This is the page nobody else is writing. There are plenty of clinical resources about Parkinson’s — but very few that talk about the actual tools, gadgets, and tech that make daily life with this disease more manageable. These are the things I use personally, recommended from lived experience rather than a press release.
🧠 AI Tools — The Cognitive Prosthetic Stack
I’ve written extensively about using AI as a cognitive prosthetic for Parkinson’s. Here’s the practical toolkit:
Claude (Anthropic)
My primary writing and thinking partner. Exceptional for long-form content, breaking down complex medical information, and — critically — patient enough to work through half-formed ideas without losing the thread. If you struggle with word-finding, brain fog, or structuring thoughts, Claude is the tool I’d start with.
Google Gemini
My daily driver for voice interaction and anything requiring Google ecosystem integration (Gmail, Calendar, Photos). The Gemini Live feature is particularly useful when speech freezing hits — you can type what you want to say and have it read back in a natural voice. Effectively a vocal prosthetic in your pocket.
Google NotebookLM
Feed it your medical documents, research papers, or appointment notes and it becomes an expert on your specific situation. Ask it questions about your own health records in plain English. Genuinely useful before neurologist appointments — dump everything in and ask “what should I be asking about at my next appointment?”
📝 Knowledge Management — The External Brain
Obsidian
My second brain. Every symptom observation, medication note, trading idea, and research snippet lives here. Obsidian uses plain text files stored locally — nothing in the cloud, nothing that disappears. The linking system means I don’t need to remember where things are, just that they exist. For anyone with Parkinson’s memory issues, this is a game-changer.
🎧 Audio — The Sensory Escape Pod
FiiO BTR17 DAC/Amplifier
A $100 portable digital-to-analogue converter that made me cry the first time I used it properly. If you live with Parkinson’s tinnitus and sensory hypersensitivity, high-quality lossless audio delivered through a dedicated DAC is one of the most effective — and most underrated — tools for cognitive calm. I wrote a full post about this if you want the science behind why it works.
📊 Symptom Tracking
I’m currently building a dedicated symptom tracking app specifically designed for Parkinson’s patients. More details coming soon — watch this space.
Using a tool that’s genuinely helped you manage Parkinson’s? Drop it in the comments and I’ll check it out.
