Parkinson’s #24
Today I finished a three day marathon, plowing through Dr. Hadlock’s book Recovery from Parkinson’s (downloadable for free at https://pdrecovery.org/recovery-from-parkinsons/ ). It is close to 400 pages of profound knowledge. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in finding out what the possible causes for Parkinson’s (PD) are and what ways we can choose to recover or find healing.
About the author (Copied from the last page of her book, p. 399)
“Dr. Janice Hadlock, DAOM (Doctor of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine), LAc (Licensed Acupuncturist), is the founder of the non-profit (NGO) Parkinson’s Recovery Project. She has led the research aspect of that project since 1998.
She is a professor at the Santa Cruz acupuncture college, Five Branches, since 1997. She teaches channel theory and psychology/counseling. Her findings on Parkinson’s disease and asthma have been published in top-level, peer- reviewed journals including the Journal of Chinese Medicine, The American Journal of Acupuncture, and the New England Journal of Medicine.
She lives in Santa Cruz, California.
I can’t offer a review of this book that would do it justice. I can only strongly recommend everybody to read the whole book. It builds up gradually, giving an overview in the beginning that might give the reader the idea that “yeah, I get it” as it did to me. After a few chapters, I was just about going to share my first impressions in this blog, being all excited. That would have been a disaster. Chapter by chapter, more information is added that made me change my hasty conclusions time and again. So, buckle up and read the whole book! I will now make my post, without yet reading the other books (also free for downloading at the same website) which will give me more specifics to work towards my recovery.
Spoiler alert! This doctor of acupuncture tells us that acupuncture is neither needed nor recommended to treat PD.
Those who followed my previous posts remember that I experienced a remarkable recovery. I described what I did, why I did it and how it worked. Now I know that I made some cardinal mistakes and I will have to regroup to untangle some of the mess this caused.
What I learned first of all is that there are four types of PD. I have the combination of type 1&2. Type 1 requires mental work to restore proper flow of channel qi. Only then should one proceed to ‘hands on’ treatment to tackle type 2. By going for acupuncture treatment as soon as I realized that I had PD this may have put at least a twig in the spokes for an ideal way to recovery. So why did it work anyway? My conclusion is that similar to taking dopamine replacers or enhancers, the intervention showed results. Unfortunately, people who take the allopathic path (either by choice or because they let themselves be led by the nose by their GP or neurologist) will initially enjoy a reduction of symptoms. However, what I did right was the visualization of dopamine flow from my head to my toes. So I did the right thing for a not so solid reason. I helped this visualization along with the choice of music and activities like rowing and cycling.
This fits the mental work needed to visualize (and learn to feel) the flow of the stomach (meridian) channel qi to go down from my head to my toes. Experience in music therapy, reiki and using intuition may be credited along with good luck. Readers of the preceding posts may have noticed that I gradually diminished my obsession with dopamine over time. I also posted links to some YouTube channels pointing out the functional difference between dopamine and serotonin and the possibility of dopamine addiction.
Reading through the book, I could observe in hindsight that I have been oscillating between correct and reverse flow of channel qi for the past three years. I also realize that the conditions that eventually manifested in unmistakable PD symptoms were laid at the latest by reaching the age of seven. That is the tough part to work out of my system compared to the three years of twigs in my spokes.
Mind over matter was an important part in our upbringing as was mind over feelings. I was proud of this virtue, but in a nutshell, this is what reverses the flow of channel qi. It is also important how we are programmed linguistically (neuro linguistic programming or NLP). The cultural influence on NLP can add insult to injury when growing up in a Swiss/Dutch household. In both languages it is difficult to directly say “I love you”. At least in Dutch the word love is in the saying “I have you dear” (ik heb je lief), in Swiss-German, the word for love is more evasive (I ha di gärn). Adding to this is the circumstance that the Swiss hated the Germans, who can say “I love you” without any extra words. In my upbringing, popular “Schlagers” were despised, so singing “I love you” as was intrinsic to Schlager singers, was a double whammy of no go. (I will have to see how my Dutch cousins and friends feel about this.) Nowadays, Swiss-German is more tolerant of imported German (and English) words.
My parents, with all their shortcomings, were caring and loving. But until I met my Canadian wife, I never heard anyone ever say to me “I love you”. This is what hit me, when finally on page 354 I read the following:
“Many people with Parkinson’s also pride themselves on their ability to show love for others through their hard work and/or strong moral compass.
However, many people with Parkinson’s often are unable to feel the resonance between their own hearts and their own bodies, or between their own hearts and the love that others are directing towards them.”
At this point I realized that I can not recommend just reading parts of the book. Every part on its own has valuable information. But when it comes to healing, one needs to get the whole picture in order to not just treat symptoms. Now it is time to include my mind (and soul) into my matter, as I begin a new and somewhat unknown stretch of my journey.
Reflections 