Category Archives: Thoughts and Parkinsons

Research reveals there are many factors that can potentially cause the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. However, the one underlying factors that affect symptoms regardless of the cause are thoughts. Negative thoughts sustain symptoms. Positive ones promote healing from the inside out. Acknowledging the connection between thoughts and Parkinsons is the key to recovery.

Does CoQ10 Slow Down Parkinson’s?

Does coq10 slow down Parkinson’s?

Stephen

Response:

The framing of your question is fascinating- Does CoQ10 slow down Parkinson’s? There is an implicit assumption behind the framing of your question that Parkinson’s disease is a race in a download direction. I fully realize that many people hold the belief that Parkinson’s is a degenerative disease – meaning that anyone who has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease is destined to deteriorate over time, with no hope of recovery.

The mission of Parkinsons Recovery is to provide compelling evidence from across the globe that the assumption Parkinson’s is “degenerative” is misguided and wrong. In support of this mission, I have been interviewing people for the past several decades who successfully reversed their own Parkinson’s symptoms. Stories of former guests on my radio show are featured contributors in Pioneers of Recovery. We are documenting more and more cases of recovery every week now.

There are many treatments and modalities of one form or another that help reverse the symptoms of Parkinson’s. Some supplements will help depending on the factors that are causing the symptoms. After all, a supplement is simply food for the body. You can feed your body with the nutrients it needs by eating healthy, live food or you can acquire the nutrition you need through supplements.

There is a controversy in the research studies concerning the use of CoQ10 to treat symptoms of Parkinson’s.  The difference in study outcomes (some studies report positive effects and others do not) is due to the type of Co-Q10 that is used. In the video below I provide an explanation that speaks to your question : Does CoQ10 slow down Parkinson’s.

There are independent benefits of two supplements: Creatine and CoQ10. First I summarize the benefits of taking each supplement independent of the other, then present evidence when both are taken together.

Benefits of Creatine for Parkinsons

People with Parkinson disease have decreased muscular fitness, including decreased muscle mass, muscle strength, and increased fatigue.  Taking creatine has been found to improve exercise capacity and overall endurance.

Creatine supplements have also been found to boost mood and reduce the need for medication.

Benefits of CoQ10 for Parkinson’s

Has your doctor recommended that you take Coenzyme Q10 along with your regular medications? Some doctors do. CoQ10 has been found deficient in persons diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. Some health care professionals I have interviewed also report medications can deplete availability of CoQ10 in the body which increases the importance of supplementation.

What do you get when you take both Creatine and CoQ10?

The research reports taking both creatine and CoQ10 improves cognitive function and is neuro-protective.

But which brand of Co10 is best? There are so many!

There are so many choices on the market today. Many of them have limited potency.

Natural compounding pharmacist Ross Pelton directed me to a source of CoQ10 that is worth taking seriously. It is produced by Pharmanord of Denmark.

Most Coenzyme Q10 products sold today have negligible absorption rates. We are talking 1% at best. Why is this so? The melting point of CoQ10 is 10 degrees above body temperature. Most of the supplements you buy – even those in oil, have crystallized and cannot be absorbed by the body

Why Bioavailability of CoQ10 Matters 

Bioavailability measures the ability to absorb and utilize a substance like CoQ10 in the tissues and blood of the body. CoQ10 is fat soluble with a high molecular weight which is why its absorption is very limited.

Pharma Nord https://www.pharmanord.com has developed the most studied brand of CoQ10 globally. A proprietary heat treatment process greatly facilitates its absorption. The molecular structure of the Pharmanord CoQ10 is transformed from rough crystals to a snowflake like shape. More than 75 studies have now been published that document its superior absorption when compared to other brands.

The price is also reasonable. You can order the Pharmanord CoQ10 directly on their website. Their professional staff generously set up a 20% discount for members of my audience. You can claim this discount only if you ship to a USA destination. Enter the coupon code “PRQ10WEB“ to claim a 20% discount (not case sensitive).

CoQ10 Research

Eur Neurol . 2015;73(3-4):205-211. The effect of creatine and coenzyme q10 combination therapy on mild cognitive impairment in Parkinson’s disease Zhenguang Li, Pengfei Wang, Zhancai Yu, Yannan Cong, Hairong Sun, Jiangshan Zhang, Jinbiao Zhang, Chao Sun, Yong Zhang, Xiaohua Ju

Abstract

Background: To investigate the effect of creatine and coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) combination therapy on mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in Parkinson’s disease (PD; PD-MCI) and its influences on plasma phospholipid (PL) levels in PD-MCI.

Methods: The demographic data of 75 PD-MCI patients who enrolled in this collaborative PD study were collected. These patients were evaluated using the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) III and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA). These 75 PD-MCI patients were randomly treated with creatine monohydrate 5 g b.i.d. and CoQ10 100 mg t.i.d. orally or placebo. MoCA evaluation and PL level measurements were performed after 12 and 18 months of treatment.

Results: After 12 and 18 months of treatment, the differences in the MoCA scores of the combination therapy and control groups were statistically significant (p < 0.05 at 12 months and p < 0.01 at 18 months), and the plasma PL levels of the combination therapy group were significantly lower than those of the control group (p < 0.01 at 12 months and p < 0.001 at 18 months).

Conclusions: Combination therapy with creatine and CoQ10 could delay the decline of cognitive function in PD-MCI patients and could lower their plasma PL levels; therefore, this combination therapy may have a neuroprotective function.

Robert Rodgers, Ph.D.
Founder 2004
Parkinsons Recovery
Pioneers of Recovery

Mind Versus Body

When symptoms are unrelenting it is easy to feel at odds and uneasy. It becomes a Mind Versus Body War. My poem was inspired by this understandable dichotomy between the “you” of the body and the “I”of the mind.

Body Talk
Robert Rodgers

Just as you twitch and flutter out of control
  So I too am lost and restless

Just as you freeze without warning
  So I too am stuck in a lifeless glob of concrete

Just as you talk in a silent whisper
  So I too think thoughts that are timid

Just as you soak my shirt with sweat and wet
  So I too am drenched with the tears of trauma

Just as you wear a mask on your face
  So I too mask my full power

Just as you swallow food with gargles and coughs
  So I too find my sorrow and grief hard to swallow

Just as you endure pain that never forgives
  So I too endure the relentless pain of heartache and regret

Just as you flop and flutter from one step to the next
  So I too rattle thoughts through my rusty hamster wheel

Just as you are tormented by confusion and forgetfulness
  So I too puzzle over what step to take next 

 Just as you collapse to the ground without a heads up
  So I too give up and give out with my head down

Just as you are numb to the pleasures of life
  So I too reject its deliciousness

There is you see only one solution
One road to recovery
One path to health
For you and for me  
We must become one you and I
For I am just like you.

© Robert Rodgers PhD

Robert Rodgers, Ph.D.
Parkinsons Recovery
www.parkinsonsrecovery.com
Olympia, Washington

 

 

Thoughts that Obstruct Recovery

What unwanted beliefs, feelings and thoughts that obstruct recovery do you want to cast off your back ? Obviously we all have our own issues and our own private lists.

Permit me to take the liberty of making one suggestion of a feeling that you might consider adding to your own personal “cast off” list” the shame of currently experiencing Parkinson’s symptoms. Everyone is ashamed to be ill no matter what the diagnosis of the symptoms. In the case of Parkinson’s, shame seems to run especially deep and thick.

Many people who have been told they have Parkinson’s disease do not even tell their family for years and even decades (if ever). They embrace a belief which is untrue that the diagnosis means that they are destined to feel worse and worse over time.

They are convinced that their friends and family will distance themselves when they discover that they have this dreaded condition which carries the label of Parkinson’s. Because they never say anything they have no opportunity to realize this belief is not valid. In this case, thoughts that obstruct recovery are not in your best and highest good.

I know that shame runs deep for a variety of reasons. Here are a few:

  • Conversations with hundreds of persons with Parkinson’s symptoms over the past couple of decades  have revealed the depth of the shame that people experience.
  • When people order one of my books by phone they often tell me that they are ordering the book for a family member or a friend. Sometimes no doubt this is true. Sometimes no doubt they are ordering the book for themselves but are too ashamed to admit it even to me, a total stranger.
  • Parkinsons Recovery memberships provide ongoing support to the Parkinson’s community, a place where options can be explored with other persons who have succeeded in reversing their own symptoms. Few people call in during the live event. Most prefer to listen to the recording. There is such shame associated with even talking with another person even if they too have been diagnosed with Parkinson’s.

Why not set the intention to cast off any and all shame that you might be currently be holding consciously or unconsciously. Often the shame is unconscious.

Why hold onto the shame? A vast majority of the population have neurological challenges. It is really nothing to be ashamed about.

More and more people are identifying the cause of neurological challenges that they happen to be currently experiencing. Once the factors that are causing the symptoms have been identified, solutions can be explored that will help reversing whatever symptoms you may currently experience.

Shame places you in a position of subservience to a concept that has no basis in reality. It is not true that people who happen to have been diagnosed with Parkinsons disease are destined to deteriorate. It is far more likely that they have been misdiagnosed.

People are succeeding in reversing neurological symptoms.

Holding shame in you heart, mind and body is not in your (or anyone’s) best and highest good. Cast the weight of shame off your shoulders today. That is the intention I have set for myself and I invite you to do the same. We all have shame to one degree to another which needs to be cast off now.   

Robert Rodgers, Ph.D.
Founder 2004
Parkinsons Recovery
Road to Recovery from Parkinsons Disease
www.parkinsonsdisease.me

Expect to Get Better and You Will Get Better

Alan granted me permission to post his reflection below on how thoughts about Parkinson’s Disease have a profound impact on his recovery.

Robert Rodgers, Ph.D.
Founder 2004
Parkinsons Recovery
Five Steps to Recovery

I just took time out to listen to Howard Shifke’s’ interview again. I am re-inspired to keep going.

I don’t know if I’m getting better or not, but I don’t worry as much about a bad day or “what Parkinson’s is going to do to me.” I have been working on my thinking that I will get better since the last time that I listened to this interview. I got his point that expecting to get better is the way to get better, but it often takes a million reminders a day and starting over as many times. Yet, I think today, how nice to think it can get better. That was just the vaguest hope since taking recovery seriously a year and a half since diagnosis.


Alan

Voice Profiling

Dear Robert: I write to you on behalf of my mum, Carol, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s just 3 years ago. She has asked that I carry out her correspondence since she feels she becomes anxious when working at the computer (may be a symptom of her Parkinson’s?). At the time of diagnosis she was led to believe life was all down hill from there on and felt very scared, vulnerable and of course depressed. She is reluctant to start on dopamine medication as is the type of person who looks toward trying more natural therapies where possible. We are interested in voice profiling.

It was only by accident that while browsing the internet one evening she stumbled across your web site (we’re from England, UK) and the rest is history. From listening to your weekly programs, she has grown in confidence. The incredibly useful information and advice you give is made all the more inspiring by your optimistic and encouraging style.

She has also been inspired by two guests in particular on your programs – John Coleman ND and Sharry Edwards who is the pioneer of voice profiling. She followed advice regarding the potentially irritating affects of wheat and since giving up wheat/gluten 6 weeks ago she has noticed she has started to regain her sence of smell. Only this morning she remarked how she was able to smell the roses in her garden for the first time in years!

After listening to your most recent program on voice profiling, my mum has decided to take the wonderful opportunity to download the Parkinsons Voice profiling software programs for free to process her own voice profile.

Once again, a big thank you for all your hard work and encouragement – it is very much appreciated – please keep it up!

Listen to my radio show interview with Sharry Edwards:

Since airing the show, I have heard from one individual who has taken the voice profiling classes offered by Sound Health. She reports the classes are very challenging and demanding – much like earning an advanced degree. She also reports it has been a fascinating journey of discovery.

Robert Rodgers, Ph.D.
Founder 2004
Parkinsons Recovery
Road to Recovery from Parkinsons Disease

Positive Energy is My Power Over Parkinson’s Disease

Positive energy is my power over Parkinson’s disease. Some times I want to give up, but when the tremor tries to take over I get the fight back in me.

A Doctor told me to give up my motor cycle. What did I do? I went out n bought a bigger one. Riding my Harley forces my mind to work harder. The tremor slows and my balance improves.

Think positive. I can do this. I have been fighting this for over 13 yrs. I can not stop as long as there is hope.

Malcolm

Robert Rodgers PhD
Founder 2004
Parkinsons Recovery

What is the Key to Recovery?

What follows is an email I received from Linda, a reader of the Parkinsons Recovery blog where I addressed the question – what is the key to recovery? My suggestion was quite simple. I suggested it was helpful to simply forget about the fact you have been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. As you will read below. Linda found that suggestion helpful.

If you have not already done so, sign up for my free newsletter by entering your email address on the newsletter form here on the website. After confirming you want to receive the newsletter in a subsequent email you will receive you will be placed on the list to receive future newsletters.

Robert Rodgers, Ph.D.
Pioneers of Recovery

Thank you so much for sharing your insights into the key to recovery. It will be very helpful, I am sure. In my case, and at this time in my life, and with the kind of PD condition that I have, what you are saying is what I believe to be true as well.

Just forgetting about this condition, not giving it power, being as positive, and getting on with my life works for me. And (touch wood) I am going into my 13th year, diagnosed in 1998 (some symptoms before that) of having symptoms of PD. I do realize that every PD case is different, and that my case may be quite simple compared to that of others. I can only report from where I am in this condition.

When I travel from BC to visit family and friends in Ontario, they ask me how I am doing with Parkinson’s. I just say I really do not give it much thought. And other than my most noticeable symptom, a tremor being obvious at times, some folks do not even ask.

A new couple who moved into my building six months ago, said that they heard that I had PD and if it were true? Here again I could have built a real sympathetic case around this situation, because they looked so sad when they asked me. However, I said, yes, I do have symptoms of PD but I am OK. Putting a positive spin on my response helps me and also gives PD less power.

I just returned from my yearly visit to my neurologist at U of BC. He says that I am doing very well. He said to keep on doing whatever it is that I am doing, and did not prescribe any more drugs nor increase my dosages.

I take Axilect, the drug touted as “one that slows the progression of PD “. I also take 100 mg of Sinemet 5x a day, a surprisingly low dosage. So meds at this time are “helping” for sure.

My goal for the future, although a big one, is to heal myself of this condition. I have a good feeling about being successful in attaining this goal. I plan to follow the procedure or recipe of those who have been successful in doing so.

Until then, I will continue to be active, lead a healthy lifestyle, stay involved in life, keep a positive attitude and push faithfully forward to the day when I will experience complete recovery.

Thank you for passing on your very important message, about the Power and Results of being Positive, to your readers. It is the key to recovery.

Linda

How to Manifest Recovery

Several weeks ago I sent out an invitation to persons who receive my free newsletter to do an exercise I have found personally powerful that speaks to how to manifest recovery. The invitation was to jump ahead one year to and reflect back on everything you are grateful for. In other words, you set in motion the ability to manifest your dreams .

What follows is an email from Alan who has given permission to post here on the Parkinsons Recovery blog.

Robert Rodgers, Ph.D.
Pioneers of Recovery

Here is my list of gratitude on how to manifest recovery. I accompany it with a story from Autobiography of a Yogi, a long-standing classic.

A student went to his teacher/guru, having become quite sick.

I see you have made yourself ill, said the teacher, but tomorrow you will feel better.”

Gladdened, the student went home and regained health. He returned to thank the teacher, who said,

“I see you have made yourself well. Who knows what tomorrow will bring?”

A wave of fear went through the student at the prospect of becoming ill again. He did become ill again and could hardly drag himself back to the teacher. Of course, the teacher said,

“You have again made yourself again indisposed.”

 The student, exhausted, asked the teacher what was going on.

“Really, it has been your thoughts that have alternatively made you feel weak and strong. You have seen how your health has exactly followed your subconscious expectations. Thought is a force, even as electricity or gravity.”

He then went on to explain that the mind is a spark of divine consciousness and that a thought, if believed intensely, would come to pass. pp.133-4.

I could certainly use some work on the intensity of thought, but doing the exercise that Robert suggested has helped me how to manifest recovery. I listened to his broadcast many times to be sure I understood it. Then, I took some planned time and made my list of improvements as if looking back on them from the previous year.

The next day, I found that I had planted those “subconscious expectations” mentioned above. For the past few weeks, that phrase “subconscious expectations” has been coming to mind. I wondered how I could set them up to be relieved of the symptoms of Parkinson’s. Without realizing it, this was the answer. Writing things out commits yourself to what you are writing. The next day. I kept thinking that change is possible and started acting as if it was happening.

The support for acting out change comes from within!! It is cool to see thought go to work for you. Everything will correspond. Of course, there is a battle between what is and what I can change. The nice thing is that the writing strongly plants new seeds in the mind of healthy thoughts because it is one of your actions–and it is free!

List of gratitude 

    • I restore full use of my left hand with flexibility and contractions are released.
    • My steady balance is restored.
    • I have excellent bladder control.
    • I regain and surpass the muscle mass that I have lost in the past few years.
    • I turn over spontaneously in bed while sleeping.
    • I live in a manner that improves my health, day by day.
    • As my symptoms disappear, my medications are reduced down to nothing.
    • Complete feeling returned to the left side of my body and face.
    • I advance in my career, personal growth, and wealth.
    • I easily chew and swallow all foods and liquids. Choking has ceased. I swallow saliva spontaneously.
    • I complete all tasks, intellectual and physical, easily with normal speed.
    • I walk efficiently with a normal gait and maintain a completely upright posture.
    • I lift and carry heavy items with ease.
    • I give positive encouragement to others.

It is necessary to have something in your mind besides devastation. I stayed positive and had faith in my first year and a half. I seemed to have spiritual healings but not so much physical ones. I was trying to defeat the “medical model”: it will progress.

That is all I knew and believed (from the Internet), and I did get worse in that time. I found Parkinsons Recovery at this time of year in 2008-9. I soon committed myself to recovery, starting with vitamins. I’ve had to fight progression, and it has been challenging. What is truly better this year is my eye viewing the scenery, close or far.

I am spontaneous at noticing things. My eyes flit about instead of stare, and I turn and notice things. Example: I heard some women laugh after a man spoke at the grocery checkout. I turned 180 degrees to see what that was. A tall man had just joked with three women who were facing him. I was surprised at my quick, turn around response. I have become more socially spontaneous, too.

Now, I hope to get into bodybuilding again. I understand how to manifest recovery. Two years ago, I couldn’t find any thoughts to desire it at all, and it had been a passion of mine. Listening to the music of Johann Strauss has freed me up to start thinking about mobility again. I can picture the ballroom dancers seen on youtube when I hear or think of this music. Prior to this, I couldn’t picture any motion at all.

Now, I need to expand my visualization to other activity. I used a study where one group exercised, one group imagined exercising, and another group did nothing. The second group improved, though not as much as the first. The third group made no improvement. This study told me that the mind will affect the body in regard to motion.

My biggest crisis this year was whether to go down in defeat or not. Howard Schifke said, if you fight Parkinson’s, it will fight you back. After that, I could see you can fight the whole thing–it may be fierce, but its fierceness does not have to beat you into a hole.

When you set up one therapy or practice you open up other possibilities of healing. I am excited with the effects already of making this list of gratitude for recovery in 2012.

Alan

Full Recovery from Parkinson’s

Hi Robert: You have been incredibly on point with regard to healing and full recovery from Parkinson’s although I am not one hundred percent sure how it is I celebrated a full recovery. recovery I know that you have recently expressed the direction I went. I think the study of neurophysiology and quantum mechanics as it applies to neurology forced me to go back and re-learn the mathematics necessary to visualize quantum theory. Furthermore when I would go walking I would of course contemplate these principles. This is a little difficult to explain but it was like a light came on. This event was not sudden but involved significant time with daily study and contemplation although that is not what I intended.

In those days the talk of any sort of psychic change or shift in consciousness would have been met with laughter, however those concepts are steadily becoming more talked about especially from evolved teachers like yourself. Although not advised I quit taking all of my PD meds which included a lot of sentimet and mirapex. It was difficult for a few days and I was still shaky.

I applied a lot of other things that I had learned including detox, no refined foods, organic fruits and veg’s and a great deal of exercise. Then the symptoms dissipated completely so I am in full recovery from Parkinson’s symptoms now.

Robert I think if there is an effective way to release our minds from the conditioned way of perceiving information or reality as we have learned it is much easier to experience more constructive thoughts. Our new found way of experiencing life is where healing and recovery reside because there is this all important element of belief that plays a vital role.

Bobby

Robert Rodgers PhD
Founder 2004
Parkinsons Recovery
Five Steps to Recovery

Thanks for Being There

Thank you a million times over for answering the 2021 survey. I will tabulate the results and of course announce them here on the Parkinsons Recovery Blog as well as discuss them on Parkinsons Recovery Radio.

Findings of my annual survey inform all of us which therapies are showing the most promising results.

Robert Rodgers, Ph.D.
Founder
Parkinsons Recovery
Road to Recovery from Parkinsons Disease
https://www.parkinsonsdisease.me

https://www.parkinsonsrecovery.com
Olympia, Washington
877-526-4646

 

Placebo Effect

I read the book of Dr J. Coleman [Stop Parkin and Start Livin] as well as many other books & it is encouraging to know we can recover. I understood that 90% of the work is to nurture healthy beliefs, to find & release known & unknown negative images – bottom line to change the mind. This is what the placebo effect is all about. It is a daily routine to maintain the focus on wellness & recovery while we are feeling symptomatic. I must confess it is a tough journey but it is worth it. I choose this path & GOD is helping.

I don’t like the way the drugs make me feel & my plan is to reduce the doses when I am ready. I started to take regularly FAVA BEANS as part of my diet, also taking 3 serving of fish/week pm. I cannot describe my way any further because we are told there is no specific program, everything must be individualized.

at last my question for Dr. Rodgers – What is the best way to trigger a placebo EFFECT & maintain it to reach the recovery.

Thank you for your work

Abi

About the Placebo Effect

I agree totally that the key is a transformation of our negative thoughts. I believe this transformation was so critical to recovery that I recently published my book, Five Steps to Recovery, and recorded meditations that go along with the book that say absolutely nothing about therapies that can help and everything about the five critical steps that are necessary to transform thought forms.

The placebo effect is simply a way of installing the belief that you are going to get better. You have already triggered a placebo for yourself by virtue of your acknowledgment that thoughts are the difference that makes the difference to recovery.

The formidable challenge turns on the second part of your question: How do you maintain the belief that recovery is possible, especially when symptoms can flare at any moment. It is easy to switch a positive outlook into a negative one in a matter of seconds.

The key is to acknowledge that maintaining the belief that recovery is happening is a moment to moment process. We all can choose in any given moment to criticize, judge and be negative about our situation or to instill thoughts that embrace hope, new possibilities, new visions and new life for ourselves and our family.

We have over 60,000 thoughts a day. An interesting twist for most of us is that 90% of those thoughts are the same thoughts we had yesterday, the day before and a year ago. We trash ourselves with negative thoughts day in and day out.

Simply put, we humans are really not very creative when it comes to the thoughts that we express to ourselves. Perhaps we have an affinity for being redundant. Perhaps we get negative pleasure in beating up on ourselves.

A practice that works is to recognize the hamster wheel of negative thinking when it starts to turn – to acknowledge the power of negative thought forms when they rear their ugly head – and to release, remove, detach and eject and shield those thoughts from pestering us again. The challenge is to hop off of the hamster wheel and hop onto a vehicle that takes us on a road we do want to travel, the Road to Recovery.

Maintaining the beliefs that will make us well depends on a steady focus and unwavering intention. Day by day negativity is released, allowing new possibilities to become manifest. This is not an easy process. It takes time and focus. But, it is doable.

At Parkinsons Recovery we devote time and attention to helping people come back into balance and nurture the spirit of our souls.

Robert Rodgers, Ph.D.
Founder 2004
Parkinsons Recovery

 

Recovery from Parkinson’s Disease

Hi Robert: I have been continuing to follow your work and today I just felt compelled to write and convey my deep appreciation for you for my recovery from Parkinson’s disease. Your work is invaluable and the information you provide is the most probative for anyone interested in recovery from Parkinson’s and other forms of chronic illness. I know that I have already indicated my appreciation in times past but I felt the need to do so again.

Robert, before I was diagnosed I was a mess, my hands, legs, head and entire body would shake. I have never been fond of doctors and always felt it would somehow subside, I finally went to see my general physician who said I had some sort of advanced PD, he recommended me to a neurologist who told me the same. Not wanting to accept this PD business I just continued to ignore it, then one day I was with my children at the mall and fell down a long flight of steps and unable to get up.

Still resistant I did agree to talk with Abraham Lieberman and he and I wrote back and forth for a long time, he agreed to treat me at no cost but I would of course have to get to Miami, instead he procured an appointment with Dr. Jankovic at Baylor University. They examined me for 4 hours and the diagnoses was the same. I started the medications that improved my condition substantially.

The long and short of it is I no longer have any symptoms of PD nor do I take any meds.I celebrate a full recovery from Parkinson’s disease. This was the result of about three years of research and slowly making changes in all aspects of my life. I do have a good understanding of why and how I recovered however articulated this might not be so easy, it was not simply changing modalities but the capacity to perceive life and my existence in a way that is contrary to all I have been taught and conditioned, changing my perspective was not an easy feat but when that occurred I realized that healing and restoration was possible.

Bobby

Robert Rodgers PhD
Founder 2004
Parkinsons Recovery
Five Steps to Recovery

There is Nothing Wrong With You

Below is a follow-up correspondence from Brad whose story appears on my blog yesterday:

Robert Rodgers, Ph.D.
Parkinsons Recovery
www.parkinsonsrecovery.com

I got “PD’ed” at church today. I was a visitor and had no sooner entered than I was greeted by a young man with very obvious Down Syndrome. He instantly spotted my shaking hand and said with a big smile,

“Don’t worry, you don’t have to be nervous, it’s only Ash Wednesday. Or perhaps you’re very excited because you have such a beautiful wife!”

From his perspective there was absolutely nothing “wrong” with me; to the contrary everything was “right” with me. My partner and I agreed that there was a profound lesson to be learned from this man’s innocent and perceptive observation.

Brad

Alternative Therapies for Parkinson’s Disease

What follows is a fascinating e mail I received from Brad about alternative therapies for Parkinson’s disease . He has kindly given me permission to post it here.

Robert Rodgers, Ph.D.
Founder 2004
Parkinsons Recovery
www.parkinsonsrecovery.com

I am still “in the closet”, so to speak, that is to say I have not publicly discussed my diagnosis. I am very new to this discovery as I received my diagnosis one year ago (at age 52). Sometimes I get “PD’ed” by strangers who notice my symptoms and ask (or tell) point blank that I “have Parkinson’s”, which I cannot evade. The only purpose for taking the currently available meds is to hide the condition from others during, say, public speaking or other event which might lead to  or embarrassment. The meds serve no other purpose, they do not treat any underlying condition whatsoever. I suspect this denial, or hiding from PD symptoms, is very psychologically damaging (Michael J. Fox treats this in depth in his books). It leads to over medicating and adds stress, thereby worsening the condition.

In my case, I was lead to believe that the use of L-Dopa would provide dramatic relief and thereby confirm the diagnosis (remember that PD is a “negative” diagnosis, that is, it is indicated by ruling out all other possible explanations, however, in reality this is impossible to do. So PD is labeled “idiopathic”, or of unknown causation). Instead of relief, absolutely nothing happened, except that I immediately worsened and developed new symptoms in addition to a multitude of side effects. My brain has resisted L-Dopa therapy over these twelve months. L-Dopa is only sporadically effective and is very hard to predict. It takes very high doses to alleviate all symptoms (briefly) and during periods of high stress (particularly social stress) it does not work at all. So I have made a conscious decision to minimize my use of L-Dopa and seek alternatives right from the start. Sometimes I go for days without medicating at all and my symptoms usually stay about the same or sometimes better.

Things I am doing that seem to help:

Continue to ride and race bicycles  I have had to give up certain types of racing that require extremely fine motor skills, but I ride with accomplished groups regularly, at least 5,000 miles per year. Balancing a bicycle utilizes different neural circuits from your center of gravity than balancing on your feet, so I actually cycle better than I stand or walk. Some medication is required to control dystonia and keep my “slow” leg in sync with my “fast” leg, but I have experienced symptom-free rides occasionally.

Continue serious weight training. Since lifting weights does not involve high speed movements, it is largely unaffected by the symptoms. I have always been very strong and have become even stronger with pd symptoms than I was previously.

All other forms of physical activity, such as stretching, hand and finger exercises, table tennis, hiking, walking, basketball, anything that involves motion.

Healthy food, water, and sleep/rest. Avoid all trauma and toxins insofar as possible. Drama-free social life, mental engagement and exercise, healthy spiritual practices. These seem to be so “common sense” that they may be overlooked, but the proof is in disrupting any one of these and the symptoms immediately worsen. Improve them, and they immediately get better. Simple.

Alternative therapies for Parkinson’s disease that I am trying or considering include mercury detox. This is very dangerous, because disturbing mercury in dental work and/or chelating mercury that has been bound to brain tissues for a long time can worsen matters by “stirring up” heavy metals that may then be reabsorbed or recirculated prior to elimination. A personal decision has to be made balancing the risk/possible benefits of this approach. It is too early to tell what impact this decision will have on me because I have only had mercury-free teeth for less than thirty days after more than thirty years. I do believe eventually mercury will be banned in dental work. There are better alternatives available. My dentist conceded only after agreeing that having already developed pd symptoms, the levels of mercury that may be safe for a normal healthy adult might not be appropriate for me.

Hypnotherapy is showing great promise. If nothing else, achieving relaxed states reduces stress. However, even western medicine recognizes “psychogenic Parkinson’s”, from which full recovery is possible. It distinguishes this from “real” or “organic” Parkinson’s which by definition precludes recovery. So if you recover, it must have been psychogenic and vice-versa, if you don’t recover it’s not psychogenic. This is circular reasoning. Self-observation proves that all PD is at least partially psychogenic. Besides, it is a Western assumption, wholly based on faith, that there is any real difference between the mind/spirit and body at all. There is plenty of evidence, including in Western science, that there is no difference. One cannot exist or be healthy without the other. During hypnotic states (basically that relaxed dreamy state just before falling asleep), observable symptoms abate. What more proof that these symptoms are controlled by mental states (or brain waves, if you will) is needed?

Long held attitudes and “belief systems” are hard to change but they clearly play a role in recovery. At home, we avoid using the term “disease” or even “Parkinson’s”, instead referring to “Mr. P” or “my condition” or “symptoms” because one thing is for sure, if for one minute, you believe that you will not recover, your prophecy will be self-fulfilled. On the other hand, if you believe improvement or recovery is possible (not guaranteed), then that will be true also. Cancer victims refer to “fighting” cancer, PD’ers often talk about “accepting” PD. While “accepting” oneself as one is or accepting the public acknowledgement of your symptoms may be helpful, the will to live (not mere survival, but living well) is the driving force behind recovery from any illness.

On the drawing board when it comes to alternative therapies for Parkinson’s disease is acupuncture. The brain is an electrical system. Western science proves this through DBS. DBS, however, is a crude and intrusive means of maintaining that system. Again, the website mentioned above details how electrical disruptions in other parts of the body (particularly the foot or ankle) may affect the brain. I had such a traumatic injury in which the tibia was fractured and did not “knit” after 99 days in a cast. Subsequently, a “TENS” unit was utilized passing an electrical current, night and day, for several months through the fracture. While this did cause an 80% “healing” of the bone to occur, there may have been electrical side effects unbeknownst to me from this therapy.

I realize that this is rather lengthy, but PD is a vastly complex and mysterious condition. This means there are a variety of alternative therapies for Parkinsons disease which can offer symptom relief. The mere lack of dopamine is neither its cause nor solution. I agree with you that the current scientific research will never result in a “cure” because there are a multiplicity of causes and therefore a multiplicity of “cures”.

I appreciate this opportunity to share my thoughts about alternative therapies for Parkinson’s disease. It has helped me be a little more organized in my own research and thinking. I do not yet know in what way my experience may be used to help others, but I will consider your idea. Thank you for your time and the work that you are doing.

Brad

Negative Thoughts Equal Instant Failure

Below is an e mail I received from Rose with encouraging news of recovery from the symptoms of Parkinson’s from a “healing.”

YOU ARE SO RIGHT ON! NEGATIVE THOUGHTS EQUAL INSTANT FAILURE! BAH! HUMBUG!

THERE IS THIS OTHER BOOK, CALLED “THE SECRET”..POSITIVE PEOPLE ATTRACT POSITIVE PEOPLE = SUCCESS…WORTH READING.

I WENT TO MY HEALER FOR THE FIRST TIME HERE IN NASHVILLE. SHE WAS WONDERFUL. WE FOCUSED ON SOME BAGGAGE I’VE BEN CARRYING….NOT THE PARKINSON’S DISEASE…AND WE IDENTIFIED SOME OF THE BIGGER PIECES AND I ‘GAVE’ THEM TO OTHERS AS IT WAS THERE iS TO HANDLE.

MY TALKING SPEED WAS VERY MUCH IMPROVED THE NEXT COUPLE OF DAYS! I STILL HAVE A WAYS TO GO, BUT I AM EXCITED ABOUT THE RESULTS WITH JUST ONE SESSION AND WILL SEE HER AGAIN IN MARCH.

ROSE

Robert Rodgers, Ph.D.
Founder 2004
Parkinsons Recovery
Five Steps to Recovery

 

Five Steps to Recovery

Perhaps the most formidable challenge for everyone on the road to recovery is to persist, stay on track and maintain the commitment that is needed to recover. This I must say is no minor challenge. Five steps to recovery are critical for success to manifest.

People tell me consistently that when they take a vacation from eating healthy food, exercising or abandoning therapies that help them, symptoms worsen. Guaranteed.

How does anyone maintain the focus that is needed to stay on track? It certainly helps to have a daily infusion of hope which is why I invented the  Parkinsons Recovery Membership.

Affirmations can certainly help us all sustain the discipline and commitment that is so critical to a recovery program.

Five Steps to Recovery lays out the steps necessary to transform negative thought forms into positive ones. When we hold positive thoughts moment to moment, day in and day out, we can manifest whatever our heart desires – health, wellness, abundance, happiness, joy – you name it.

Discover more about Five Steps to Recovery by visiting: https://www.parkinsonsrecovery.com/five-steps-to-recovery

Robert Rodgers, Ph.D.
Parkinsons Recovery

Walking and Balance Problems

Today, I was looking for new inspiration and direction. My walking and balance problems are a little more wobbly, but the feeling on my left side (once quite numb) is much better in the last month now. So, in a way, I feel that I am doing better. I no longer feel like I have two different sides but have one body. I can make my left hand do things like brush teeth and type. (Having Parkinson’s does not make you ambidextrous; it is just that your non-sided hand must help out if it need be. There’s no comfort in that: it doesn’t have the coordination that the sided hand does, if that is the one that is affected).

I hope that this (one-body experience) is part of my recovery. I want to work harder on my health, as I keep thinking of the interview of the woman who had deep stimulation (not the poetry writing lady, the one before that). She said if she had it to do over, she would have given the alternative therapies a better chance.

Searching around the Parkinsons Recovery Blog, I read many blogs as well as listened to past interviews and this week’s interview, which included mention of stiffening in the chest related to the breathing. Taking your suggestion of working on one symptom, I decided to compensate for my shallow breathing for a week, moment by moment. I’m always deflated, and I know that I have not been getting enough oxygen.

Starting that, I decided as well to root out one thought form that may be contributing to this condition. I thought that it would take some time to discover one, but it came up immediately. The woman with the CORD therapy said, in general, that Parkinson’s people have a reality print of:

‘I can’t quite do this, or measure up’.

I understand that. I can affirm, I can do this, I can, I can–anything. Believe me, this is a different type of energy to have within myself, though I have accomplished a lot in my life. Idid it by simply pushing. I want my brain to learn something new here of real confidence.

I found a boost in this story from my own saved archives.

This story makes you think about your potentials, as the woman in the story did. She went to college in her 60s and got the geology degree that she always wanted. I can at least accomplish everything that is before me this week. Thanks for your site again. I’m working on getting it to two other people with Parkinson’s.

Alan
Robert Rodgers PhD
Founder 2004
Parkinsons Recovery

Train Your Mind. Change Your Brain

Here are some resources to share on how to train your mind.

http://www.befitoverfifty.com/pages/thera.htm?source=OverTo

Although the first part is “depressing” to read, the section on “Why Exercise Is So Important” is simple and motivating. There are yet more exercise programs for people with muscular and neurological disorders on this link, but I am not sure of their availability.

I am reading a new book (to me), Train Your MIND, Change Your BRAIN by Sharon Begley, (Ballantine). This is a survey of how the brain adapts to the kind of thinking we do and the feeling modes that we experience.

The Dalai Lama figures in this story with his patient challenge to neurological researchers on the reverse of the belief “the brain creates the mind or the mind is the result of brain activity”–doesn’t the mind affect the way the brain operates? Beliefs in science are hard to confront.

This book is about research on this confrontation. There are stories of experiments in re-training the thinking of people with depression and obsessive/compulsive disorders. As they corrected for their distorted thinking, they experienced relief, even when medication was supposed to give them relief. Re-training our thinking is crucial because our brains respond to the perception of our reality. The experiments related in the book can inspire ideas on working our own programs. Parkinson’s isn’t even mentioned, but strokes are.

The evidence shows that plasticity or brain/neural changing doesn’t occur only in childhood but throughout life. A Tibetan monk, whom the Dalai Lama knew, was imprisoned by the Chinese for 18 years, a time which included torture. When freed, he was found to be the same gentle, mentally sharp man that the Dalai once knew, just like he was before the imprisonment. Was he ever afraid? Yes, he was afraid that he would lose his compassion for the Chinese.

“Because of forgiveness, his bad experience with Chinese not got worse,” said the Dalai Lama.

This anecdote shows that mind is over matter. The book goes on to explore, from the Buddhist perspective, what mind is or does. The link between Buddhist thinking and scientific neurological research is attention and attention training.

Thanks for all that you do!

Alan

Robert Rodgers PhD
Founder 2004
Parkinsons Recovery

I Never Saw It Coming

I never saw it coming.
My life’s been rearranged.
So altered, not original,
I’ll never be the same.

The breath I breathe reduced,
The functions that I had,
the limitations place on me,
sometimes, it makes me sad.

I struggle almost every day
to do those basic things.
Can never plan what I’ll do next,
not sure what next, life brings.

My heart still has the want to…
My head might misdirect,
but I get up, keep going.
My feelings I protect.

I’m not the kind to give up.
I’m not the kind to quit.
Sometimes, I’m very mobile.
Sometimes, I have to sit.

So, if your body’s healthy,
your mind is good and strong,
today’s the day, give life your all,
tomorrow, it could be gone.

Kenneth Allen Patrick
I Never Saw It Coming

Robert Rodgers PhD
Founder 2004
Parkinsons Recovery