Back in the Saddle

I was planning on writing about how being in a proper routine – a going to work in an office sort of routine – helps me to do that crucial exercising malarkey. On a bicycle, no less. And I will.

More News on Cycling and Parkinson’s

Don’t expect this from me all the time, but this snippet of news comes to you almost hot off the press, being only two days old as I type this.

So, just how do you fit a basket on drop handlebars?

 

The Telegraph reports that doctors in the Netherlands (again! – I’d ask what is it about the Netherlands and cycling, but we all know that it’s got at least a little to do with not having any hills worth mentioning; I just wonder why UEA and my own alma mater, the University of Hull, haven’t jumped on the pedal-powered bandwagon) have proposed a ‘test’ for Parkinson’s patients that apparently performs better than expensive medical tests in determining what type of Parkinson’s a patient has.

The new test is a simple query: can you still ride a bike? If the answer is ‘yes’, then the patient is likely to have the standard variant of Parkinson’s. If ‘no’, then it is possible that they have atypical Parkinson’s.

Atypical Parkinson’s is a particularly nasty form of the condition that adds cognitive and memory problems to the motor issues usually associated with Parkinson’s.

I’m very happy to say that I can, indeed, still ride my bike. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever felt so relieved about being able to cycle.

Can’t Walk? Get on Yer Bike…

Here’s another YouTube video, with footage from the Netherlands of a gentleman who is having extreme difficulty walking, but who can ride a bike without difficulty:

This is footage shot by the chap’s doctor, uploaded in April 2010. There is an accompanying short article in The New England Journal of Medicine.

The person who posted this video felt obliged to say that, in the Netherlands, it is neither legally required nor customary to where a cycle helmet. If you look at the comments on YouTube, you’ll find someone – who evidently hasn’t read this note, nor considered that this is unlikely to have been the first time that the fellow has performed this feat – complaining that, “given his history … they might have put a helmet on him.”

When I first saw this video, I was rather concerned that he would cycle off into the sunset, never to be seen again, unable to stop or steer – but he proves himself perfectly capable of controlling his machine, even dismounting by himself at the end. I do, however, find it a little disconcerting that – from the evidence in the video – it seems as if he has to be placed on the bicycle and given a good push to start. Not very practical, that.

Still, it is suggested by the authors of the article that cycling may prove to be a good form of exercise for patients with advanced Parkinsonian symptoms. Hopefully, it may result in the type of improvements noted by Dr. Alberts.

How Forced Exercise Helps Parkinsonian Symptoms

My physiotherapist has talked – both to me and to a local group of people affected by Parkinson’s – about the research featured in the following ABC news article – but it is strangely reassuring to have stumbled across this ABC News report (posted on YouTube in July 2009):

Basically, the story is that Dr. Jay Alberts, a neuroscientist from Cleveland, Ohio, is a keen cyclist who just happened to go on a long tandem bike ride with his friend, David, who sufers from Parkinson’s. Dr. Alberts was surprised to note that David’s Parkinsonian symptoms were drastically reduced after the arduous ride. On his return, he instigated a study, the results of which encouraged the theory that high levels of exercise affect the brain positively. Most commentators are keen to stress that, while it is the legs that are exercising, the benefits are global – the effects are, for example, also seen in the arms.

I have also found the following textual reports on the same story:

• ABC news
• Webscape Today / WebMD (requires login, but accounts are free to create)
• Commercial site flogging motorised mini cycles on the back of this research

The paper produced by Alberts and his colleagues (“Effects of forced-exercise on motor symptoms and cortical activation in Parkinson’s disease”) was presented in June 2009 at the Movement Disorder Society‘s 13th International Congress of Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders in Paris, France (Abstract LB-13 – find it on page 7 of this collection of Late Breaking Abstracts). There is also a News Release from the Movement Disorder Society, relating to the paper.

Sadly (and slightly suspiciously), I haven’t found any UK reports on this story.

Cycling for Exercise

You might think, given that I enjoy cycling and that I lack Parkinsonian symptoms while doing it, that I’d be using it as my primary aerobic exercise. I may yet, but I have a few curious issues with this idea.

The first is that, as far as I’m concerned, cycling is for getting around. It’s a means to an end, not an end in itself. I had a bike before I had a car, and I used it to go places. I kept the bike after I bought a car, and I used it – when I could – in preference to the car because it was cheaper (a triple whammy of maintenance, fuel and parking charges) and because, crucially, it was decidedly greener. I also liked being outside. The fact that cycling improved my fitness was just a nice side effect.

I’ve never really been bothered about ‘going for a bike ride’. The joy of cycling, for me, comes from the efficiency of a good bike in an appropriate situation. I liked the fact that it was marginally quicker to cycle to work along the A4 at rush hour than it was to drive. I liked being able to whoosh into town at lunch time and not have to worry about parking or causing pollution. I liked being able to move around a city without it taking ages and without waiting for buses.

The second is related to the first in that I feel I have nowhere to ride. I don’t want to ride in circles around the village. The shops are such a short distance away that by the time I’ve dug the bike out of the shed I could have walked there. The nearest towns are 7 miles or more away and I don’t quite feel up to facing that sort of distance, let alone the main roads. I certainly don’t want to risk life and limb on a destinationless ride around twisty country roads where I’m likely to meet some idiot driver going too fast who doesn’t see me until the last minute.

I suppose, really, my issue is a very personal one. I enjoy cycling for what it is, a means of transport, and I don’t want to kill that enjoyment. Even when I had no car, I always had a choice; in bad weather, I did resort to the bus, or I walked. But when the primary object is fitness, buses and walking don’t exactly cut the mustard.

But… my yoga class is (for now) right at the other end of the village. I refuse to drive that sort of distance and it is far enough to make it worth the bother of digging the bike out of the shed. There’s a stonking great hill just before you get there, and I can’t make it up that at the moment (oh, I suppose low mountain bike gears are good for something).

So that’s one bike ride. Once a week (during term time).

I’ve also worked out another. The village got bypassed at some stage and part of the old main road is nice and straight and largely junctionless. From here, I can get to that road, bez up it, slowing down as it gets a bit steeper (but not too steep for the lowest of my 5 gears and my lack of fitness), and then come back along a reasonably wide and straight bit of the new main road. As a bonus, the main road bit is slightly downhill, which means it’ll be a cinch to keep straight and steady. It took me about 20 minutes yesterday. I quite enjoyed it.

I think I’ll go and do it again.