Recently forum member kalyan48 mentioned a YouTube video series of very simple and easy exercises to improve the mentioned PD symptoms in the title of this post. Unfortunately, kalyan only mentioned it in a reply post so many members may not even be aware of her post, but I feel these exercises may have very significant importance for many forum members who are not able to do some of the more labor intensive or difficult exercises that are sometimes mentioned on this forum and elsewhere. One thing that many PWPs can agree on as well as many scientific studies, exercise can be one of the best things you can do to slow disease progression, but what good is that if the exercises being recommended are too difficult for "you" to be able to do? With this series of videos, you not only get some exercise in, but you may actually be able to improve multiple symptoms associated with PD at the same time!
I watched five of the very short videos by Howard Shifke that illustrates his simple and easy exercises. The problem for me is that since I do not have PD, I am unable to actually test his exercises to see if they actually do what he says they can do, but there are many people on this forum that can test his exercises by just watching the short videos and trying them for a reasonable period of time to see if he is correct.
Below this paragraph are links to those 5 YouTube videos and you be the judge of whether you think these exercises will be helpful for the mentioned symptoms or not. Actually, some of his recommendations are not really exercises, but rather recommendations he is making to make certain things like getting your fork or spoon from your plate to your mouth with the food still on it by just using a slightly different method of moving your hand and arm. The same for improving writing, just a different way of holding your hand and arm to improve your writing. jimcaster, this was the question I wanted to ask you about writing, if you could try Howard's method and let us know if it is helpful or not for improving writing as this is an easy test to do? Feed back will be greatly appreciated to help determine if Howard is on to something here or not!
kalyan will be adding more to this thread to discuss more of what Howard Shifke has to offer. He has his own website where he discusses more on this subject. Please remember that feedback on these exercises will be very useful for many forum members and feedback is definitely welcome! 😊😊😊
Art
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The first four videos returned error messages. The fifth video features an exercise which is good and I am not knocking it. I see that the video is titled as being Qigong. This is not Qigong. Qigong essentially is a spiritual practice for working with subtle energies. Some Qigong practices involve physical motion but if someone thinks that is the essence of Qigong they are mistaken.
Some people reject the existence of a spiritual dimension and subtle energies - they are free to do so and I am not inviting argument on this point.
Physical exercises are good, but it is unfortunate that that Howard Shifke chose to title his this way.
The main thing that attracted me to this series is the idea that PWPs at more advanced stages can potentially do some if not all of the exercises or use some of the tips which seemed pretty good to me, but this from a person who does not have PD. I can only imagine the frustration that some PWPs feel when they read posts or articles talking about how great a certain group of exercises are for them when in reality, because of their condition, they can't do any of the suggested exercises! My hope is that these particular tips and exercises will be doable by a much larger group of PWPs.
It may be easier to view the videos by just entering Howard Shifke on the YouTube search line. That's what I did and it worked fine that way!
Thanks Art. These are very helpful and some are very similar to exercises I did in physical therapy for my frozen shoulder last year. I still do them now when my shoulder hurts and they do relax my shoulder and tremor. I plan to try the others as well.
Thank you for the feed back, it is very useful! So it sounds like you are saying at least some of the exercises and tips he is giving are useful and possibly effective? This is good to know and good for more forum members to be aware of.
If you are not yet doing so, I highly recommend adding magnesium chloride oil / mag oil (MO) to these exercises as I believe the MO will reduce stiffness and pain and make the exercises even easier to do.
Btw, the MO is also very helpful for some people in relieving frozen shoulder! If you haven't tested it yet, it may be a worthwhile and inexpensive test. I believe that MO is a very useful product for anyone with PD. Here is a link to an inexpensive 8 ounce spray bottle of MO for under $10 that is more than enough to test the MO out :
MO can relieve pain and inflammation in joints, stop cramps quickly in the hands, feet, legs and arms, reduce swelling and pain from sprains, relax tight muscles in the neck and shoulder area along with associated headaches, help alleviate some dystonia symptoms and relax muscles wherever applied directly. It is inexpensive and easily available! I am waiting to hear if anyone has found it at all useful for mild dyskinesia symptoms. Anyone?
Even the very best magnesium combo pills or capsules can not do everything that MO can so in order to get the most that magnesium has to offer, an oral supplement and MO would be the most comprehensive way to go and it is worth discussing it with your doctor, neurologist or MDS to make sure it will be compatible with all that you are taking.
Art, Thanks to you I have been using MO and oral magnesium for almost a year now. I found a cream that is good for when I travel also. You are so right. It is amazing and I use it frequently. I have leg pain down my left leg and shoulder pain occasionally and it really works. I believe I can be more active and my muscles a are more relaxed when I apply it. Thanks for all of the great advice.
More good feed back on the MO and I am glad to hear that you are getting good benefit with it!
For the leg pain going down your left leg, sometimes this originates in the lower spine and you can test that idea by applying MO to your lower spinal area and then icing your lower spine at the same time. If that combination relieves some of the pain, then you have something useful you can relay to your doctor about where the leg pain is originating from and he can take the appropriate steps to zero in on and alleviate the cause if that turns out to be the case.
I’ve been to a number of orthopedic docs and had 2 spinal injections to no avail. Most recent visit suggests an interaction of moderate hip arthritis and Parkinson’s rigidity with sciatica likely and regular physical therapy seems to maintain good functioning for now. Plus magnesium oil! LOL.
Yes, MO can be used as often as needed. You just have to consider the fact that it will be in addition to any oral magnesium you are taking including magnesium from the food you eat because MO is also absorbed through the skin.
Regarding oil or spray, they are the same thing. MO is not really an oil and though it feels oily, there is no oil in it. It generally comes in a spray bottle, although larger bottles may not have a sprayer. If it works well for you after testing it, you can make your own from dry magnesium chloride flakes and distilled water or vodka and it is very inexpensive to make it from the dry flakes. The vodka makes it feel a little less oily and it dries faster than the water mix does. That is how I make it myself and I give it to friends and family.
Another consideration with MO is that you can sometimes reactivate any magnesium chloride that remains on the skin in the application area after the MO has dried. Lightly wet the application area with plain water and if there is enough dried magnesium chloride left at the area of application it may be enough to act as a second application of MO to help relieve pain and muscle tension again. This will help to save on your MO usage and it should feel less oily when you rewet the area.
Hopefully he really does have it right and he is passing along good information to other PWPs who can take advantage of what he has put together in terms of easy and beneficial exercises and tips to help reduce some very, very common PD symptoms!
It would be difficult to find easier and simpler exercises than he has put together here and his tips only require a little bit of practice in order to incorporate them into your daily life. Being a PWP himself, it seems he would be well aware of how useful his information can potentially be to other PWPs and yes he does look to be in pretty good shape considering the time lapse between those videos!
I like practical options that can be of almost immediate benefit for PWPs, cost little to nothing, are easy or relatively easy to implement and work!
Art, You are so wonderful to bring us all these extras that you find out. I am 89yrs old and find it hard to do any exercises.However, I tried a couple of these and it isn't too hard. I intend to keep it up as long as Ican. I get more info from you than my Neuro. He tells me nothing except remember my age. I look forward to reading everything you write. Thank you.
Thank you so much for this timely reply! Knowing that these exercises are doable by someone who generally finds many exercises difficult or impossible to do is exactly what I was hoping to hear! Your reply is important and useful!!! Now other members in a similar situation know that they can seriously consider these exercises and tips!
Bless you, Art. Thank you so much. I don't have PD but have a number of symptoms in common with it, including gait, balance and writing problems, so am interested in trying these exercises.
I've just followed his instructions and tucked my elbows against my sides when writing and I could use cursive and it's more legible. Generally, I have to print in capital letters. Thanks, Art! Great!
Glad to hear that his exercises and tips are working for you already! That is really fast! This will help other members to determine if it is worth their time and effort to try them or not.
Art ...thanks for your detail review /starting the thread ...btw a correction.....i am a male ...secondly ,his detail guide line for MANAGING PD is given in what he calls PARKINSON'S RECIPE FOR RECOVERY it can be accessed on his page if you GOOGLE IT.................. art can you please give the link ... in the testimonial section names/details of PWPs with full recovery are given....................... he claims, the recipe, if practiced, START HEALING AT SOUL MIND AND BODY LEVEL LEADING ULTIMATELY TO FULL RECOVERY...btw alsoI was wondering HOW ABOUT INVITING HIM TO JOIN THE FORUM AS HE IS A PWP HIMSELF
Thank you for clarifying gender as your profile does not list it. Sorry for the error.
I only went as far as the short videos so the forum members could get a rough idea of whether his exercises and tips are doable and effective and apparently some of it already has shown potential which should bring further interest in seeing the rest of what he has to offer and so you bring more info on his whole program at just the right time! I hope the members who can benefit are able to do just that, but at a minimum, the members who have already started looking and experimenting with his exercises and tips will now have much more to look forward to and so far I am impressed with what Howard is offering and doing!
YES-the first video had immediate positive affect.....thanks for posting this. Been in this parkinsonism game a very long time so I was suprised and oh how I love a suprise like this!
Thank you for the reply and the useful feedback! Now more forum members may be motivated to see if the tips and easy exercises are something they would like to try to improve symptoms such as tremor, handwriting, voice volume and articulation, walking and balance to name a few.
Howards are the simplest and easiest I have come across so that is definitely a plus and definitely worth sharing with the forum members!
Once you get to that page, just name the video that you want the forum members to be able to see such as "Parkinson's Standing and Working on Balance", then the member need only scroll down and select that video title in order to watch it or any of his other videos !
I counted at least 12 of his videos on that link above and it appears that his total program is much more comprehensive than just the five original videos that I previously linked to and those can be found on the page link above also.
The thread I started about Karen Rafael claiming to be 98% symptom-free generated some conflicting positions, so I'm going to take this opportunity to point out; here we have Mr. Shifke and scores of his followers and book reviewers claiming to be symptom-free.
He certainly looks symptom-free. No facial masking, no impaired annunciation or volume, normal eye blinking rate, 0 tremor anywhere, well muscled physique, and he is 10 years in. Remarkable. Looks like 100% recovery. Even I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't see it. I'm going to look into it, but do you know what he claims in his book are the things to do to be symptom-free?
All his exercises are good and would be valuable to everyone who sticks with them. Many of them are the same or comparable to various PD physical and voice therapy programs like LSVT, Big and Loud, and whatnot -- and they work. I've done many of them.
The main thing I was attempting to do with that post was to highlight what forum member "kalyan" had passingly mentioned as a reply in another post where he was asking me what I thought of the five videos and after watching them, I wanted to make sure that as many forum members as possible who can't do many of the harder exercises might see these particular ones as these looked like many more people would be able to do them and then there are his "tips" which require no exercise, just a little practice and so far the tip about writing seems to be helpful, so I am very hopeful that many more PWPs will be able to take advantage of his tips and easy and very simple exercises! I'm not sure if that will happen, but I do know it is definitely possible as forum member, "bounder", who is 89 was able to do some of the exercises right off the bat and for me, that is exciting and exactly what I was hoping to hear!
Yes, that was the other thing is that Howard looked to be in exceptional shape, which would generally get my BS meter ticking wondering if he really has PD, but my thinking was to wait for feedback on the easy exercises and tips and then decide if you think it is worth looking further into what Howard Shifke has to offer. If the tips and exercises don't pan out as he says they will, then the forum members need look no further and if they do work, then the forum members have a new resource on the HU forum to possibly improve their symptoms! For me, being a person who does not have PD, I can not actually test any of this myself, but as good as it looks on the surface, I certainly wanted to share this information with the forum members who might be interested and able to make use of his approach. So far, it looks like at least some of it is helpful, and the price seems right!
.....and yes, I hope more forum members realize the value of these 5 very short videos and are able to improve their quality of life without breaking the bank or their backs!!! 😅😅😅
We are kind of conflating 2 different issues. I am not at all questioning the value of his exercises. Thank you for posting them. Good thread.
I am just struck by how completely symptom-free he is, so I'm trying to figure out what he is claiming that accounts for that. There must be more in the book because mastering these exercises won't make anyone else look like him. Don't you think?
Maybe Kalyan will chime in and can tell us how he reversed his symptoms to 0.
I'm not sure what you mean. I am questioning his exercises and tips because I have no experience with them, but the forum members could test them and see if they are beneficial or not for free. It looks like the Kindle version of his book is $10 and the paperback is $20. I am not at the stage of considering whether his approach can completely or almost completely reverse PD because to me that is almost like a completely different subject. If his approach can not even get past the first stage of more completely testing his five videos, then it will never reach the buying the book stage anyway. Btw, I believe he has about a dozen videos up and he seems to go into other areas of healing other than just exercise. I have not viewed them, but will try to get to them soon. I am optimistic based on the limited feedback so far, but I am cautious too because I don't want to mislead the forum members in anyway. For now, I will say that Howard has peeked my interest! He has 52 Amazon reviews on the book and they are very positive at an average of 4.7 stars. The few negative comments were weak and 85% of reviewers gave it 5 stars! So it does look pretty good from that perspective, but only 52 reviews is not great, but what some of the reviewers had to say sounded quite positive and based on those reviews, it sounds like if you go to Howard's website, all of the information that is needed to implement his method is there for free. Not to get too crazy here, but it is hard to find fault with what Howard is doing under these circumstances. You can pay if you choose to for one on one counseling, but supposedly the same information is free on his website. Apparently Howard was an attorney up until his PD got to a progressed state. So far, I have not seen anything that should preclude a PWP from testing Howards ideas for free and it sounds like you may not even need to buy his inexpensive book if you just want to get the information off of his website.
Park_Bear pointed out that Howard was referring to a qigong practice incorrectly, but I will give Howard some latitude on that point as long as what he is saying pans out as he says it will.
It get's a little difficult for me here since I do not have PD and can not really test his ideas and can only try and see if his exercises and tips work based on forum feedback. I think if I had PD and his tips and exercises work for me and improves my quality of life significantly, then I would be very interested in purchasing the book or Kindle version as they are roughly in the same price range as any supplement I would test for one bottle. Other than that, there isn't much else I can say about what Howard has put together because I can't really test it myself.
I dont have much experience of his protocol..... I just came across his site,,,,,,,,,,,,,, was impressed and tried to get feedback......btw my first impression is that the program is good but time consuming about 3 hrs /day,,,difficult to maintain continuity...........was hoping to get
good feed back as an incentive for long term 2 to 4 yrs commitment on daily basis both AM ,PM
I was asking whether or not he was claiming that the balance and flexibility exercises in his videos is what made him symptom-free because I thought that would be a stretch, but I now see there's more to it.
"His recipe for recovery is ... a combination of Qigong, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Acupressure, Soul, Mind, Body Medicine, Chanting, Jin Shin Jyutsu, Yin Tui Na, a vegetarian diet, and many meditation/affirmation/prayer techniques."
I looked into the guy several years ago, but took a pass on him because he says that we need to take personal responsibility for having Parkinson's and because he says a lot of other seriously stupid things.
"I learned ... that ... having the right side of my brain operate the left side of my body and the left side of my brain operate the right side of my body was a formula that spelled disaster." (He's going to improve upon several hundred thousand years of evolution.) "Ultimately, I decided I needed to retrain my brain for ... the right brain moving the right side of my body, and the same with the left side." Really?? He can do that?
"I don't believe dopamine is depleted..."
What makes evaluating all such 'recovery' protocols tricky is that there is some truth to what all of them say. I'm sure Qi gong, tai chi, meditation, yoga, and every 1 of his exercises are beneficial, however, much of what he says IMHO amounts to, 'I learned these techniques from the aliens who abducted me.'
"The three main causes that bring Parkinson’s to the surface as diagnosable symptoms are:
1. Qi and Blood Deficiency.
2. Phlegm-Fire Agitating Wind.
3. Kidney and Liver Wind Deficiency.
"As you can see, in order to believe that these are the causes of diagnosable Parkinson’s, to an extent, I had to take personal responsibility for having the disease..."
I also get annoyed by protocols that rely on minutia being important. "... rotate hands six times in one direction and then six times in the other direction." Do we think 6 times is better than 5 times or 7 times?
PS. I know nothing about Qi gong, so maybe park bear can tell us whether or not you can practice Qi gong separately for your liver wind or kidneys.
What is liver wind, anyway?
In summary; his exercises are all excellent. Thank you for bringing those to our attention. I'll take a pass, though, on all of his theories.
We agree on the exercises and I imagine also on the tips he suggests to help to deal with some very common and troubling symptoms of PD and apparently they can be effective for multiple symptoms. The very simple and easy tremor exercise alone seems to be of very significant value, is free and apparently is helpful, so it makes sense to me that the forum members would be more than happy to try that one for their arm or hand tremor and the writing tip also seems to be of value and requires no exercise at all, so probably worth a try for PWPs with writing issues. The balance exercise definitely seems worth it because good balance may equate to less or no falls and falls can be a disaster even for people without PD! The speaking exercise seems easy and effective. Any exercise that helps with walking issues is definitely useful.
As far as the rest, including TCM, I don't know and can't test any of it myself, but I suspect that the rest has benefit. On the face of it all, the main thing he has going toward proving what he is doing works is himself. Just look at him, nobody would ever guess or believe he has PD. Assuming he was correctly diagnosed many years ago, his recovery looks like a miracle and he is apparently crediting his recovery to his method! His book reviews on Amazon are very good and I haven't as yet seen any body trying to claim that Howard is a fraud or that his method doesn't work or that his book is a rip-off.
As far as if he might be trying to con people into paying him for his information, it seems highly unlikely since he is essentially giving all of his information away free and charging $10 or $20 for his book which you do not need in order to learn his method, with the limited audience that he could appeal to, the book hardly seems worth the effort it took to write it and is certainly not going to boost his bank account by much based on the number of reviews on Amazon and the price of it. I don't know how much he charges for one on one training, but again it seems unlikely that he is using the one on one to enrich his bank account by much since the one on one is not actually needed in order to learn his method, but I understand that some people seem to get the most out of one on one training so I understand why he would offer it.
Based on an old , but frequently mentioned story of a person who reversed their PD through the use of meditation plus Constance's recent revelation of the value of meditation for herself plus many other anecdotes around the web, I feel that meditation definitely has healthful benefits and the method of action is far from scientifically clear, so I would definitely not rule out the value of meditation. Qigong has shown itself to have healthful benefits and one of my brothers practices it daily and swears by it.
TCM has a proven track record in terms of health benefits, but yes, the terminology is quite different than what we are used to hearing, but this is mainly semantics and terminology that many are just not used to. I liken some of those terms to our use of the words inflammation, edema, oxidation, erythema, fever and swelling.
Is his approach agreeable with everyone? Probably not, but it clearly will have some benefit for those who make the effort to try it out.
So at this point, I am hoping that the members continue to report their results with Howard's method. So far those results are positive, but limited!
We are talking past each other. You are defending things I am not challenging.
I have not said or insinuated and do not believe he is a con man out to make a buck.
When you reaffirm the benefits of Qigong, meditation, and his exercises, you're defending therapies I've gone out of my way to say I believe are beneficial.
Perhaps, you read too much into my questioning whether or not Qigong can be aimed at liver wind or kidneys. I don't know. I was just asking.
Perhaps you misconstrued my comment, "I also get annoyed by protocols that rely on minutia being important. "... rotate hands six times in one direction and then six times in the other direction." Do we think 6 times is better than 5 times or 7 times?"
That that level of specificity annoys me is not the same as saying it's not beneficial.
So, to be clear, I believe PWP would benefit, some substantially, from following his recommendations.
What I question are his theories as to why.
What we have here is someone who's stumbled into some good recommendations born mostly out of superstitions -- and worse. Some of his theories as to why are stone, cold crazy.
"Here is what I did to slow down my Adrenaline and open up my Dopamine. I would pray/meditate like this: “Hello Adrenaline. Thank you for all of the years you have run my body. Without you in charge, I would not have survived. However, all of life’s stresses that required you do be in charge are gone, and you can take a break and you do not need to run my whole body anymore. Hello Dopamine. It has been a long time. Thank you for all of those years you stayed closed and allowed Adrenaline to run my body. I appreciate that you understood it was for survival. Now that those stresses are gone, I need you to flow again. The thing is, I do not know how much Adrenaline needs to shut down and how much Dopamine needs to flow to achieve the correct mix. The two of you need to figure this out with God, and I am going to meditate on something else so I do not get in the way.”
Read his stuff and separate his recommendations from the theory that led to them and see if you don't agree with me.
Sarah King is a PD physical therapist who bases her exercise recommendations on science. Lucky coincidence for Mr. shifke, they are essentially the same.
PS. Actually, his childlike explanations of how the body works don't interest me nearly as much as the question you also wondered about, i.e., was he correctly diagnosed?
As you know, I'm always on the lookout for someone claims that through nondrug regime is symptom-free, but his level of symptom-free caught my attention.
When I envision a PWP who is symptom-free because upon diagnosis they pulled out all the stops on nutrition, exercise, and lifestyle, I envision someone who, to the trained eye still has minimal telltale signs. He has none.
I've watched each of the 5 videos a few times and I can't find the smallest hint of PD -- not in his facial expressions, his facial wrinkling, his posture, his body language, any body motions, nothing, zip, nada.
Does anyone know what he offers to support his diagnosis?
It seems not an unreasonable possibility that he believes he has PD but was misdiagnosed and whatever he had, his health regime vanquished.
Hello scalp. We've been friends a long time. I've tried to take good care of you. We looked in the mirror at each other many times (a day.) You know I've always had a fond spot for you. I know you think male pattern baldness comes with the territory, but how about we rethink that? How about if all you little follicles get together and just try harder. Push. Push. I would, after all, like to look like Brad Pitt.
Let's start a pool guessing how many days it'll take.
An absolutely possible explanation for his excellent condition! I'm not sure it is possible for us to deny or confirm that possibility though. at the same time, I am trying to understand what he might be gaining out of this because he has put quite a bit of effort into his videos alone.
Yes, I would say there is some miscommunication going on here between us. I think we are looking at Howard from two different points of view and you have looked beyond the simple exercises and tips, which is where I currently am as I wait for further forum member responses. I am definitely not trying to argue with you and I am very sorry if I am coming across that way as it is far from my intent. If that is the case, I apologize to you. 😔
I understand that in his "other material" he has a convoluted way of describing things and in some cases his descriptions or understandings are just plain wrong. PB said his description of a qigong method was wrong and that goes right along with what you are saying. In a sense, I am willing to look beyond / overlook these shortcomings if the end results are positive. Does it call into question his descriptive accuracy and understandings of these health principles such as meditation and qigong, yes it definitely does, but I am willing to overlook such if the end result is good for PWPs.
Perhaps I am looking at Howard too superficially, but I am not looking so much at Howard's beliefs and improper understandings of other health disciplines, as I am at his results.
All I can say, Marc is that I am laughing for the last five minutes! I will speak to my dopamine tonight
EDIT: I was surprised to see that Norman Doidge (author of the brain that heals itself) and other brain plasticity “gurus” point to various success stories of healing through “talking “ or “communicating” with the brain. So maybe there is something to it.
However, what gets me on the floor laughing is the childlike way in which Howard does it.
"Within a couple of weeks, my symptoms started melting away. I could feel Dopamine coming out of my brain like a fountain spraying. Near the end, I added the following one night before going to bed: ”Dear God, I surrender my ego to you. I surrender my attachment to my Parkinson’s Disease to you. I am not afraid anymore. I no longer fear Parkinson’s. I no longer fear the scorn I may face by being cured from a disease the experts say there is no cure. I no longer fear the people who may say I was misdiagnosed or that I faked having the disease. I am surrendering my ego to you, that part of me that felt I needed to remain attached to Parkinson’s because the experts say once you have Parkinson’s you always have Parkinson’s. I am forgetting about my old self (Parkinson’s) and stepping into my new self (No Parkinson’s).” I awoke the following morning with my remaining symptoms gone."
Give me a break is right! I can't believe people take these things at face value without questioning. I could claim anything and I would get a following and people who believe exactly what I wrote.
Does this chronology sound like Parkinsons to you? In 2 months he went from being well to full blown PD!!! In six months he went from shuffling gate, inability to get out of a chair, frozen face etc to symptom free, cured!!!! If you accept that then I think I will see flying pigs before too long. This is not to say his exercises arent good I just didnt watch them. And some it appears are for essential (action) tremor not PD resting tremor.
From his web site......
Brief Chronology:
September 21, 2009, Howard’s internal tremors began.
November 5, 2009, Parkinson’s diagnosis by neurologist.
Parkinson’s symptoms Howard fought included: Internal tremors; Extremely poor balance; Bradykinesia (walking — hunched forward, shuffled feet, arms did not swing); Rigidity (arms, legs and upper back were tight and extremely painful); Constipation; Inability to stand up straight; Inability to get out of a chair without using arms; Inability to go up and down stairs without holding railing and using arms to pull self up; Inability to get a utensil to his mouth when trying to eat; Falling asleep in middle of the day sitting at the computer; Frozen face; Inability to write; Inability to type with two hands; Constantly worn out and tired.
June 12, 2010, Howard became symptom free.
August 5, 2010, Parkinson’s neurologist could not detect a single Parkinson’s symptom.
December 22, 2011, Parkinson’s neurologist states Howard does not have Parkinson’s anymore.
Today, Howard remains symptom free, Parkinson’s free.
Howard did not go to a MDS. He went to a Neurologist who even had the gumption to write in his chart that Howard is not showing anymore signs of Parkinson’s.
As far as I know, wrongly diagnosed as well as supposedly “cured” patients are all lumped together in the wrongly diagnosed category. The medical wording is: “our initial differential diagnosis was inaccurate”
I think that Howard was misdiagnosed. This is based on watching all of his videos and reading everything that he has explained in his YouTube notes. You have to read that. There’s tons of videos from him and many videos from others that interpret and evangelize his book.
I try not to pass judgment until I have done my best to do a decent job of going through what someone has to say.
• in reply to
I think that Howard was misdiagnosed. This is based on watching all of his videos and reading everything that he has explained in his YouTube notes. You have to read that. There’s tons of videos from him and many videos from others that interpret and evangelize his book.
I try not to pass judgment until I have done my best to do a decent job of going through what someone has to say.
All I can say is “Good for him”. I hope that we will all be so lucky one day. However, you know what? I have made peace with my fate. After all, we are all on the same journey to an end that we have no idea about. Does it matter if one is cured or not? As long as you can live a good life and pass away in peace, I think you are going to be okay.
The concern we should all have with Howard, and everybody like, him is that when they claim they have cured themselves, there will be PWP who, in their desperation, will embrace what he does hoping they, too, will be cured.
Have you ever noticed, the people who claim to have found a cure, the cure is always something exotic.
He seems genuine in his desire to help PWP. Why do people do that? Because they have delusions of grandeur. They hold themselves out as 'the exalted one' because they have done something none of the rest of us can do.
The placebo effect has run amok among his (sincere) believers. (Many of his book reviews are phony.)
Anyone who might be disappointed by this and anyone else for that matter should go to YouTube and putting Sarah King. She has a lot of excellent videos on exercises for people in every stage of progression.
just read the book. Howard watched his mother die from Parkinson's over 24 years. Parkinson's was a bad word in the family and nobody ever mentioned it. Every time he saw his mother she was worse and was in town for a medication adjustment. Eventually she died of of dementia and Alzheimer's. Two and half years after her death he was already suffering from slowness of movement Shetland constipation rigidity and denieal and at that age of 48, the he age his mother wa diagnosed with parkinson, he began to experience a full- body inside tremor. This was not noticeable to anybody else. That was the point at which he decided he had Parkinson's and decided to turn to 2 Chinese medicine because he did not want to follow his mother's example of relying on Western medicine that is true so disastrous for her
I am sure that Howàrd had all the right symptoms when he saw the neurologist ,but my own experience with hysterical paralysis at age 13 and the suddenness of his cure makes me wonder about his parkinsons.
That being said everything he recommends can only do good.His website gives the complete recipe at no cost and any account which encourages people exercise and clean up their diet can only be pgood
I agree, as I've said several times, many of the exercises he recommends would be beneficial because all exercise is beneficial. chartist did a good deed by publishing his exercises. His being a fraud and a screwball doesn't take away from the value of recommending exercises
It's clear to me he never had Parkinson's. You can tell that by looking at him.
Take a step back; he's claiming he has found a way for all the rest of us to cure ourselves of Parkinson's by moving our body into certain positions in certain ways and by believing certain (mystical) things.
Any person who claims to have found a cure for Parkinson's is doing a huge disservice to PWP.
I'd be angry at him if I didn't believe his elevator doesn't go all the way to the top.
Marc, it is inevitable that sooner or later there will be a cure for Parkinson's, maybe it will not be anything like what we believe, but something totally new and how will we feel about it? Finding a cure for PD is the primary purpose of each of us Pwps and every single post written here. But how will we feel if that care were not accessible to us? I believe a little betrayed and a little failed with the consequent reaction to this state of mind that I leave you to imagine. I often see this here on HU, whenever an idea with a positive result immediately starts the criticism from those who feel excluded. Human reactions !😔
You can also see it on the last post on Nilotinib, it was immediately slightly criticized for the cost which is a reasonable objection.
Solution: Let's concentrate on the purpose of finding a cure, then we will also solve the rest so as not to leave anyone behind. But first you need to find the cure and show that it works. I think.
On the merits of this gentleman you're probably right: even in my opinion he doesn't have the illness, but he has something useful to say with these exercises and I appreciate the effort and intention to help which is the thing I always value before entering the on the merits of the matter.
In one post Howard speaks of Yin Tui Na ( Forceless Spontaneous Release), same as recommended by Janice Hadlock. I believe it is the only common element in both protocols other than no PD medicines allowed in both protocols
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