As I've improved my condition, both mental and physical, I'm more able to tune in to what is actually happening in my mind and body when the Parkinson's takes hold. As I've pushed the envelope of my understanding and incorporated more interventions into my own life, tested, tried, self-experimented, it has become clearer to me...
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Learning How to Walk Again with Parkinson's Disease
.People with Parkinson's tend to shuffle when we "walk". We take very small steps, hardly lifting our feet off the floor at all. We often trip over things and lose our balance. It is part and parcel of that terrible posture, the stooped over "Parkinson's Stance", which many of us develop when we do nothing to correct it. The resulting "Parkinson's Shuffle" is an extremely inefficient way to move around and is so very tiring.
Read MoreParkinson's Disease: A New Hope
In this video, I want to begin to show you what happens when we start to integrate the Out-Thinking Parkinson's strategies into new combined interventions and that, indeed, the whole quickly becomes much greater than the sum of the parts. This, then, represents the Out-Thinking Parkinson's whole. I carried on playing with these ideas for some time after making this video. And then I laughed. I laughed long, loud and deep. It was the type of laugh which hasn't left my lips in over seven years. This is why I decided to call this "A New Hope", because not even PD can withstand the power of Giggles and Glee.
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Ball Game Based Therapies for Parkinson's Disease
A very simple, but extremely effective therapy for movement recovery and progressive symptom reduction in Parkinson's Disease is to incorporate playing with balls of various types, sizes and textures. The hand-eye co-ordination and sensory feedback seems to open up access to movement considerably, presumably because it brings in other pathways and regions of the brain in to help.
Read MoreThe Dyskinesia Control Hat
This is an earlier video (from 12th February 2016) which we never fully released due to the not-so-good quality of the picture and sound. However, this week I received a tweet from Selfie4Parkinsons about a campaign to raise awareness of Parkinson's, which asks people to take a “selfie with something silly on your head” and then share it to social media. This reminded me of our Dyskinesia Control Hat concept which we had developed through self-experimentation. As I indicated in my reply to the tweet, I have something not only silly, but also quite profound on my head regularly!
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Why People with Parkinson's Should Share Their Stories
PwP and their primary carers have an enormous collective wisdom about the disease. The sum total of this hard won knowledge is immense. Dismissing anecdotal evidence is fraught with peril, because it can often lead to people then being coy about sharing their own experiences if it is contrary to the dogma. When enough anecdotal stories are combined, they can become the complete narrative itself. So we encourage PwP everywhere to share their acquired wisdoms and to understand that, together, we are the Experts in Ourselves.
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Boxing Exercises for Movement and Balance Recovery
I had an amazing afternoon learning boxing at Rock Steady Boxing Seattle and the best part of the whole process was the support that all the participants gave to each other. I met the owner, Karen Johanson, via LinkedIn, and since I live in Seattle, and have an interest in exploring all avenues to help People with Parkinson's, I sent her an email and asked to meet. She was very welcoming and I offered to show up and volunteer in anyway needed so I could get an in-depth understanding of what a class entailed.
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The Story of Out-Thinking Parkinson's
During the first several months of Out-Thinking Parkinson’s, the video diary shows how far we’ve come. Not only have we demonstrated dramatic reversals to my symptoms, but also shown how our original thinking and ideas can improve quality of life: as Deb told me at the start, wellness can indeed be achieved through simple quality of life interventions, which anyone can try at home. The website is going strong. We are currently creating a series of magazine style themed Digests, simply because the sheer amount of information in this blog and articles we have published elsewhere has become somewhat overwhelming. By collecting these into themes we hope our research will remain accessible to new and old readers alike.
Read MoreReversing the Symptoms of Parkinson's Disease
It is and has always been my desire that this video record will be used to inspire people to unlearn their learned helplessness when it comes to living with Parkinson's Disease, to open eyes to the truth. There really is nothing special about me, apart from perhaps the steel of my determination. This is the appliance of science, engineering and wellness research in action. So I hope you will help us to spread the word that there is everything to play for in reversing the symptoms and the decline of Parkinson's.
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Vitamin D for Potential Neuroprotection
“Vitamin D is a steroid hormone that plays a vital role in calcium and phosphate absorption. In recent studies, several associations between low levels of vitamin D, and neuropsychiatric disorders have begun to surface....including Parkinson's”
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Coconut Oil and Parkinson's Disease
Back in march 2016. I started melting a teaspoon of pure coconut oil in to my hot tea, two or three times a day. I'd heard seemingly miraculous things about this unique natural oil. For me, the results and benefits were immediate and unambiguous. Some time after taking that first drink, I encountered my initial taste of something I'm calling "coconut clarity". I would describe this experience as the clearing of the "brain fog" associated with Parkinson's - that lack of ability to concentrate and sluggish thought processes. But it was also about the clearing of the mists of depression and anxiety. I felt happy. Not manic, not bouncing of the walls, but just happy. I also felt my eyes widen.
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Bat and Ball Therapy for Parkinson's Disease
A simple bat & ball set was just about the first thing I bought when I started exploring toys which could help me unlock movement to start pushing back my Parkinson's Disease symptoms. Once I began to play with them while my PD drugs weren't working - in an "off" state in which I didn't have my much access to movement - it was a complete revelation! The shear degree of movement that suddenly came back in just playing "keep it up" with the bat and ball was a joy, especially in terms of neck movement and core rotation. The fact that while I was doing it, much of my other symptoms (rigidity, unfocused eyes, breathing problems, pain) went away, at least in the moment of play, was massive in re-thinking about my condition, and how to live well with it.
Massageable Magnesium for Relaxing Muscles
For me this intervention has been highly beneficial and really helped me to re-open the pathways to movement we have since developed. I also believe, that having used it daily for over a year now, it has had a cumulative repair effect. However, back at the start, I had been describing to Deb how, when the Parkinson’s stiffness and rigidity of muscles took hold (Bradykinesia), the very worst part was the pain in my shoulders.
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"Goodbye Parkinson's, Hello Life!" by Alex Kerten and David Brinn
This book had been highly recommended to us by several of our readers, and many pointed out the similarities to our Out-Thinking Parkinson's philosophy. Then I read the article "Israeli Healer Treat's Parkinson's Through Talk and Dance" in the Times of Israel about the author. As I read through this article, time and again, I had an overwhelming sense of affinity for what Alex Kerten preaches and, indeed, the parallels between our own independently derived strategies were very clear. I was left feeling a sense of great relief at the vindication I felt after having read it. I called Deb, my Co-Founder, in the middle of her night to talk about it - I simply could not contain myself.
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Please Pay Attention to Your Parkinson's Posture
One of the most recognizable physical manifestations of PD is something I call the "Parkinson's Stance". It is that classic C-shaped stoop, combined with claw-like hands out in front. The "conventional" wisdom indicates that this is the ultimate fate of People with Parkinson's. It does seem to be widely accepted, with a shrug of the shoulders - by those who can shrug them - that this is our ultimate destiny. Yet the absolutely terrible posture of the Parkinson's Stance is a serious health risk in its own right and I believe we need to seriously begin challenging the "wisdom" that this is how we have to end up. Or at least demonstrate that it is well worth doing whatever we can every day to delay the onset for as long as possible.
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Dyskinesia is a Time to Dance: Dance Away the Heartache
Dedicated to my Co-Founder Deb Helfrich, who gave me back the Music and the Joy of Movement.
Read MorePeople with Parkinson's: Prove You Can Move!
Perhaps we might dismiss this as a curiosity or anomaly? I assure you it is so much more than this. Having progressed from the cotton wall to a small, bouncy ball today, I can say that for me the therapeutic value is very significant. But we've figured out if I tie something onto my finger, then I can use these ideas to reach for anything... by "web-slinging" spider-man fashion. I will demonstrate and document these latter ideas in my next video diary entry. But I am now certain the potentials for developing these ideas are large and something I believe needs urgent attention by the healthcare community.
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What Emotions Have To Do With It
For those of us lucky enough to share our lives with someone with Parkinson's we can use this as an opportunity for both of us to learn something about self-awareness and the hope that can arise from noticing and implementing simple changes.
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Caregiving for a Person with Parkinson's Disease
Here at Out-Thinking Parkinson's, it is our mission to help not only People with Parkinson's, but also the people who love and care for them, those who also have, in a very direct way, their own lives touched by the disease.
One of the most valuable contributions we can make, we feel, is simply to express the feelings and thoughts of what it is like to be a person affected by Parkinson's or to care for someone with the disease. We hope this humanization of PD will help others in the same situation come to terms with living with the disease and bring new understandings for the wider community too.
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Is Movement the Definition of Life?
And so I must go on. Evolve into the changes and learn, again, to embrace the growth that I am going to go through to get where I want to go.The part of this phase that brings up my curiosity is that where I need to go is to the side of a man who has been living with early onset Parkinson's Disease for six years. A very specific part of his brain has neurons that are on the fritz that cause him to have trouble moving or prevent him from moving at all. This is not the vacation that I presumed it to be when I longed to be able to just exist with everything arranged nicely so that I could vegetate, chill, and relax as my primary avocation
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