The gym I go to has a Sports Clinic where a physio and an osteopath share the facilities. I was having injury after injury because my muscles went into serious spasms at the least provocation. In desperation I made an appointment with the osteopath. This proved to be the best decision I could have made, because no matter what pulled or twisted he could try to make me more comfortable. Usually patients have one or two visits and resume normal life.

May 1999, my first morning in London, walking alongside the River Thames and up one of the multitude of steps there. All of the muscles in the top of my left leg went into spasm. Stuck in Nick’s flat and with three and a half months of Europe to discover and I could go nowhere.

We eventually found in the ‘Yellow Pages’, the British School of Osteopathy, three stops away on the Underground. They were delighted to help. They had never met such tight muscles. However they worked their magic and walked out not before making an appointment for the day we returned to London next time! Their advice for the future was to look to yoga as a better form of fitness than gym work. The students were interested in knowing if NZ would be a good place to move to with their osteopathy training?

Links:

Chris Straugheir at the Tawa Osteopathic Clinic: Osteopathy – complete health care based on holistic principles

The Osteopathic Clinic has easy to read text on the who, what and how of osteopathy, as well as cranio-sacral osteopathy, osteopathy and children, and a link to the NZ Register of Osteopaths

Russian Osteopath in New Zealand The main aim of the site is to introduce the reader to osteopathy and to answer some of the most common questions. I like his comprehensive list of who can be helped, "Even if the problem is irreversible there is no point in giving up – osteopathy can make life more active and pleasant." I affirm that.

British School of Osteopathy - with its clinic and courses in London offering BSc and MSc courses in Osteopathy. This is the clinic that enabled me to travel.

When we returned to NZ I had weekly appointments. All my muscles were involved and I knew it was nothing to do with HD, but my HD symptoms became obvious and a nuisance. My brain slowed down and speech was slurred and tongue very active.

In desperation my osteopath leant me an Acuhealth hand piece and photocopied pages from Voll’s ‘Point Atlas and descriptions of Eav’. The Acuhealth is an electronic self-treatment acupuncture point stimulator. I used this twice a day on the Nerve degeneration points on my index fingers.

It was effective immediately.

The middle finger has allergy points. So I did them too. I am no longer carsick and I can bear loud music now that my ears are dry.

Links:
Acuhealth is the developer of an electrical unit for acupuncture self-treatment. Discover how the product works and order online.
It worked on my muscles and my HD symptoms diminished as I regained my strength.
My muscles were so tight that when I tried to go to yoga and stretch classes, it was only at the end that I was flexible enough to participate. Feeling completely devastated I asked the instructor, whom I knew if he could help me please?

Keeping fit - Gymnasiums - Personal Trainers

Luckily I have Ed Chiu’s "Caring For Persons With Huntington’s Disease" and photocopied the chapter for Physiotherapists to give to my Personal Trainer to base my gymnasium sessions on. He compiled a list for each area we to work on and the details for each.

Links:
Chapter 5 Physiotherapy Ed Chiu
Since then we work weekly on cardio, stretch, relaxation, strengthen, breathing, posture, control, skills, and intellectual goals. If you can not afford your own trainer, the gym staff should have some one who can help specifically with HD or any other problems.

TIME magazine of January 21^st 2002 has an informative three pages titled ‘Walk, Don’t Run. It’s simple, it’s cheap, and studies show that walking may be the best exercise for reducing the risk of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. The elements of a healthy workout: 30 minutes brisk walking –at 5 to 6 km an hour, five to six times a week.

To this older people are being urged to start resistance training. With a programme of regular, modest weight training will reverse the decline. Studies have shown that 90 year olds develop greater confidence and are less likely to fall after strength training. The key to any strength-training programme is to build slowly and use the right form. A personal trainer can get you started, as can several good books

Links:
Bodywise offers personalised health and fitness programmes to suit your lifestyle. What they can do for you and what a personal trainer can help with. Personal Fitness Trainers may be contacted by phone or email for this page.

Yoga

I was more than devastated when I could not participate in the yoga. At the library I looked for books on yoga and discovered a little book "Yoga for Common Complaints" by Drs Robin Monro, Nagarathna, and Nagendra, based on a system developed by the Vivekananda Yoga and Research Foundation.

Being a schoolteacher I understand the value of a basic warm up, loosening up and then the sun salute. The book has very detailed instructions, which I initially found hard to understand. For the first six months it took me an hour to get to the sun salute and do some of the stretches given to me by my trainer. I still up to the sun salute each morning. I am now far more flexible than I have been all my life. When I resumed the yoga class last year the teacher could not believe the change.

Links:
The philosophy of the Auckland Yoga Academy is to promote and teach the ancient art of Yoga, providing good health, wellbeing and a stress free, fulfilling life. It has information for beginners, their timetables, membership, newsletters and workshops.

The NZ School of Yoga in both Auckland and Wellington was the first Iyengar Yoga Centre. You will learn about the instructors, of the benefits, how to get started, class fees and they have a video

Feldenkrais Method

When I could not participate in yoga classes, my teacher gave me information about a workshop by a Feldenkrais tutor, which worked on very small movements. Travelling into Wellington seemed too much so I declined. These two websites have much information.

Feldenkrais Method is a website explaining this unique system of movement where you learn awareness of how to use your body and improve your functioning, as well as resources, history, lessons, information about Feldenkrais himself and how to contact them.

NZ Feldenkrais Guild Inc is the professional organisation concerned with maintaing the quality and integrity of the practice in New Zealand. It is set up to enable you to find a practitioner in your region.

Podiatry

When things were really bad my chiropractor suggested I should see a podiatrist and perhaps an orthotic could help. It did

I have Podiatrist Tim Stewart’s ‘ Information and advice from on foot pain’

Links

The Gloucester Sports Clinic has pages on podiatry, orthotics medical, physiotherapy, gymnasium, articles and links. Very nicely done.

Supplements for HD

My son Nick has always kept an eye on HD research and HD websites and found that he could rely on the HDlighthouse to keep him up with what is current and new developments

In May 2001, Nick discovered the results of a small, but successful trial, in England, using pure EPA for a small group of HD patients on the site. EPA is a poly-unsaturated fat found in cold water fish. It seemed important to use this information. Since November 2001 have been taking EPA capsules and my HD symptoms had all but disappeared.

Lax-101 is pure EPA and is in trial for the treatment of Huntington's Disease. Lax-101 is manufactured by Laxdale in the UK. Amarin is the distributor in the US. 29 Oct 01.

Treatment Now, the Dilemma of Drug Trials, by Jerry Lampson. The Dilemma is food for thought and what is available now for us to help ourselves.

With all this happening our HD future looks more hopeful.

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