Category Archives: Parkinsons Disease Early Symptoms

Parkinson’s Symptoms and Medications

Question: 

My Parkinsonian symptoms are going on with me now for
4 months and the strongest is my slowness of movements,
speech and the way my face looks so sad.  Today I just felt
fatigued and some feeling in my brain like a flush or a wave of slowness.
 
I am seeing a neurologist for the second time on 9/l6 for
further evaluation.  I have yet to be formally diagnosed
with parkinsonism.  In a small corner in my mind I carry
he thought that these symptoms are temporary and it is
not Parkinson’s.  Do others that you may know of have
similar symptoms like my self that turn out not to be Parkinson’s
and they are well again?
 
Thank you for letting me update you on what is going on
with my health.  I am reaching out as far as I can for help
and guidance on all I can do.  My life has changed l00%
this past 4 months.
 
I was taking SAMe for three months for depression. 
It elevated my mood and I was feeling 80 percent better
so I stopped taking it one week ago.  I weaned myself off
in a week.  Now I am wondering if stopping SAMe is
the reason I do not feel so good now.
Are you familiar with SAMe?
 

Response:

Well – you have been on a roller coaster these past few months. 

The question you ask is: Do I know of people who have symptoms like
yours who have been able to recover or feel better? 

The encouraging answer is yes!  I interview people all the time with symptoms
like yours – give them any name you wish – who have figured out ways to feel
better. I just finished an interview with John Coleman, a naturopath doctor
from Australia who had Parkinson’s in 1995 but who has fully recovered today.

You can hear his interview by clicking on the link below:

http://www.instantteleseminar.com/Default.asp?eventid=4116702

I will soon have a member web site available for
access where I will be
posting interviews and doing
teleseminars with people like John. Many
are not health
care professionals like John – just people who have figured out
what to do for themselves to feel better.

I personally believe there are two basic ways to
approach problems like yours.
First, many people
spend a great deal of energy and time trying to figure
out what
is wrong. From my experience, this approach 
tends to sustain a great deal of 
fear and makes sure that
you will experience the symptoms of Parkinson’s because
fear triggers hormonal imbalances in the body.

The second approach is to say – OK – my body is giving
me some information. It is working perfectly – as it always does.
It must be the case that my body needs something I am not
giving it – perhaps good food, exercise, mind challenges,
levity, relaxation, detoxing, etc., etc.). With this approach 
a person can begin to
make some changes in their life and 
eventually turn their health around.  It does take
time and trust.  

As for tests revealing problems with lesions and tumors and
cancers and – you name
it – my personal feeling is (and remember
this is only my personal feeling) – everyone has
things like this
in their bodies. Everyone has cancers in their body at one time or 
another. Most people have lesions of one type or another. Etc. 

Clearly it is a good idea to get things checked out by doctors
and consider  their
recommendations. Medicine sometimes
works miracles for people.

The challenge for anyone in a situation like yours is that
if you spend most of your time focusing your 
attention on
what is wrong with your body  – if those thought
forms
dominate your thinking – you will be guaranteed to manifest
something wrong.
Our thoughts create our reality.  

As for the drug you asked about – I stay away from making
any comments about
drugs since I am not a medical doctor
and I am not qualified to do so. However,  I have an
appointment this week with Randy Mentzer who is a certified
nutritional counselor and a pharmacist.

Randy is amazing. I hope to do a teleseminar with Randy
in the next several weeks. Be sure to
listen. You can ask
questions. I can ask him your question and he will answer it! 

Teleseminars are so cool. So, stay tuned. I hope to have the
announcement out this week about the teleseminar with Randy. 

I am hoping for good news from the doctors for you…

All the best,

Robert Rodgers, Ph.D.
Parkinsons Recovery

© 2008 Parkinsons Recovery

What is Wrong with My Health: Do I fight or Give In?

Question: 

Do I fight the symptoms or
do I give into them? 

Response: 

I know what you are thinking. The
answer is obvious. Of course you fight,
right? This will not be my answer.
Since there are only two choices, you
now know my answer.  Read on.

Fight versus Surrender

One of my favorite past times is
reading obituaries. OK. I agree
this is weird, perhaps even
demented, but give me credit
for a little self-disclosure here. 

What do people say about their
loved ones when they die of cancer?

“She fought a courageous battle.”
It goes without saying (although
I am now saying it) the obituary
never points out that the battle
was lost. For all of the thousands of
obituaries I have read, no one –
I repeat no one – won the battle. 
These odds are not encouraging.   

This is my twisted way of alerting you
to what you are not expecting. I will 
argue that a healthy way to heal
the symptoms of Parkinson’s is to
embrace the meaning and information
they offer to us.  

My explanation starts with a story
about horse racing. How in the
world is horse racing related to
Parkinson’s? Ah, is impatience
an issue for you? It is for me. Let’s
each tolerate our impatience 
as I write and you read the next
section.  

Horse Racing and Parkinson’s

One of my pleasures in life has been to
live at one time in the beautiful city of
Lexington, Kentucky which is home to
some of the fastest and most famous
thoroughbred racing horses in the world.
Part of the Lexington folklore revolves
around Patrick Henry, a horse that won
over 6 million in purses. 

In his retirement years Patrick Henry
lived on a horse farm near the famous
racing track known as Keeneland.
His handlers told me that the most
dangerous time to be inside Patrick
Henry’s horse stall was when the racing
horn at nearby Keeneland signaled
the time for a race to begin. 

Patrick Henry knew he was not at the
starting gate. He knew he was not racing.
He knew he had been “put out to pasture.”
He did not like it one bit.

 Patrick Henry would become angry,
even violent. His entire body would
shake, rattle and roll. He tore up
anything in his way – his hay rack,
the walls to his stall and even his
handlers if they were inside the stall
with him. It was dangerous business
for his handlers on racing day.

Patrick Henry was determined to
race. He had no interest sitting
on the sidelines, hearing the shouts
of the crowd while eating hay in
his stall.   

His handlers quickly learned that you
could not confront Patrick Henry during
such occasions. His fury would be ignited.
He temper would intensify. His symptoms
would become measurably worse. 

His handlers explained to me that the
only response was to allow Patrick
Henry to have his pout, shake like
a mad horse and scream out his anger
from the bowels of his life force. The
only response possible was to allow
the energy to be expressed.

Once he was able to fully and
completely express his feelings they
would pass. The shaking would stop.
The fury would pass. 

Patrick Henry was processing his
own feelings of inadequacy. His
handlers and owners decided he
was too old to race. Part of him
certainly knew that he was too old
to race. 

But this was all too much to stomach
for this proud horse. Patrick Henry
needed to release his own feelings of
inadequacy in his own way.

Parkinson’s and Horse Racing

Let me now explain the connection
between Patrick Henry’s frustration 
and Parkinson’s. Having known now 
many persons who have the symptoms
of Parkinson’s, I have observed that
there is an underlying intensity that
is usually present.  The intensity is
coupled with a genuine sense of power
and focus, two remarkable traits that 
help people succeed in life.

The intensity and focus is a good thing.
It is a precursor to success in life. It is
the reason why so many people with
Parkinson’s have a long record of amazing
accomplishments.  

The Place of Balance 

When the symptoms of Parkinson’s present
themselves what is the typical response for
anyone?  For most people (myself included) 
the typical response is to fight the symptoms,
to engage an internal war against them.   

This response works beautifully for some
people, but I want to offer a companion
response for you to consider. 

Consider the possibility that
your body will find a place of
balance no matter what
circumstances you confront
or how you respond.  

If you operate in high gear day in and day out –
running marathons, accomplishing miracles,
running a business, setting high goals, handling
the traumas of everyday living – your body will
find a way – anyway – to find balance in your life. 

You cannot stop this process no matter how
hard you try. You have no control over
it. 

Yin Versus Yang 

We need both yin and yang. Aggression needs to
be balanced with receiving the pleasures of life. 
The war inside us needs to be balanced with
making peace within us.  

If it suddenly becomes more difficult to move,
your body may simply be finding a way to
slow you down. If it is more difficult to talk,
maybe your body is telling you it is time to
listen more often. If your body wants to shake
uncontrollably, perhaps there is tension in the
tissues that needs to  be released.

In other words, any symptom you experience 
is valuable information your body is giving 
you. All you need is to listen to your body. 
Give in to the pain, discomfort and frustration.|
Set your intention to learn  more about its
underlying meaning. The symptoms –
however unpleasant they may be –
are gifts in disguise.  

The best analogy here is to think
of what happens in martial arts
when you absorb the blows of your
opponent rather than counteracting 
with equal force. There is limitless
power when you flow with the energy
of the moment – absorbing the blows
rather than fighting them. 

If you counteract the blows of your
opponent you will ultimately lose
the fight. In the end the route to 
victory is “giving in” and yielding. 

Process Work 

This philosophy is eloquently honored in 
Process Work as formulated by Arnold
Mindell
and explained in the Dream Body.
The following is taken from my interview
with Steven Fenwick, Ph.D.,  who
is a psychologist and national expert in
process work.  

“As you look at the underlying meaning
and purpose of the symptoms, what are
they trying to tell you? It is like it has a
gift for you.”

“Even though you may hate the symptoms
- we all hate symptoms – but even though
we hate them and we want them to go away
and we do everything we can to make them
go away, which is good, we also want to look
at what the meaning is.”

“What is it trying to tell you about your life?
What is it trying to tell you about your life’s
purpose and meaning? And as you unfold
that and get more in touch with that and
express it more in your life, often times the
symptoms do get better. ”

“From a Process Work point of view,
I would say … instead of always trying
to repress the symptom, experiment. 
Amplify the tremor or whatever your
most disturbing symptoms
are with just making them bigger and
feeling what they are expressing. ”

“Maybe you could dance it some; of if
you’re sitting in a chair you could move
various ways to express it. You could
draw it. And just feel – If this had a
message for me, what is it telling me?”  

Summary 

No one likes to have the symptoms
of Parkinson’s. They are horrible.
A usual response is to launch a battle
against the symptoms or to find ways
to suppress them through medications,
drugs, herbs, supplements or other
therapies. 

I am suggesting here to consider a
counterintuitive approach that is
embodied in process work:  

  • Acknowledge the sympt0ms
    as gifts in disguise.
  • Set the intention to explore
    what they are really about.
  • Listen to what your body is
    telling you.  

Your body is not broken. It is
working perfectly.

Robert Rodgers, Ph.D.
Parkinsons Recovery

© 2008 Parkinsons Recovery