How I Bounced Back After Parkinson’s Diagnosis to Make US National Rowing Team, by Todd Vogt
Read MoreFascia (Connective Tissue) and Parkinson's Disease
We discover that fascia is essentially the connective tissue which is found throughout our body, wrapping muscles and organs, nerves and bones. This connective tissue is incredibly important and has profound and primary roles in our biological system, health and wellness. This is an “emerging” field in medicine, but has been known about and worked with in other disciplines for a very long time.
Read MoreYoga Nidra Guided Meditation and Parkinson's Disease
I have now been practising Yoga Nidra guided meditations for around 3 months at the time of writing this, daily each morning. I definitely have seen cumulative benefits for progressive reduction of my Parkinson's Disease symptoms over that time, including much reduced anxiety, pain, less really bad days. However, in particular, I’ve noted increased effectiveness of dopamine replacement drugs, longer "on" periods, as well as improved sleep. Indeed, I personally believe that the practice does indeed boost my dopamine levels, because when I take a dose of my PD meds after or during a Yoga Nidra session, it is much more likely that that dose will actually work to turn my movement back on, and it can take as little as 15-20 minutes for the drug to kick in (this is very short time for me, about 50% less time needed than usual.
Read MoreThe Past, Persistence and Parkinson's Disease
By Stefania Lungu, contributing author and person with Parkinson’s Disease.
“I am 66 years old and this is my story. I strongly believe that almost all major illnesses have deep roots in some traumas/shocks we have at certain moments of our lives, which we were not able to “digest”. All my emotional traumas are related to members of my family. My first shock was back in 1994, when I was alone with a little child to raise. Knock-knock, depression installed itself immediately and I was not able to recognize it and give it a proper treatment. I was very angry, and afraid that I would not be able to cope with all my problems. Yet, in all the critical moments of my life, I received from seemingly nowhere some help from ”above”, and somehow I managed to solve step by step the problems which arose, even when I remained jobless in 2000, and by miracle an old tennis friend helped me to find a new job in a bank, that help restore confidence in myself.”
Read MoreThe Cranial Nerves and Parkinson's Disease
I am currently researching the Cranial Nerves and their functions. My interest in this area was piqued because many of the major and common symptoms of Parkinson's Disease are not properly explained by just the "death of dopamine producing cells in the Substantia Nigra" scenario. However, I do believe that the atrophy of the Cranial Nerves in people with Parkinson's (PwP) does very straightforwardly explain most of the main secondary symptoms, and in a very common sense way.
Read MoreMy Hospitalization with Parkinson's Disease
When the ambulance arrived, the paramedics were sympathetic and could immediately see I was indeed in a terrible state. They agreed things were so bad that I needed to go Accident & Emergency (A&E, the equivalent of the ER in North America) with them immediately.
Read MorePhenylalanine, Tyrosine, L-Dopa, Dopamine and Parkinson's Disease
For those of us who spend a lot of time in the Dorsal Vagus Nerve activated freeze/immobilization/death feigning stress response, a number of otherwise vital biochemical reactions in our brains and bodies can go awry. We may stop producing healthy levels of particular enzymes, peptides, hormones and neurotransmitters, or make too much of these, or else stop being able to remove toxic by-products, that are necessarily created as part of the chemical steps in the creation and degradation of these substances, fast enough.
Read MoreHand-Held Accessories and Hand-Eye Co-ordination in Movement Therapies for Parkinson's Disease
An early discovery in pursuing whole-body movement as the principle therapy for increasing my range of motion, re-connecting body and mind, and integrating Primitive Reflexes, was the importance of holding something in my hands as part and parcel of the therapy, thereby enhancing the Applied Neuroplasticity and Somatic Experiencing benefits of movement.
Read MoreDance Therapy for Parkinson's Disease
Of all the therapies and modalities we’ve discussed here, I believe the most beneficial overall for progressive symptom reduction and movement recovery are Dance based. Here we define Dance Therapy broadly and simply as “moving to music or a beat”
Read MoreBalloon Based Play Therapy for Parkinson's Disease
Playing with balloons helped me re-discover much more slow, fluid and graceful movement. I believe that this type of controlled movement exercise could be very beneficial - even more so than playing with balls.
Read MoreLight Therapy and Parkinson's Disease
The purposes of this article, which I will endeavour to keep updated, is to act as a central resource of information on light therapy and its applications to Parkinson's Disease.
Read MoreThe Divided Brain and Parkinson's Disease, Part 2
In this sequel, we examine more closely the issues that an imbalanced brain function causes, in particular when the left brain is overly dominant, and show that there are strong correlations with the major motor and non-motor symptoms and real lives of people with Parkinson’s Disease. We will also explore links to Dorsal Vagus Nerve mediated immobilization.
Read MoreThe Dorsal Vagus Nerve and Parkinson's Disease
In this article, I would like to return to this topic, and concentrate this time on that primitive, reptilian branch of the Vagus Nerve, and its potentially central role in Parkinson's Disease.
Read MoreThe Divided Brain and Parkinson's Disease, Part 1
I have since been considering what Iain McGilchrist’s “Divided Brain” work has to teach us, in the context of trauma and chronic illness, and seeking to employ both hemispheres of my brain in thinking about this. I began to see how Iain’s work provides us with a vital missing part of the puzzle. Indeed, his concept of the "Divided Brain", I now feel, connects so very many of the pieces, and I will endeavour to contexualize and map out my thinking on this here.
Building Aliveness with Parkinson's Disease
The contrast to two years ago is quite stark. Back then I was literally near-Death and dying fast. Then, in my Death Feigning or "off" state, I would be in a much deeper Freeze, with more "rigor mortis" (rigidity). I was literally a zombie. Now I am much more functional - half-alive instead of near-dead - while symptomatic, unless having a really bad day. Even when the drugs switched me on, back then, it was not into full Aliveness, but into another half-dead, unfeeling, empty state - that of permanent Fight-Flight which I had pre-existed all in my life. Moreover, I was taking so many drugs that my movement (and emotions) were uncontrolled, I would go over to a state of dyskinesia which could be worse than the symptoms. Some of the drugs (ropenirole) I was on then actually made my Fight-Flight much, much worse than before.
Read MoreDiminished Aliveness and Parkinson's Disease
Perhaps it would be instructive at this point, therefore to describe more about what its like when I am very symptomatic, to help understanding of why I believe this disease truly corresponds to Death Feigning, and why the converse - increase Aliveness - is the key route to healing. In Death Feigning, not only movement is switched off, but as are all signals through which the keen sense of predators might detect some vestigial signs of life. To me, this describes exactly how it is when I am symptomatic - if I don't implement strategies to combat this state and just allow it to take over - and the more symptomatic I am, the more pronounced these experiences:
Read MoreDevelopmental and Shock Trauma and Parkinson's Disease
As for many people with young onset forms of Parkinson's Disease, my diagnosis was given the label "Idiopathic". This term, Idiopathic, is used to denote any disease or condition which arises spontaneously or for which the cause is unknown. This diagnosis was wholly unsatisfactory to me, as I'm a person who needs to know the "why" of things.
Read MoreTennis as Therapy for Parkinson's Disease
Tennis seems to be the perfect exercise to help PD - the hand-eye coordination, sudden quick movements, the thinking process used to execute a shot. I now play most days - mainly doubles - for up to three hours. Luckily, our club has a lot of members so there’s never a shortage of people to play with. And the strange, but rewarding part is that my game is getting better! Four years ago I would never have dreamt that I would be winning club competitions and playing matches for my club in the Leicestershire league. I started playing tennis shortly before being diagnosed in my early 50s, enjoying coaching sessions and playing a couple of times a week with my children.
Read MoreDopamine, Aldehyde Poisoning and Parkinson's Disease
It is likely that multi-factorial aldehyde "insults" or contributions are at work in any one case of onset of dopamine deficiency and its rate of progression. Each person will have a different combination of contributions to the aldehyde overwhelm which result in the dopamine deficiency, and everyone will have a different "final straw that broke the camels back". This is why so many difference potential "causes" of PD have been identified in the scientific literature, but why no single universal cause has been found true for everyone. It is also why there is no one universal supplement, drug, diet or therapy which is beneficial for all people with PD, and why every one of us has a very different response to these.
Read MoreNeural Exercises and Parkinson's Disease
This article explores how I've found that persistent and targeted "neural exercises" can progressively reduce various symptoms/problems of Parkinson's Disease, through neuroplastic processes. In particular, here I will demonstrate specific neural exercises, and how I have significantly improved my own quality of life through pursuing these persistently over time, via entries from my video diary which are interspersed through the article.
Read More