Up for a Deep Dive into understanding better the riddles and mysteries of Parkinson’s?
Look no further than Possibilities with Parkinson’s: A Fresh Look. It comes from W. David Hoisington, better known by his blogger nom de plume, Dr. C.
Forget the snoozer title. The book is a mind-bending romp through innovative ways of understanding this bizarre condition and building effective coping strategies. It’s mindfulness on steroids
If I could rename the book, my expansive title would be The Connoisseur’s Guide to All Things Parkinson’s.
Dr. C’s genius is to get beyond the visible and observable about PD. He uses rich metaphors to enlarge his compelling and original commentary. The several hundred, at least, footnotes testify to his scientific rigor.
One metaphor I especially like is the conductor. “Think of the conductor as the attention director,” Dr. C writes. “Sensory, memory and emotional stimuli come into the Grand Central Station. The conductor helps decide which stimuli are the most important and thus need to be granted quicker access and more attention.”
The better able you are at molding your conductor, the better able you are at warding off the emotional stress storms of Parkinson’s.
Another arresting metaphor is threshold management. “Threshold management is the practice of calming emotional input prior to thinking overreacting to that input,” he writes. “This calming practice helps prevent a buildup of emotional energy that can toss someone over the threshold.”
Dr. C’s bedrock belief is that an injured brain can develop new circuits to cure itself. It is akin to gaining the benefits of DBS surgery without undergoing the surgery.
Dr. C has had careers as a research theoretician, brain rehabilitation clinician, and college professor. Dr. C was first diagnosed with early-stage Parkinson’s disease in 2014.
He endorses tried and true advice about living well with Parkinson’s. That recipe includes proper diet, rest, exercise, and hydration.
For those of us with Parkinson’s, Dr. C’s book and columns are must reads. Find his blogs at www.parkinsonsnewstoday.com. Possibilities with Parkinson’s can be found in many bookstores and online.
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