Laura, You have some great questions about bikes. I'm certainly not an expert, but I can give a little information at least.

Jay first noticed the connection between forced pace cycling and pd while riding a tandem across Iowa in the week-long ride, RAGBRAI. That was on a standard road tandem. His initial tests were done on the same kind of bikes that were mounted on bike trainers with magnetic Cyclops trainers (which is the kind I use inside). Now, in the second round of tests, they are using Theracycles instead of tandems. I'm not sure what system is used by Theracycle. However, the owner of the company contacted me a couple of weeks ago to ask specific questions about my experience to hopefully help them make the Theracycle more responsive to the needs of pd patients. So they're not quite there yet, but good enough to use in tests.

As I noted on another post, I'm working with folks here to try to develop a $200-$300 bike refit that will allow the pwp to get enough boost from electricity to get to 80-90 rpm while still ensuring that the pwp is maintaining the proper heart rate. Tricky stuff.

On a personal note, I had an odd experience this week. One day both my finger and toe on the right side froze while I was riding (nothing new there), but the finger kept it up all day, accompanied by significant pain in my arm. The next morning I awoke to no tremor and no pain. I don't recall the last time I awoke to no tremor and I put off taking my meds for two hours. The no tremor lasted for half the day. Since then, I've had tremor, but no feeling of electrical shock in the arm. Go figure.

Nan, that's great news about a possible inexpensive electrical booster! Please keep us posted about it.

Please don't hold your breath, Wendy. If it were easy to do, it would have been done. That said, there is a lot of motivated effort going into it. I just don't think we should have to pay thousands of dollars to make our legs go around. But I know that Theracycle is doing their best to make a product that works.

Two things. First, because of the news coverage of the remarkable cycling of the man with advance PD in the Netherlands, that Dutch researcher and Jay are now connected. Who knows what, if anything, may come of a collaboration, but at least like minds are working together and I think that's great!

Second, this morning I came across an article on biking and diet at Active.com. They call it the pistachio diet. I had to laugh, because my husband and I buy giant bags of shelled pistachios and eat about a bag a week. We mix them with the Fruit and Nuts combo from Costco. We also pretty well eliminated bread, potatoes, and "white" foods from our diet. Since doing this, without really planning to, I've lost 10 lbs and my miserable constipation is completely gone. (Sensitive topic, but I'm sure you understand.) Yesterday I cut my ReQuipXL from 6 mg to 4. (I had started at 8.) I'm not sure if that is sustainable, but I feel so well I thought it's worth a try. I'll report if I go back up again.

I've been thinking about the term "forced exercise" especially after reading the posts on AAN Big Exercise and the other posts about the effects of having someone stretch our limbs for us. The thing that these all have in common is that they force our bodies to move about 50% past our normal personal limits. I'm wondering if forced pace cycling isn't necessarily 80-90 rpm, but 50% more than a person can normally do. 80-90 works for me because I normally cycle at 55-60 rpm. But if a person's normal is 30, would 45 be enough of a forced pace to make the difference. And if people are having great results from AAN Big Exercise is it because they are moving at about 50% more than normal? I would be curious to test the hypothesis. Perhaps as we begin the pedaling program here in Seattle, we'll be able to add a little insight into this process of healing through exercise. Any thoughts or experiences along this line?

Nan,

I think you are on to something. I wanted to pull out your ideas and started a new thread on movement. I think it is related to our muscle memory especially the BIG therapy. Thanks for this most interesting thought!

Laura

this is good logic but still wonder what the original 'official' research paper tell us. I raised this question before about the ambiguity in the paper which should be clarified. Never the less I was motivated by the magical 80-90 rpm goal and strive to achieve it for 15 minuites twice a day. it works magic as best placebo

Imad

I went back to read your original question. My voluntary exercise level is 55-60. I force myself to go at 80-90. I'm not sure what the acronym wpd means. Have you tried forcing yourself to go 80-90 for a minimum of 40 minutes straight? I understand that you are not supposed to take breaks.

Thanks Nan for your amazing and inspiring follow up. 80-90 rpm (round per minuit) is my limit for 15 mins with maximum concentration (I am 66 young!). Untill reading your post, I was doing 25 mins at lower speeds twice a day. I feel your regime is more useful even though I still don't know the source of the 80-90 figures. Was it in the original paper or is it your recommendation ?

Imad

so we'll hopefully know more in a year.

Jay Alberts, PhD, was awarded
$419,210 over 1 year for "Effects
of Forced Exercise Training on
Parkinson's Motor Function."
Funded by the Eunice Kennedy
Shriver National Institute of
Child Health & Human Development/
NIH. Dr. Alberts was also
awarded $1.4 million over 4
years for “Comparison of Unilateral
and Bilateral Subthalamic
Stimulation in Parkinson’s disease
patients” (R01). Funded by
the National Institute of Neurological
Disorders and Stroke/NIH
http://www.lerner.ccf.org/bme/news/d...etterFINAL.pdf