I think this stress response reasoning is spot on.

[gomelgo]

garysharpe.substack.com/p/c... Thoughts?

[stocktiki]

I feel like I'm stuck in fight, flight freeze. Seems so obvious, but my doctors won't listen.

[gomelgo in reply to stocktiki]

They are trained to diagnose and treat symptoms, aka make money... sadly

[TracyLaine]

Gary’s work is interesting! Some of what he writes about is echoed in Dr. Janice Hadlock’s writings. Some people have written her off as a kook, but if you don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater, I think you’ll see she has some valuable insights.

[gomelgo]

Exactly Tracy! I have to say I had some email convos with her, and eventually realized she is justifiably resentful, and difficult to learn from. But I wholeheartedly see and believe most of her findings. She just has a way of delivering them that is hard to receive sadly. Gary agrees with her, but has a delivery that is interactive and easy to take in. Their biggest disagreement I think is about the meds. My personal opinion is that the meds do some damage, and it is not obvious that it's justified by the benefit. Plus, big pharma's motives are easy to doubt.

[TracyLaine in reply to gomelgo]

I discovered Gary a few years ago when I first started having symptoms. I like how he and Howard Shifke think outside the box!

It’s interesting that you emailed Dr Hadlock. I’ve thought about it myself! For the most part, what she writes really resonates with me although some of her factual mistakes make me question a bit the reliability of her research (i.e., she totally got John Paul II’s family history wrong!). My gut tells me that she’s onto something with the medication though. So I’m glad I have not started any. But the thing I’m having the most trouble with is trying to figure out what type of PD/pause I have. I have some of the Parkinson’s personality traits that accompany type one, but that’s about it. I fully surrendered to God decades ago, and have a personal and loving relationship with Him. But I am hesitant, to do the yin tui na therapy for fear that it would put me into that dreadful partial recovery. Have you ever put into practice any of her therapy suggestions?

[gomelgo in reply to TracyLaine]

I tried, but so much of what she said was so confusing that I kind of gave up. Especially after some of her email responses were kind of hostile. I do think she is onto something, and I do agree about the meds. However, I don't actually thing the type of pause matters. I think what's important is that there is a sort of pause, and that trusting a higher power might take some time, but could get us out of stuck mode. I think everyone has their own method that will heal their own body. I'm a big fan of the belief that what we each truly believe will cure us ... ultimately will. No matter how outlandish. Clarissa Pincola Estes in her book The Joyous Body talks about this. She tells a story of an elderly lady with a severe infection and high fever for weeks. The lady kept screaming that she needed to go outside. In the middle of winter, everyone at the hospital thought she was just delirious. But Clariss who was a nurse there, took her outside one night when no one was around. And guess what? The lady got well against all odds. That story inspires me onward.

[TracyLaine in reply to gomelgo]

yeah, I think she’s right about the medication and right about the pause. And, of course, bringing God into your life is only going to help! And I hope you’re right about the type of pause not mattering. Because that partial recovery thing scares me a bit! I understand what you’re saying about believing that something can heal you. I was just listening to the Andrew Huberman podcast that was posted here a couple of days ago about placebo, nocebo and belief, and how those impact the brain/body! Really interesting stuff. I have also done some research into grounding/Earthing and that seems to be really effective for different ailments. I’ve been using a grounding mat, don’t notice any difference, but it can’t hurt!

[gomelgo in reply to TracyLaine]

I used one of those for a while. Didn't seem to do much sadly. But I guess it can't hurt beyond taking up yet more space in the PD Rx box. I think the partial recovery is basically people losing faith. I don't believe in a "he god", but I have pretty solid faith that there is way more to existence than this body. And now I have been getting into IFS- internal family systems, which helps you communicate with parts of your self with empathy and it seems to be helping me cope some. Next up, microdosing...

[TracyLaine in reply to gomelgo]

Have you tried B1? I’m trialing that trying to hopefully find my sweet spot now.

I have experienced a personal God so I know He exists; not just exists but love me/us!

I have a physical therapist that does a lot of outside the box stuff. I may ask him to give some of Janet’s methods a try.

[gomelgo in reply to TracyLaine]

Did try B1, and probably should attempt it again. But I don't believe it does much for tremor and tension. Maybe I'm wrong. I also had my Feldenkrais PT try some of the holding techniques after she read the tui na book. I think I will ask her to try again.

[Likii]

One of a gazillion general hand-waving health ideas not particularly relevant to Parkinson's.