Fascinating, Nan! Thank you for sharing your story with me. It sure sounds like the cycling is worth pursuing. Think I'm a candidate for a stationary bike. Hmmm, another thing to campaign for! I just asked my hubby to get me...uh, I can't remember! haha!

It is quite possible that you have a magnesium deficiency. Calcium/magnesium can be added as a nutritional supplement as well as a decent form of potassium - but that depends upon your blood pressure.

I have found that tablets (normally prefer capsules for fewer excipients) work faster. You might take them before exercise or when you feel the cramp coming on - although that means minutes of that horrible pain.

While many people prefer those complete vitamin and/or mineral pills, I prefer to buy the individual supplement or synergistic combos because that provides better quality and form control.

I know this is months late but...

I'd like to add to this thread that, magnesium in the form of OXIDE is not appreciably absorbed from the GI tract. It is used today as a laxative for this reason.

So read your labels and choose another form, either Chloride in long acting form or a chelate like glycinate, lactate, malate, etc.

Here is my magnesium thread:
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread1138.html

On that thread are some suggestions for topical use now.
Some oils are on the market and there is the Kirkman cream that works nicely as well.

This is a different take on cycling and PD. Personally met this chap, he looks amazing, and is doing very well. He tells of people who have difficulty walking but who can do long distance cycling, and is a powerful advocate for exercise, in every way.

http://pedalforparkinsons.co.uk

On another note, while exercise is known to be good for us, and to increase stamina, help with many things PD, and actually I love walking and being active, and especially love gardening, what do you do if fatigue is one of your symptoms. I often have very active days especially in warmer weather but pay a price, a little too much can result in a couple of days that are completely energy free........

A week and a half ago my son and I rode Chilly Hilly, 33 miles of up and down steep hills. This was preceded by a 45 minute wait for the ferry and a half hour ferry ride. I was chilly, then warm, then riding. I just stopped once for about 3 minutes to take off a jacket. At the end I met up with some friends of my son at a restaurant. They had ordered several pitchers of beer and lots of deep fried foods. We sat there for easily two hours until I finally had to stand up and stretch right there in the restaurant and then leave to catch the ferry. We had nearly an hour wait for the ferry, etc. etc. It took nearly a week for me to recover. The biking was fine, waiting and food were not. I had low energy and an upset stomach for the whole week. Lesson learned, remember you have PD and don't go nuts varying your schedule.

I'm back to my hour and a half a day at 80-90 rpm and feeling fine.

I, too, love to garden and find that I can do so for about a half hour, then rest and go at it again. Stop when my body says stop.

You might also read "Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain"
~ John J. Ratey.

nan,
90min at 80rpm? that's amazing. i'm trying to do 3 groups of 20minutes each. the worst part is the boredom but what the heck. been at it for 2 weeks, nothing to report except it gets easier, using a lifecore LC 850 recumbent. definately have to be well medicated otherwise just too stiff to get that speed.

I have a new attack on boredom. I got the series of Alfred Hitchcock movies from Costco. Many movies. Lower the resistance and no trouble keeping up the speed with Hitchcock. I wear a heart rate monitor and get my rate up into zone 4 before timing my workout. I leave myself hanging in the movie so I'll want to do it again the next day. According to Jay's article, you need to do at least 40 minutes without stopping except for pauses of a few seconds. Sorry about that.

Nan,

You have lots of great tips on how to power through. I am glad you re-posted the time requirement and 40 minutes should be no problem for me once I build my stamina back up. I had a baby a year ago and could not exercise during pregnancy, I am having a hard time building my stamina back up. I get on the elliptical and when on meds easily have 85-110 rpms, the problem is after 10 minutes, I feel like need a defibrillator. lol. I am soooo out of shape, for now I focus on making sure I don't keel over from too intense a cardio workout and on getting past the 10 minute mark...each time I try to go a few extra minutes. No time for boredom.

I love the Hitchcock films idea, though I am such a movie fanatic I have seen them all more than once. Just wanted to add that my boredom buster is to practice my French through listening to Podcasts--you can subscribe to podcasts on many different topics. Your favorite or popular series from TV or Cable are great too in keeping yourself going.

Thanks! I think you are inspiring many people to get active...look at that view count.

Laura

Laura, Where are you from in Michigan? I'm going to be there in April and will give talks on the 27th at Bay Ridge senior community, 11 a.m. at East Bay Ridge and 1 p.m. at West Bay Ridge. Also, for those in the Seattle area, Jay Alberts, the Cleveland Clinic neuroscientist who proved the correlation between cycling rpm and reduction of PD symptoms, will be the keynote speaker at the HOPE conference Nov. 6.

I think it's amazing that you can do an elliptical at that rate, even for a short time. If you have access to a bike, the 80-90 rpm for 40-60 minutes should be a piece of cake.

I have a new theory, purely based on my own experience, not tested scientifically. My extreme reduction in symptoms happened when I went over the top while training for RAGBRAI last spring. Rather than 3 times/week at 80-90 rpm for 40 minutes, I rode 4-6 times/week at 80-90 as best I could for anywhere from 1.5-4 hours, slowing for hills and taking a few rests. I was so worried I wouldn't make it across Iowa in RAGBRAI. Knowing there were hills on the ride (22,500' elevation gain in a week), I also rode up and down hills some days instead of doing the long rides. The hill near my house has 200' elevation gain in .8 miles. I told myself I could do it 10 times in a row. The most I achieved was 4, but it was still a great workout. By the end of a month, my PD symptoms were nearly gone. Since RAGBRAI, I have done more of a maintenance routine of the 1.5 hour rides outside or 1 hour on the bike trainer inside and have seen continuous improvement in my mental functions as well as my physical capacities. Lately I'm noting a little cramping in my foot and third finger on my right hand, nothing to whine about.

So I'm wondering if there is a neuron-building threshold that can be reached by extreme cycling and then maintained and enhanced through further cycling exercise. It might be worth trying.

Please, what view count are you referring to?

Hi Nan,

Sorry the view count tells you how many times a post has been looked at-far right column- you have the current number of replies and next to it is the number of views- this topic is at 1,075!

I am not far from where you will be; I am in Ann Arbor, maybe 45 minutes from Highland, MI. Is April 27th the only day you will be in town?

I think you may be on to something in noting that exertion or workout intensity may have made a difference for you. I loved running and would easily go 3K a run prior to my diagnosis...then that 'mysterious' foot cramping appeared and the adaptations to PD started then. I went for nine years with no medication from my first appearance of tremor, so I am beginning to think that those years of more intense exercise helped me. I only became more sedentary because PD kept forcing me to shorten my workouts to the point where I felt it was not beneficial from a cardio standpoint at all

I am beginning to wonder if achieving an optimal heart rate or "zone" during workout is what helps? Obviously, it has to go beyond only one form of exercise and measures like rpm. There is a man who has lived with PD for over 20 years and he continues to run marathons- his story is in this USA Today article He too notes how he is doing better than other he knows with PD for same number of years and thinks it is due to intensity of exercise. Does Dr. Albert address this or will he be researching it further?

All of this is very encouraging, and means that I better get up to that 40 minute mark while I still can easily maintain the right speed. Just to note that before I was medicated, I was in the 50-70 rpm range on a stationary bike- this, I think, is consistent with most PD participants in research.

Laura