An interview with Larry Grogin: Movement is Medicine: People with Parkinson’s Need Movement Just Like Everyone Else
Please tell me a little about your background.
I am an internationally recognized healer, speaker, and pioneer in motivational medicine, with more than four decades of experience as a Doctor of Chiropractic, licensed acupuncturist, and Chinese herbalist. Throughout my career, I have blended science, personal experience, and movement-based medicine, completing over 300 marathons and 30 Ironman triathlons while sharing my belief that exercise is a powerful tool for healing. In 2014, I founded the philanthropic organization Strides for Humanity, using endurance challenges to raise support for causes ranging from cancer care to shelters for women and children. After being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2019, I embraced a renewed mission of service, and beginning on my 71st birthday in March 2026, I will run 100 marathons in 100 days to raise awareness and hope for the Parkinson’s community.
Can you tell me more about your Advocacy?
Parkinson’s patients know full well it’s hard to get moving and get out and doctors don’t emphasize it as much as they should. My advice is to get up and move. If people accuse you of exercising too much, you’re probably not exercising enough.
What is your passion and how did you get involved in Parkinson’s awareness and hope for a cure?
My passion is to understand the human body. The body is an amazing miracle capable even with the chronic degenerative disease. It’s capable of unlimited potential. It’s just harder.
What type of goals do individuals with Parkinson’s have when seeing your Advocacy?
To realize their unlimited potential and to feel empowered, to not be defined by their illness.
What type of training and how long are the programs?
My training has been a lifetime of working with patients helping them realize their body is capable of healing. Through decades of experience, I’ve learned that even in the face of Parkinson’s, the human body remains remarkably resilient—something we often lose sight of amid daily challenges.
What effect can your Advocacy have on an individual with Parkinson’s?
My advocacy aims to remind individuals with Parkinson’s that their diagnosis does not define their potential. By restoring trust in their body’s strength and adaptability, it offers hope, empowerment, and a renewed belief in what is still possible.
What would you like to see as a future goal for your Advocacy?
My future goal is that people with Parkinson’s are exercising without reservation and fear, and in the belief that they are the main catalyst for their health
What events do you participate in?
For me, exercise is a regular part of my daily living – more than a lifestyle, more than a regiment. Because I know movement is medicine.
How does this also assist the caregivers?
Because it’s a stronger empowered patient that is a relief and added assistance for the caregiver and what a patient can do for himself is more than a caretaker can do.
How can someone get in touch? What is your website?
https://davisphinneyfoundation.org/events/strides-for-humanity
How can others also become advocates for awareness?
By joining the revolution and moving. And encouraging others to take charge of their life with or without Parkinson’s.
In your opinion, what is the key to effective advocacy?
The key is motivating people to take action.
How can we better fundraise to support a cure for Parkinson’s?
We need to educate people that the problem is not going away. It’s only getting worse. There’s an urgent need for a cure.
What other activities do you undertake to help improve and support your daily living, e.g., exercise and alternative remedies?
Alternate activities include good nutrition, having a healthy mental attitude plus physical exercise.
Why should people who don’t have Parkinson’s care about this?
It’s everybody’s problem, even if they don’t realize it. Soon they will understand that the problem is just growing. In 10 years, there will be 10 million more people suffering with Parkinson’s. And that’s a fact.
Have you had any family members or relatives affected by Parkinson’s disease? No
If you had one song that would tell us more about you or represent your life, which song would it be?
What the World Needs Now is Love. The Broadway supported rendition.
If you had one final statement or quote you could leave for the Parkinson’s community, what would it be?
“Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up, it knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn’t matter whether you’re the lion or the gazelle – when the sun comes up, you’d better be running”
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TogetherForSharon® In memory of my mother, Sharon to voice awareness & hope for a Parkinson’s Disease cure. Sharon’s Son, George
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