Parkinson's disease sufferer rides bike to healthier life

By Richard Halstead
Article Launched: 04/24/2007 06:37:06 PM PDT
http://www.marinij.com/ci_5742551?source=rss

Parkinson's disease cost Jim Wetherell his job and his marriage, but he says cycling on a three-wheel, recliner-style bike has given him back his life.

Despite being diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 1995 at 52, Wetherell takes a minimal amount of medication. His initial symptom, a tremor in his right hand, disappeared after his first 12,000 miles on the bike.

"I call my tricycle my bridge - because it's my bridge between having a life and not having a life. It kept me sane," Wetherell told a group of a dozen Marin residents with Parkinson's disease gathered at The Redwood retirement community in Mill Valley on Tuesday. The Parkinson's support group meets there on the fourth Tuesday of every month.

Wetherell, who lives in Hemet in Riverside County, drove a tour bus for 21 years before his diagnosis. Soon after he lost his job, he also lost his wife.

"The last woman I was married to couldn't handle the Parkinson's so she asked me to leave," Wetherell said. "We got married just before I got diagnosed."

Wetherell, who has experienced mild anxiety all his life, fell into a deep depression. He had no idea what the future held.

Parkinson's disease is a progressive neurological disorder that results from degeneration of neurons in a region of the brain that controls movement. Some Parkinson's sufferers become severely disabled. The wife of one of Wetherell's friends who was diagnosed with the disease at the same time he was died two years later. The disease can also cause depression, personality changes, dementia, sleep disturbances, speech impairments and sexual difficulties.

Because exercise had helped Wetherell with his anxiety in the past, he turned to that as a refuge. He no longer had the balance required for a two-wheel bike.

"So, I tried a tricycle," Wetherell said.

During his first 15 months on the bike, he logged 10,000 miles. Currently, he rides with friends three or four mornings a week - riding anywhere from 20 to 50 miles on each ride. He also participates in bike races throughout California and sometimes travels to rallies in other states. Last year, he rode 385 miles in six days during a race in Iowa.

Marilyn Munyer of Novato, who was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 1998, invited Wetherell to speak to the support group. Munyer said she discovered Wetherell's Web site, www.inevergiveup.org, when she was looking for alternatives to taking medication. Munyer said Wetherell inspired her to buy her own tricycle.

Dr. Ilkcan Cokgor, a San Anselmo neurologist who treats a number of Marin residents with Parkinson's disease, said there is a theory that exercise can delay the onset of dementia in patients with Parkinson's disease. But Cokgor said she is unaware of any studies substantiating the theory.

Still, Cokgor said the theory makes sense to her.

"Exercise always delays the mental, cognitive decline and the deterioration of the muscles," Cokgor said. "If you don't do anything, you're going to atrophy, and you're going to get more balance and cognitive decline."

Although there is no official count of people with Parkinson's disease in Marin, Cokgor estimates there could be 500 people with the classic disease and another 1,000 with similar symptoms.

It is estimated that at least 500,000 people in the United States suffer from Parkinson's disease, and about 50,000 new cases are reported annually. These figures are expected to increase as the average age of the population increases.