By Fluent Knowledge LLC
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The podcast currently has 25 episodes available.
“I haven’t had any medical people tell me that I shouldn’t go all out,” says our protagonist in this episode, Nordic John. He’s 80 years young but still competing internationally in cross-country skiing despite the onset of Parkinson’s disease a decade ago. “That is really effective when you push yourself to the limit.”
Our expert guest, Dr. Jerry Vitek, Head of Neurology at the University of Minnesota Medical School, confirms John’s experience. “Exercise is one of the best things we can do and recommend to our patients.”
Nordic John’s wife, Gina, attests that John is no stranger to the vigorous challenge of cross country skiing. John directed the Nordic Skiing Program at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center in Vermont for decades. And both attended the 2023 Master’s World Cup of Skiing in Austria.
“I just need to get him to the start line because then when the gun goes off he just knows what to do,” she explains.
That means Nordic John’s muscle memory for skiing remains intact despite the onset of other symptoms, such as tremors and loss of balance.
“There's no question that when you start to become proficient at something, you've clearly changed those connections and strengthened them,” confirms Dr. Vitek.
We’ll also hear from Coach Ollie, who has taken over John’s former position at the Craftsbury Center yet now directs John at his Master’s practices. And we’ll learn about the important role played by the actor Michael J. Fox and his foundation in raising $1 billion for Parkinson’s research so far.
How do John and Gina fare in disappointing snow conditions at the Master’s World Cup? What important research is on the horizon for the many millions of Parkinson’s patients worldwide?
Tune in to learn more on this final My Body Odyssey episode of Season Two, Nordic John on the Parkinson’s Trail.
My Body Odyssey is a Fluent Knowledge production. Original music by Ryan Adair Rooney.
SHOW NOTES
Experts:
Jerrold Vitek, MD, PhD
Studies:
Deep Brain Stimulation for Parkinson Disease: An Expert Consensus and Review of Key Issues
Forced, Not Voluntary, Exercise Improves Motor Function in Parkinson's Disease Patients
Resources
The benefits of open water swimming are widely felt and observed but not yet fully documented by the scientific community, as they combine the effects of immersion in nature, cold water and strenuous exercise all at one time.
“It actually does change your pulse and it changes our physiology as humans,” says our protagonist, Atlantic Annie. “And it's apparently activating the parasympathetic nervous system, which I have come to understand over the last 10 years, is our relaxation response, activated when we sleep, when we're with our favorite pet, with a lover. And I was getting that by swimming.”
For Annie these benefits are particularly important because of childhood trauma which surfaced as full-blown PTSD some years later as an adult. She has since been successfully treating this chronic anxiety for two decades now, adding in open water swimming over the past ten years.
“I love the way I feel after, and I love the experience itself," Annie tells us after a swim at her favorite spot along the Southern New England shore. “And I haven't found many sports where I feel such a sense of calm.”
Annie is far from alone in feeling these benefits, according to our expert this episode, Dr. Heather Massey, a lecturer in Physiology at the University of Portsmouth (UK) and an avid open water swimmer.
“People have sent me their Garmin watch information about their resting heart rates,” Dr. Massey says, “and told me when their periods of regular outdoor swimming have been compared to when they haven't swam outdoors.”
Dr. Massey theorizes this calming effect has to do with a well documented phenomenon known as the Mammalian Diving Reflex. “Cold water swimming is what we call a perturbation, and it totally disrupts the status quo within the body,” she explains. “It's putting the body in a position where it needs to react to the stimulus of cold water.”
Open water swimming has serious risks and should not be undertaken alone or without prior medical consultation. But swimming safely against a small amount of potential risk may paradoxically have a calming effect on open water swimmers like Atlantic Annie and others with anxiety issues.
Tune in to find out more about the calm within the storm of open water swimming this episode, “PTSD & Open Water Swimming.”
My Body Odyssey is a Fluent Knowledge production.
Original music by Ryan Adair Rooney.
Expert:
Dr. Heather Massey
Show Notes:
Completing the 200-mile Pan Mass Challenge (PMC) bike ride every year for two decades would be an accomplishment for anyone; but it’s particularly remarkable in the case of Cycling Sue, who has ridden 10 of those 20 years with metastatic breast cancer.
“I've had many friends who I've met through this journey,” Sue tells us in this third episode of a series on cycling and cancer. “And they aren't here. But I also know that they would say, ‘What are you crazy? Just keep pedaling!’”
Sue entered into breast cancer treatment largely alone back in 2003 with her initial diagnosis. But she’s since found a community of caregivers and patients through the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and the PMC ride benefitting research there. In this episode (a first for My Body Odyssey), we speak with three of Sue’s actual caregivers from Dana Farber, past and current, about the challenge of metastatic breast cancer, the benefits of exercise for cancer patients, and the motivational power of the PMC event.
“She was all in, you know, welcoming me to Dana Farber like an ambassador,” recalls Jenn McKenna, Sue’s Nurse Practitioner (NP), of their first meeting over a decade ago. “I just really liked her right away.”
We’ll also hear from Sue’s current oncologist, Dr. Rachel Freedman of Dana Farber, as well as her former oncologist, Dr. Eric Winer, now President of the Smilow Cancer Center at Yale Medical. Through their insights, we get a deeper understanding of this chronic disease and the importance of a positive attitude like Sue’s during the demanding rounds of treatment.
“She doesn't spend… anytime feeling sorry for herself. None of that,” says NP Jenn McKenna of her patient and sometimes-Peloton-partner, Sue. “She just keeps living her life, doing all the things that make her happy in a way that we all should.”
Some high quality inspiration on this episode with Cycling Sue. And amidst a lot of perspiration, too. In addition to completing the 200-mile ride this year, Sue has again claimed an additional title: The Sweatiest Person at the PMC Award.
“You can't see it on the podcast, but I keep my wristband on for a few days and it's all gross and worn away,” she says in a boastful moment. “So I've crowned myself as The Sweatiest Person again.”
Special thanks to Producer Debbie Blicher for her reporting on this episode. And huge thanks to our expert guests as well; see more of their information in our show notes.
My Body Odyssey is a Fluent Knowledge production.
Original music by Ryan Adair Rooney.
Experts:
Rachel A. Freedman, MD, MPH
Eric Winer, MD
Breast Oncology Program Treatment Team at Dana Farber
Sources:
In this season two episode, Generational Gene details the serious risk of colon cancer and his two pronged approach of cycling and weight loss against three related medical issues– obesity, diabetes, and cancer, all of which run in his family.
This builds upon our season one episode where Gene described his choice of cycling to help manage blood sugar and hold off diabetes. “Some days it feels like your pedal to save your life,” Gene told us, “and in a lot of ways, you really are.”
Now a high school superintendent, Gene is also a former biology teacher. “One of the things I’ve learned in the last couple years,” he tells us after a short training ride, “is that cellulose and fat tissue is biologically active.”
That point is echoed by our medical expert this episode, Dr. Chika Anekwe of Mass General Brigham and Harvard Medical School, who adds that “the signals that fat cells send out can be carcinogenic, or cancer-causing.”
On the dietary/weight-loss front, Gene proudly recounts a story from some years ago where he lost 42 pounds in three months through crash dieting, winning a bet from a close friend. Soon after, though, he reverted to his original weight– like so many other dieters have experienced after initial weight loss.
“And that has a lot to do with this concept of the set point,” Dr. Anekwe explains, “No matter what you do to lose that weight, to bring it down, it always wants to go back to that set point.”
Challenges abound for Generational Gene on the exercise road, too. Gene participates in the annual Pan Mass Challenge, a 200-mile bike ride across Massachusetts benefiting cancer research at the Dana Farber Institute. But a training accident in the spring kept him off the bike with a hamstring injury for several important weeks.
“I just lost control of the bike and then just went down on the road,” he recalls. “And then I saw that the pedal was in the road. And I was like, man, the pedal snapped.”
Will Gene have the stamina for the 100-mile Saturday leg of the PMC? Will his new bike pedals support the effort? And how about that long term, often uphill challenge of losing weight for diabetes and cancer prevention?
Tune in for chapter two of Generational Gene’s body odyssey, as he pushes back against a family history of diabetes and cancer. With expert commentary from Obesity & Preventive Medicine Physician, Dr. Chika Anekwe of MassGeneralBrigham and Harvard Medical School.
My Body Odyssey is a Fluent Knowledge production.
Original music by Ryan Adair Rooney.
Show Notes:
Experts:
Name: Dr. Chika Anekwe
Resources:
My Body Odyssey rode along the 20th Annual Maine Lighthouse Ride this year, interviewing 4 protagonists who faced steep uphill challenges to even get to the starting line of this scenic ride.
Rebecca, a yoga teacher in her early sixties, has missed the event the past few years- first, due to a recurrence of endometrial cancer, then COVID, and then work obligations. She counts three challenges in completing this year’s one hundred mile route.
“One is torn ligaments in my knee,” she told us, “ and one is that almost exactly two years ago today, I had my last chemotherapy treatment. And in the mix, I manage the energy of depression.”
Profiled in a previous episode, Larry is a Stage IV prostate cancer survivor taking on the 40-mile distance despite finishing chemotherapy three months ago and sustaining a training ride fall two days before the event.
“I was just gonna have a small ride and I fell off my bike onto a set of railroad tracks,” Larry explains. “The doctor said… I'll give you a 20, 30% chance of riding. So I may not do the full 40 miles.”
Also taking on the 40-mile ride is New Hampshire resident Jim, an engineering PhD who became partially paralyzed from a mountain biking accident twelve years ago. Nevertheless, getting back onto a bike -or a more stable three wheeled trike- became one of the major goals of his long rehab process.
“I have to concentrate really hard when I ride,” says Jim, who propels the substantial weight of his “trike” with only good leg. “So it's also done a lot for my focus.”
Eric, a Portland resident in his early thirties, had a serious hiking accident one year ago that required surgical attachment of a quad muscle as well as a rotator cuff repair. That put him in a downward spiral, both financially and behaviorally. Yet, he’s taking on the 62-mile ride today after gradually escalating his training mileage the past few months.
“I think it all saved me when I found the right athletic trainer that was able to work on my injuries,” he recounts. “She encouraged me to get help on my mental health issues I was battling... And then over a few months, I started getting more confident.”
Over 800 riders at this year’s Maine Lighthouse Ride, which benefits completion of the Eastern Trail, a 65-mile dedicated bike path from Kittery to Portland Maine for recreation and commuting. That’s a lot of mileage and a lot of stories. Tune in to find out if these four MBO protagonists– Rebecca, Larry, Jim and Eric– complete their ride distances. What rewards will they reap from the 20th Annual Maine Lighthouse Ride?
My Body Odyssey is a Fluent Knowledge production.
Original music by Ryan Adair Rooney.
Show notes:
My Body Odyssey rode along with Larry Langmore on the 40 mile option of the 20th Annual Maine Lighthouse Ride this year, a benefit for the Eastern Trail Association that attracts 800 riders from near and far.
40 miles is a good long ride for anyone. But it’s both particularly challenging and potentially rewarding for a prostate cancer survivor three months out from chemotherapy.
“I was diagnosed with stage four prostate cancer in March,” Larry told us. “And so I've had four treatments of chemotherapy… But during that period, I was able to ride a hundred miles a month.”
That gave Larry the confidence to take on these 40 miles and, with daughter Katie, raise money for the non-profit ZERO Prostate Cancer in the process. Then a fall on a training ride two days prior to the ride put these goals into question.
“So my side is a little bit sore right now,” confesses Larry before the event. “The doctor said I'll give you a 20, 30% chance of riding. So I may not do the full 40 miles.”
Once out on the road, the bumps seem bumpier and the hills steeper than usual for Larry. Was that more than just a minor fall during his training ride?
Tune in to find out more about the Maine Lighthouse Ride, The Eastern Trail, and whether or not protagonist, Larry, completes his 40 mile cycling odyssey with both cancer and injury.
With expert commentary from exercise oncologist, Dr. Kathryn Schmitz, University of Pittsburgh, and cycling recordings by Kevin A. Kline, Sr. Audio Engineer.
My Body Odyssey is a Fluent Knowledge production.
Original music by Ryan Adair Rooney.
Experts:
Kathryn H. Schmitz, PhD, MPH
Resources:
My Body Odyssey attended the 51st Falmouth Road Race- the local, 7-mile pub crawl that quickly evolved into a major, international event with 75,000 spectators and ten thousand runners annually. Our episode features three participants at this year event, including the only runner to have completed all 51 Falmouth Road Races: Dr. Brian Salzberg.
“I've had just a slew of injuries,” said Dr. Salzberg, a professor of Neuroscience and Physiology at UPenn Medical School. “And they always happen away from Falmouth. So it never stopped me from running the Falmouth Road Races.”
Actually, what may not have stopped Dr. Salzberg is his own tenacity. He’s finished the event with a brain tumor and on torn ligaments. “I did the 7 mile course on crutches in 2008,” he jokes. “ And, as far as I know, I still have the crutch record.”
Born with Spina Bifida, fourteen-year-old wheelchair racer Madelyn Wilson displays a tenacity quite similar to that of Dr. Salzberg, whose race record she could eventually threaten. “Oh, this is my favorite race of the year,” she told us at the Health & Wellness Expo. “I'm always energetic and waiting to do this. Like, hurry up, let's go.”
Are dedicated, highly enthused runners and racers like Dr. Salzburg and Madylen born to train and compete at events like the Falmouth Road Race? Or do the benefits of training and competing motivate individuals to just keep at it until it becomes second nature?
Carol Crutchfield, a charity runner at this year’s race, firmly believes that nurture, not nature, creates lifelong runners.
“The main thing is, your mind's your worst enemy,” says Carol, author of a book for the beginning runner, And They Shall Run. “So you gotta make yourself get out the door, and that's the hardest thing.”
These inspiring odysseys may help you get out the door more often to run, cycle, walk, or whatever form of activity you choose. And they may motivate you to visit this now famous road race along the iconic Cape Cod shoreline looking out towards Martha’s Vineyard. Tune in for inspiration amidst perspiration at the 51st Falmouth Road Race.
My Body Odyssey is a Fluent Knowledge production.
Original music by Ryan Adair Rooney.
As a former competitive weightlifter, strength coach, and now Chair of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine at Vanderbilt Medical School, Dr. D.J. Kennedy specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of back issues that nearly all of us experience- including chronic back pain.
“The numbers are 80 to 90% of people have low back pain at some point in their life,” says Dr. Kennedy in the bonus episode, “which tells me 10 to 20% of people have a bad memory.”
Why is back pain so prevalent and persistent? Dr. Kennedy points to the complexity of spinal anatomy as a primary factor. "For the spine, we have L4-L5, L5- S1, “ says Kennedy, himself a back pain sufferer. “We have discs, we have facets, we have all kinds of things that can cause problems.”
Formerly a Stanford Medical School Professor, Dr. Kennedy emphasizes both the variety of back issues patients can experience, and the necessity of prescribing a wide array of treatments to address these issues. While at Stanford, Dr. Kennedy trained in the Gokhale Method featured in our previous episode. He then began recommending it to patients, many of whom saw positive results.
Are you a frequent back pain sufferer? Do you find yourself feeling back stiffness you thought might never happen to you? Tune in to learn from a spine expert who values posture-based therapies encompassing our complete movement chain- from foot angle to neck alignment. And please share this episode with others who may benefit.
My Body Odyssey is a Fluent Knowledge production.
Original music by Ryan Adair Rooney.
Our Expert Guest:
Dr. DJ Kennedy
Vanderbilt Faculty Page
Resources:
Publications:
Three decades ago, Esther Gokhale created the Gokhale Method to apply primal posture to modern pain. Gokhale emphasized small improvements in everyday movements to prevent and heal back pain and musculoskeletal damage. Now, more than 20,000 people have learned to walk, sit, bend and sleep more efficiently by adopting Gokhale’s primal posture approach.
Dr. D.J. Kennedy, professor and chair of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, told us how he sees the Gokhale method work for his patients in this episode. “I think she paints a picture that makes a lot of sense intuitively. And she's also going about trying to get the data to prove it,” said Kennedy. The Gokhale method is about to be tested in a randomized clinical trial at Stanford University.
In this MBO episode, we learn how Esther Gokhale developed the method in part due to her own suffering.
Pregnant with her second child, Gokhale was experiencing severe back pain even after a corrective surgery. Gokhale tried physical therapy, chiropractic, acupuncture, massage, yoga, stretching, strengthening, and “checking her head.”
Nothing helped. Thanks to an upbringing in India studying classical dance and observing the posture of local laborers, Gokhale knew that “something was wrong with this picture.”
In the quest for relief, Gokhale built on those childhood observations and her own scientific background to create a new theory of movement based on traditional practices. Soon after, she published Eight Steps to Pain Free Back, which has sold over 300,000 copies.
Today, the Gokhale Method may be poised for even wider acceptance. In addition to online courses and a nationwide network of teachers, the Method now offers a Posture Tracker app to help students reinforce better posture. Meanwhile, Stanford University researchers are embarking on a long-term study of the system’s efficacy in healing and preventing back pain and other musculoskeletal issues.
Listen and follow Gokhale’s journey from patient to inventor, teacher and modern day entrepreneur of the primal posture method.
My Body Odyssey is a Fluent Knowledge production.
Original music by Ryan Adair Rooney.
Show Notes:
Our Expert Guests:
Esther Gokhale
Dr. DJ Kennedy
Gokhale's primal posture methods:
Other approaches to pain:
You deeply love your sport and the community of those who play it. But your body, through pain and injury, is telling you it’s time to move on.
At some point in our adult years, we all deal with this transition. And in this episode, our protagonist, Mark, still in his early thirties, talks about his own transition from high level Ultimate Frisbee player (aka Ultimate Mark) to lower risk recreational soccer goalie (aka post-Ultimate Mark) accelerated by the spinal fusion he had back in high school.
In our Season 1 episode, Ultimate Mark described the intensity he brought to the game of Ultimate disc. “I kind of just developed this persona as the person who will get hurt multiple times per game,” he told us. But, as Dr. Mohamad Bydon of the Mayo Clinic explains, the threat of adjacent segment disease made Ultimate an increasingly risky proposition for Mark.
Mark needed a change of sport but feared losing the friendship he’d made through Ultimate. “I dare you to find a better community of athletes anywhere in the world than the ultimate frisbee community,” Mark said.
Can Mark move beyond his Ultimate identity? How can he leave the community loves? Dr. Michele Kerulis of Northwestern University describes the deep emotional attachments we all form to the sports we play. While our other expert guest this episode, Esther Gokhale of the Gokhale Method, concurs that Mark’s body will be at much less risk in the soccer goal than on the Ultimate Disc field.
Listen and learn about Post Ultimate Mark’s transition back to soccer — his first sport, which he played as a teen before spinal fusion — and his evolving relationship to the ultimate community, his own body, his athletic identity, and one very “sick” tattoo he wears over that long spinal fusion scar.
My Body Odyssey is a Fluent Knowledge production.
Original music by Ryan Adair Rooney.
Show Notes:
Our Expert Guests:
Mohamad Bydon, MD
Esther Gokhale
Michele Kerulis, EdD
Mark Stoutenberg, PhD
Medicine, Sports, and Neon Bending:Exercise is Medicine
UCSF Health about spinal fusion surgery
Mayo Clinic on spinal fusion
American Ultimate Disk League
Boston Ultimate Disk Invite 2022
NYC Footy Soccer League
Sidelined USA
Neon Bending
The podcast currently has 25 episodes available.
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