Maybe it has alot to do with proprioception. Remember the posts about PNF (Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation?)

I think it uses neuromuscular stimulation and can retrain the brain. Someone at Braintalk was having sessions that used PNF with success.

Are there similarities between PNF and the banding techniques?

I found a thread by the person doing PNF patterning exercises, Rao. It's not the exact thread I wanted but it's interesting.

http://127.0.0.1:4664/cache?event_id...rvZd2I05oDp8mQ

Found our old thread on DANCING:

http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache...s&ct=clnk&cd=2

....you're great! That is an excellent lead and reassures me that we aren't losing it. But this brings up something I've wondered about - does it not seem at times that physiotherapists have as much to offer us as our neurologists?

You mentioned Rao. She is in the South American jungles at the moment and left a postcard at PDPower just before this came up. I emailed her asking her to get in touch once she was back in reach of a computer. I really would like her take on this given her background.

Finally, I'm glad you found those threads and that brougt up a question - Does anyone know if there is a way to recover such a thread and merge it into BT2 such that a search of the site would pick it up? In other words, could we start reconstructing our archive that way?

Rick, I already found one of my posts on this site listed in google. I think we would need to repost the old threads, and then they would be searchable here, and on google.

Rao sure seems like an interesting person. Very brave of her to spend time in a jungle! Maybe she found some cures. I'm glad you have her email.

I had PT a couple of years ago, and learned my first tricks there. She definitely helped me more than any neuro has.

The first mind trick was like an epiphany. I was standing up and sitting down several times when I got stuck in a down position and couldn't move. She handed me my cane horizontally, and when I reached for it, I immediately became unstuck and stood up. So, I get unstuck by imagining that I'm reaching for something.

Another one was when I was unable to straighten my foot. It was turned inward, when I put my legs out while sitting. So she asked me to push against her hand, and I was able to straighten my foot. So now I imagine that I'm pushing against something to straighten it.

When I have trouble making a turn, I imagine my hands pushing against something in front of me, and it's easier.

I think it was to do with inner directed vs outer directed movements. I often have trouble directing from the inside. I have to imagine an external prompt. Like in Awakenings, when they could catch a ball even though they seemed to be catatonic!

Perhaps the body wrapping is partially an external prompt.

Goodnight. Going home now. I walked so well in lab today, with the sash on my calf. At times, I actually felt normal. My dystonia is much, much less today; starting to feel it now.

However, for me the sash on my leg does not help with my face mask. When I get home, I'll wrap my head!

~Zucchini

Hi,

About the article on novelty seeking and D2 DA receptors. It is supposed to be the same in ADHD... besides, I am myself a novelty seeking personality. But...does that have to do with the diseases itself? All I can report is that my fatigue (mental and body discomfort) seems to go away when I am stepping into something that interrests me...and come back after a while even if I am working with something that interrests me a lot (I used to be angry with myself, about that). Most probably, those effects of banding have been noticed before but have not been taken in account because it faded away after a while, frustrated, and there was no work done to explain something 'of so little importance' ...

Yours
Karine

[QUOTE\]body wrap may have such a significant effect on animals in terms of increasing focus, calming, and improving body awareness[/QUOTE]

Last year, I read a book about "packing" for autistic children. It consisted in wrapping them in cold wet sheets, and while the sheets were warmed by their body temperature, they became more and more aware of their body's frontiers. I thought it was a torture, still do, because I can't stand the cold and imagine myself in their place, and when I see the article about wrapping I think that the cold and wet are not necessary. Yes, the idea about not sustaining but giving feedback is something!

Besides, Zflwr, I also have a weird problem with my knees, and I feel it has something to do with feedback and awarenesse. It starts with cramps, was rather on one side but has now reached both, and ends with the whole leg stuck with the knee blocked.

Goes as quickly as it came but there remains an uncomfortable feeling in the part that has been strained.

I had to walk with canes, and decided, too, to get braces and know intuitively that it will help. Haven't yet seen an orthopedist. My doctor says it's a sort of cramp.

It happens (I use to laugh about it) when I'm in bed and turn, for example, NEVER when I'm dancing, and I thought it was because in daily life and sport I sort of paid attention, but did not in my bed.

Now, for example, I have had my leg stuck last week, and had balance problems the next day. Later, ans still the knees just keep a "weak" feeling.

See you
Karine

Karine,
The wrapping that you talk about does, indeed, sound like torture.

I have a question related to that.

If swaddling babies calms them (I would imagine by reducing stimulation) could wrapping (without cold) calm and allow a person to concentrate on one stimulus? This would thereby creat the effect that folks with ADD and perhaps PD need?

kathy

Hi Kathy,

I don't know (and I am not a specialist, I am thinking about things like Zuch and Rick etc trying to find clues). I have made a quick search on the Net but found nothing relevan yet.

While searching Pubmed I saw something that reminds me that in countries or hospitals where they don't have the financial means for enough incubators for prematurate babies they encourage the mothers to carry them in a wrap close to their body and experience success.

Regards
Karine

Thanks for looking it up.

I always swaddled my kids and it always comforted them.

It seems that for those that need their brains to interpret fewer signals, the less stimuli received, the better the result.

kathy

Hello Z.Flower, Hi Kathy, Good afternoon Rick, Salut Karine,

Back home after two days of "personal experiments" I will soon tell you about.
I have read all posts here very quickly, will now read the ones on our french mailing-list and prepare you a "review" of them all.

Remember we are not adpets, believers, sellers or magicians, just PwP's or friends trying to understand some mechanisms of an effect which is new to us but already known by few others.
Sensitive-motor loops are obviously involved in this effect and we may wonder if PD, at least in some of its symptoms and mechanisms, is not linked with disturbances of sensitory part of these loops instead of motor initiation one.

Why? Because if bands or scarf or whatever has been used for sensory stimulation of skin in its deeper part may retablish movements in PD, then motor initiation is functionnally disturbed but not impaired by loss of neurons and their dopamine as traditionnally written.....

Said in other terms, the hypothesis is the following one:Would motor symptoms be a functional consequence and not an organic cause in PD ??
(Shout at me if my words are not easy enough for everybody to understand )

Or both???
Insufficiency of neurons (demonstrated) AND functional insufficiency of remaining ones,
NOT (or not only) because their number is reduced
but because they are sick of (..) and/or functionnally (but with possible reversion) disabled??

Write more soon,
Anne.

Update: Regular scarves don’t work for me. The scarf I’ve been using feels a lot like an ace bandage, but is much noticeable sensory wise. I wrapped my head with a silk scarf and nothing happened. Again, my ‘biofeedback’ scarf is a fine, tight knit, silk/cotton blend, soft but not flimsy. It’s very hard to find this kind of scarf. It hugs me when I wrap it.

The head effect wears off, and I ‘recharge’ the scarf, by removing it, and then putting it back on. I tried using an ace bandage on my calf, and my scarf works better because I get more sensation from it.

I showed the hat trick to my brother, and he said I looked 10 years younger. My entire
face perks up, and it’s easy for me to make a big smile and hold it.

Anne, the article I referenced earlier posits that cueing may make motor activity less automatic,and may enable us modify our strategies to produce a closed loop control, which may not be possible without the cueing.

The following articles suggests that when standing, postural control uses an open loop control in the short term, and closed loop over a long term. (Open loop control system operates without feedback, and a closed loop system uses feedback.)

Maybe Rick can stand longer when banded because it enables
a closed loop control, which we can't do without sensory feedback.

Open-loop and closed-loop postural control mechanisms in Parkinson's disease: increased mediolateral activity during quiet standing

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science.../sdarticle.pdf