Snub to Mr Parkinson

Last year PD had gained quite some ground over my physical condition. Even walking without stumbling was a challenge, and this small ski hiking would have been like climbing Everest to me. Think about Parkinson as wearing a heavy spacesuit on one side of your body (right side in my case) and you get a picture about what the experience of practicing any basic sport feels like. Even ski slopes for beginners had turned pretty challenging and no fun…So “Ski de randonnée”? Don’t even think about it.
This short clip is to tell how efficient Physiotherapy can be. Exactly one year ago I had decided to stop all medication (*), as I could not see any positive effects, and side effects were for sure worse than benefits. Among my many readings on PD, a few articles came across my attention, suggesting “Intense exercise” could reverse PD progress. But Intense exercise with half of a spacesuit on… is not really realistic  . So I started a long journey of Physiotherapy, and to be perfectly honest with very slow and painful progress initially. But after a few month I started to see visible improvement: PD cage was getting a bit larger, strong motivation to push it further: now a days I do not spend any hour without stretching for a few minutes
So you can check the progress today. Left and right side of my body show about the same flexibility and muscle strength, so I can pretty decently ski downhill in crusted snow, even after slowly hiking up that slope. And I know I can still recover more…
Bottom line I see PD primary therapy as exercise, exercise, exercise, keep the cage large enough to lead a decent life... that is what anyone diagnosed with PD should hear. Medication can indeed help as a secondary approach: and I am now taking L-dopa again, but divided prescription by 6!
So be careful with any secondary effects that gets on your way to fighting the PD cage yourself!