[Yyz]

I am a great believer in exercise and its ability to slow the progression of Parkinson. There is another benefit that I never hear mentioned and that is exercise gives you the ability to avoid many surgeries. I am an example of that. Three years ago I developed a strong pain in my lower left lumbar region. It got so bad that the longest time that I could sit in a chair was 41/2 minutes. After an x-ray, a CT scan and 2 MRIs I was told that I had a tumor on my spine (benign thank goodness),multi level degenerative disc disease, facet arthrosis, large L2 L3 central disk protrusion with severe bilateral recess and moderate left and right neural foraminal stenosis.

While there are surgeries that I could have to deal with my pain, I am very aware of the fact that Parkinson’s patients take twice as long to recover from surgery as other patients. If at all ;possible I wanted to avoid surgery if I could. After consulting with my team of professionals, I decided that I would use exercise to solve my problems. Since I was already doing a lot of exercising I was in good shape and didn’t need to exercise more. I just needed to adjust my program to work the lower left side of my. Body until it got strong enough to not need the attention. So that is what I did. After 2 months my pain had declined by 50% and after4 months the pain was gone and I have been pain free for 2 1/2 years except when I get a signal telling me that I need to make a balance adjustment.