},"modified":"2025-09-01T07:20:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T07:20:14","slug":"alan-alda-reveals-main-thing-that-keeps-him-alive-after-parkinsons-diagnosis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/111352\/","title":{"rendered":"Alan Alda reveals \u2018main thing\u2019 that keeps him alive after Parkinson\u2019s diagnosis"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Alan Alda <\/a>isn\u2019t letting age or health hinder his productivity.<\/p>\n

At nearly 90, the legendary writer, actor, and director \u2014 best known for playing Captain Benjamin \u201cHawkeye\u201d Pierce in the long-running sitcom MASH <\/a>\u2014 is still active, hosting the podcast Clear + Vivid and making a cameo in the popular Netflix series The Four Seasons<\/a>, a remake of his hit 1981 film. He\u2019s also continuing to navigate life with Parkinson\u2019s disease<\/a> following his 2015 diagnosis.<\/p>\n

In a new conversation with financier and novelist Ken Miller published by People<\/a>, Alda explored the ideas of longevity and productivity, revealing what keeps him going.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the main thing that keeps me alive is laughing,\u201d Alda shared. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen something goes wrong, I often see it as funny. Take my Parkinson\u2019s. (Please.) The night I accidentally fell into the dishwasher, I reassured our dinner guests by telling them, \u2018I\u2019m fine. It was only on rinse cycle.\u2019 Fortunately, when you\u2019re old, pretty much any bizarre thing you say gets a laugh.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AlanAlan Alda has shared secrets on life, longevity, and creativity (Kevin Winter\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Alda decided to go public with his Parkinson\u2019s diagnosis<\/a> in 2018. He recently shared an update on his health, telling People in a different interview he has recently been \u201cmaking progress,\u201d then clarifying with a joke: \u201cI didn\u2019t say in which direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also has a condition called prosopagnosia<\/a>, known as face blindness, which makes it hard for him to recognize people.<\/p>\n

Alda told the publication that dealing with his health issues presents a series of puzzles, adding: \u201cAlmost every day I\u2019m finding a new way to do something.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s a little like a game. I’ve found whatever the little problem is, if I keep at it, I can eventually solve it, and then I feel like a million bucks. It’s a way to have a good time under poor circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n

He went on to say that managing his Parkinson’s has “gone from a part-time job to almost a full-time job keeping track of all these little solutions. But it keeps me always looking for the funny side.”<\/p>\n

Along with his sense of humor, Alda revealed his secret for being productive despite his age.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo go a little deeper with your question about being productive while being old, I think a few embers still have to be glowing. A passionate interest in something you haven\u2019t yet followed up on,\u201d he told Miller. <\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve always been interested in how people relate and communicate. And now I’m spending most of my time exploring that on my podcast. But I think it’s important to follow a passion even if it doesn\u2019t deliver the same status hits you\u2019ve had in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Alda, those hits included MASH, for which he won acting, directing, and writing Emmy Awards, and The West Wing<\/a>, for which he also won an acting Emmy, in addition to The Four Seasons, among many other films and TV shows. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs long as we can stay creative,\u201d Alda said, \u201clife goes on.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111353,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[49,48,361,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-111352","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-celebrities","11":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}