Hear Ye, Hear Me

No, that's not a typo in the title. It's just a little self- and cross-promotion. You can listen to me on this here interweeb thingy by clicking on the link to the right that says Where I Work. (Or just click here)Then click on listen live and I'm there Monday -Friday 10 AM-3PM Atlantic time. And on some holidays and Saturday afternoons you can also catch me on-air. Cool, eh?

And on Wednesdays, Charles of msbpodcast.com kindly allows me to read one of my past posts on his show.

S.

Biking Column #2 and a Cranky Baby Update

Here's my second column for the Atlantic Pedaler. It'll be in next month's issue.

As I stated in my last column I was diagnosed with MS in 1998. My right side was affected leaving me unable to hold a pen or brush my teeth effectively or even tie my shoes. I had another attack 18 months later that hit the left side of my face, leaving me with a lopsided smile and a lisp. My third attack was last August and was a recurrence of my initial symptoms but to a much lesser degree. Throughout the past 10 years I have had to deal with extreme fatigue and on occasion some pretty intense pain. I estimate that I have recovered 97% of what I lost with each attack.

My purpose in writing this column is to educate folks about MS, publicize the MS Bike Tour, and solicit funds for this cause. I am not the poster child for MS, though an argument could be made that I should be the poster child for best case scenario for MS.

MS has given me a number of things for which I am grateful. One of those things is discovering cycling. Over the years I have tried different sports and physical activities to keep active but have never really "gotten into" anything. I never experienced a runner's high or felt really great and energized after a workout. I did not like exercise. And exercise seemed to do little for me. As a kid I had a bike and rode it everywhere. I even rode a little bit in my 20s. But two years ago at the age of 42 I took it up again to encourage my boyfriend's training for the 2006 Rona MS Bike Tour. In a matter of days I was hooked. Within weeks I was cycling every chance I could, even if I only had time for a 5 k ride, I went out. I wasn't fast, or graceful, and probably looked pretty dorky, but it was soooooooooo much fun. And I was coming home sweaty and muddy (with any luck I'd find a puddle to go through) which was a bonus. It meant that I was getting a good workout (the sweaty part) and enjoying it (the muddy part). I liked exercise for the first time in my life. I was also energized from the activity and not worn out. My weight didn't change as I was building muscle mass and losing fat at the same time, but I looked and felt great.

As an added bonus to the biking I was exploring trails around the HRM. I'm a nature nut, so was able to put together a little kit for collecting specimens of insects I wanted to inspect up close. It all fits into a pack on the pannier. Butterflies, moths, and beetles were within reach. Not to mention the toads and frogs I could catch to take a closer look (then let them go).

I live in Bedford so it's nothing for me to hop on the bike at Hammonds Plains road and cycle to the Superstore, pick up the Bedford Sackville Connector Trail to Sackville and back for a good 14 k ride after work. After traveling this trail for a while I became involved with the Sackville Rivers Association which is another bonus for me. We go out to do repairs on rivers and streams in the watershed and that leads to discovering more trails I can bike. And more creatures for me to investigate.

I had been itching to get on the bike again and so ventured out twice recently. The harsh winds and subsequent snow have driven me inside again but not for much longer. I've got warm bike pants, a fleece band to cover my ears, and goggles and I'm not afraid to use them.

S.

The goggles I use are actually my chemistry lab goggles from my first year at university. I wear them when cutting up garlic and onions and have worn them in snowstorms. They're not too bad for biking, too. All right....pictures will follow, eventually.

I met up with Cranky Baby's mom yesterday. I now have a matching Happy Face button just like Cranky Baby to wear on my biking jacket. And Cranky Baby has a few new t-shirts from the dollar store. And yes, as soon as the weather clears a little more, there will be pictures.

Curiouser and Curiouser

Here's a picture of Helga, the East German shot putter. OK, it's me as Alice from Alice in Wonderland, as I promised to show you a couple of weeks ago. See the long blonde hair? Not mine. But it was a fundraiser for the VON, and I'll do almost anything to raise a buck for charity.

My neurologist and his wife happened to wander into the party and they smiled politely as I made my way to them. It wasn't until I opened my mouth and spoke that they recognized me.
Which leads me to believe that I may still have a career as a spy. You know, if the radio thing doesn't pan out.

S.

Putting the Puzzle Together

I have mentioned in earlier posts (and here) why I blog. This is what I'm talkin' about and illustrates what I mean. The more ideas we share, the more ideas we spark. And that's what will find the last pieces of the puzzle.
I'm not suggesting that as a patient I hold the key to the MS mystery. I'm still in kindergarten compared to the scientists doing research. But maybe one of us will inspire an idea in these scientists.

Pot Pourri (Not Pot....Pot as in Poe)

Tonight John and I went to see the Halifax Rainmen (finally) play at the Metro Centre. They were scheduled to play a team last night and tonight, but that team unbelievably didn't show. This is the ABA, a pro sports organization! The Rainmen scrambled to find another team on short notice and the Atlanta Vision stepped up to the plate...er, court. I was chatting with the Rainmen's head coach, Rick Lewis yesterday about what happened and he said he's unsure, but that his team is always in a visiting city at least a day in advance of a game to avoid possible travel issues (and we have lots of them these days and especially in winter). Rick said they feel it's vital that they be where they're supposed to be for the paying fans of the game. They could have shrugged off the no-shows, but instead they worked hard at getting another team.

At the game we had excellent seats, sitting right behind the Atlanta Vision. At the half time we even chatted with the Vision's coach and thanked him for making the trip on such short notice. There were two university students sitting right behind us who were very vocal supporters of the Rainmen and razzed the Vision every chance they got, When the coach was talking to us they also thanked him for the effort in getting to Halifax and apologized if they were bugging his team too much with their cheering and chanting. The coach laughed and said no, it's good to see the team support. By the way, the Vision had to play in borrowed "Team Canada" T-shirts as the only piece of luggage that got lost was the one with the team jerseys. They had numbers in masking tape on their backs.

I have to say that both these teams and their coaches showed true class. I really enjoyed the family atmosphere and even the two guys behind us were fun. I asked them a lot of questions about some of the fun stuff going on during time outs and half time. They were loud but polite. John and I are definitely going to more games next season.

A couple of days ago, John and I took a drive on one of my training routes just to see how the road was shaping up. We saw a couple of funny things. The first was this.

Now, a dead squirrel on its own isn't funny, but every time we come across some unfortunate creature like this we say "Stupid place to take a nap". It works for raccoons, deer, coyote....and if it's in the middle of the road, I move it to the side.

The other funny thing is this. Two "Smart Cars", tiny little things.



Again, on their own, not funny, but it's the commentary that goes with it:"One for each foot".

At the lecture I attended after work today and before the basketball game (yes, full day), I learned about some of the work being done in Halifax on Parkinson's research. There really wasn't time to go into depth about neurogenesis sadly, so I have little to report on that front. I'll do a little digging and report back at a later time.

I Have One Word For you. Plastics.

When I was diagnosed with MS in 1998 I asked about appropriate physical activity related to physiotherapy wondering if that would help me recover use of my right side. I was told that exercise in general would be good for me but since the damage in MS involves the white matter of the brain and spinal column, any messages I was trying to send my affected muscles wouldn't get through. It's a communications problem in my brain, not a muscular one.

Fast forward 10 years and suddenly we have an onslaught of information everywhere about neuroplasticity. It's a concept that means the brain is very capable of change, that new connections can be, and in fact are, made constantly. Where exactly are these connections happening? In the white matter of the brain, which is responsible for the different parts of the brain to communicate with each other.

The next question you might have is "How do we make more connections? And more importantly, can we make connections to bypass damaged parts of the brain?"

First of all, an optimum environment with basic building blocks is required. An optimum environment would be one free of physical impediments like alcohol and drugs, polluted air, improper amounts of sleep, and stress; and since that is almost impossible, reduce the impediments you are able to. Basic building blocks would be a low fat, high fibre diet with the "good" fats in suitable amounts (a great cheeseburger or hunk of chocolate cake is good for mental health once in a while-at least mine anyway).

Once you've started improving the environment, the fun begins. Research has shown that proper diet, sleep patterns, stress levels, and regular exercise increase the connections your brain makes. Regular exercise? Well, first of all, the exercise increases blood flow to the brain, improving the environment with oxygen and nutrients. Secondly, movement of your body involves a complex set of actions in the brain, neurons firing all over the place, reorganizing and reinforcing the neural networks you have in response to new stimuli.

So that's what we know so far. It's what people have been telling us for years. Use it or lose it. And now that we have a better understanding of how the brain makes these connections, we can put it into practical use. Move the parts of your body that you can, get someone to help with the parts you can't. There are adaptive programs of yoga, stretching, and other exercises available on the web and from your local MS Society office. (And physiotherapists can help with appropriate movements to help relieve symptoms of MS as well)

It appears that movement is the key to making more neural connections. And that's what we want to do as MSers, make more connections to (hopefully) bypass the damaged parts of the brain. That's what rehab for stroke victims entails, why wouldn't it work for us? What have we got to lose by trying? Besides a few unwanted pounds.

At this point you may be wondering about "mental" exercises for your brain. After all, every time you turn around you're reading or hearing about books, puzzles, and games to "strengthen" your brain or improve brain fitness. It's a little more complicated than just doing a crossword puzzle once a day. It's about actually using many cognitive processes that provide novelty, variety, and challenge. So mix it up. Learn something new. Pick a topic you always wanted to know about, research it, and learn about it. Then pick another.

The same can be said of physical exercise. Change it up a little bit, use different routes if you're walking or biking, do your exercises in a different order. Change is novelty and variety and that's a good thing for your brain.

I went to a lecture Tuesday night about neuroplasticity and neurogenesis. I woke yesterday morning feeling very excited about this topic as it explains a couple of things I noticed about myself since I started cycling. First I noticed an improvement of my mood, though you may be thinking that I'm such a ray of sunshine I could never be in a bad mood. But it was there. I also noticed that fatigue didn't hit me as often as it had. My concentration improved. These were subtle differences I noticed for myself, nothing obvious to anyone else, but I also looked great and I felt great. Yeah, I still needed to get rid of a few extra pounds, but I had more compliments last summer than I had in a long time.

I wrote to the lecturer yesterday with a question of sorts:I'm curious about how the brain rewires where lesions are present and neurons may not be damaged, compared to stroke damage where neurons are killed.

Dr. Eskes kindly replied with good news:I checked pubmed and found many references on this as well as a review on this very topic.
Sports Med. 2008;38(2):91-100.
Exercise and brain health--implications for multiple sclerosis: Part 1--neuronal
growth factors.
White LJ, Castellano V.
Department of Kinesiology, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602, USA.
ljwhite@uga.edu
Recent studies suggest that exercise may enhance neurobiological processes that
promote brain health in aging and disease. A current frontier in the
neurodegenerative disorder multiple sclerosis (MS) concerns the role of physical
activity for promoting brain health through protective, regenerative and adaptive
neural processes. Research on neuromodulation, raises the possibility that
regular physical activity may mediate favourable changes in disease factors and
symptoms associated with MS, in part through changes in neuroactive proteins.
Insulin-like growth factor-I appears to act as a neuroprotective agent and
studies indicate that exercise could promote this factor in MS. Neurotrophins,
brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and nerve growth factor likely play
roles in neuronal survival and activity-dependent plasticity. Physical activity
has also been shown to up-regulate hippocampal BDNF, which may play a role in
mood states, learning and memory to lessen the decline in cognitive function
associated with MS. In addition, exercise may promote anti-oxidant defences and
neurotrophic support that could attenuate CNS vulnerability to neuronal
degeneration. Exercise exposure (preconditioning) may serve as a mechanism to
enhance stress resistance and thereby may support neuronal survival under
heightened stress conditions. Considering that axonal loss and cerebral atrophy
occur early in the disease, exercise prescription in the acute stage could
promote neuroprotection, neuroregeneration and neuroplasticity and reduce
long-term disability. This review concludes with a proposed conceptual model to
connect these promising links between exercise and brain health.

This is a fairly new topic requiring further research, however, there are positive signs that exercise is beneficial to those of us with MS and a possible source of rehabilitation, my idea being that you must exercise the affected areas. We don't want to just come up with compensatory actions for what we may have lost, but make new neural connections or pathways for the affected areas. As humans we have a tendency to take the easy way, path of least resistance and all that. We should probably be exercising those parts of us that offer the greatest resistance in order to promote nerve growth, regeneration, and rewiring. I once talked to a paraplegic who said he wanted to keep up an exercise routine to keep his non-working muscles in shape so he'd be ready for the day when scientists came up with an effective treatment for his spinal cord injury and he'd be able to walk again. Even if exercise doesn't work to completely restore what we may have lost, at least we'll be keeping in shape and we'll be ready for the day when a cure is found.

In case you weren't aware of it, this is Brain Awareness Week. Are you aware?

S.

I will address neurogenesis in a later post. There's another lecture concerning it and transplantation of neural stem cells I want to take in on Friday.

In case you weren't aware, the title of the post is from The Graduate.

I'm Published!

Today, The Atlantic Pedaler published the first of my columns on biking with MS. The series is a look at how I came to be physically active and my involvement with cycling as recreation as well as exercise. Ken is the publisher of this e-zine and if you are interested in cycling in Atlantic Canada it's free to register. It also has cycling stories from other parts of the world.

I am working on a post about neuroplasticity (I know Charles will be keen on this one) so look for that one in a day or two.

Here's my first column.

If it weren't for having MS, I wouldn't be a cyclist. Ken kindly asked me to write about my experiences with cycling and having MS, so until the bike tour I'll be writing a regular column about this illness, my journeys with my bikes, and how I've become a recreational biker.

In January 1998 I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. For the past 10 years I have been extremely lucky to have had little effect from this disease and hopefully it will continue to just remain fairly benign.

Since my diagnosis I have been a volunteer with the MS Society Atlantic Division in many capacities, mostly as a speaker or MC at events like the Super Cities Walk. Last year, though, I participated in the Rona MS Bike Tour, biking 100 k over two days. Considering that I had been a couch potato until the year before that, it was a great accomplishment. I also managed to raise over $15,000 for the MS Society in the process.

My quest to ride began when my boyfriend, John, decided to ride in the 2006 bike tour. I said I would train with him so I hit the gym for two months before even getting on a bicycle. I have never been exercise-friendly; even going for a walk was difficult as I would easily be distracted by bugs, rocks, plants, and anything of that sort, stopping to inspect anything of interest to my nature-loving mind.

Two months at the gym and it was time to get a bike. A Canadian Tire Supercycle seemed like a good place to start (after all, I had those as a kid) so I got one - a mountain bike. I soon discovered that biking was my sport. We hit the trails around HRM (Halifax Regional Municipality)and pretty soon it was nothing for me to do 20k rides. And I was beginning to think that a 100 k ride for me was feasible.

John did the bike tour in 2006 and I signed up to do the one in 2007. We biked after the tour including a trek to Jack's Lake in Bedford where I had my first fall off the bike. I was so proud of my "battle scars" that I got more a couple of days later doing the Whopper Dropper in Bayer's Lake.

The physical activity was proving to be a good thing for me and my MS. I was getting in shape. Riding in the woods or on trails was a mind clearing activity. And I was addicted to riding. Going down rock strewn hills at top speed was a little disconcerting to the boyfriend, mind you. He had visions of having to explain to my parents why I was in hospital with broken bones.

MS can play havoc with your internal temperature gauge. I would over heat quite easily and that would zonk me out too fast so I began searching for something to help keep me cool (besides the tons of water I was drinking). I had a neck bandana that I put in cold water before a ride. The gel beads in the bandana would swell and retain the water, so that helped. But there was nothing out there I could put in my helmet to keep my head cool. If my head is cool, the rest of my body follows that lead. Then I discovered the inserts road crews wear under their helmets. One of those would work! I found a company that sold them, but only in cases of 12. A great guy (Stan) at K and D Pratt managed to get me a sample from the company that makes them. What a great invention!

As you all know, riding a mountain bike on pavement is tough going. So I decided to continue to train with it but was going to get myself a touring bike, too, for the actual Bike Tour. Christmas came and I got myself a Specialized touring bike from Cyclesmith. I also got a trainer so I could keep cycling until the weather cleared a little bit.

I also had to undertake fundraising. A friend I ran into one day donated $5,000! He had been looking for something for a tax break and my timing was impeccable. I harrassed my friends, neighbours and co-workers for another 5 grand.

The weather improved and pretty soon I was taking the bike out after work and on the weekends John and I would do 20-30 k rides on the trails. And we would bike with teammates from our team, the Cycledelics.

A few days before the tour, my generous friend called me to ask if I wanted another $5,000. Of course! Suddenly I had $15,000 for the Bike Tour. I was walking on air, my excitement level was almost unbearable. I was going to do this. I was going to bike 100k!

Two nights before the tour I had an "almost" panic attack. What if the heat got to me? What if I couldn't bike those hills? What if, what if, what if....I think the adrenaline rush I had experienced for an extended period of time just overwhelmed me. I calmed myself down by saying, "I'm just going for another bike ride" and pretty soon it was the morning of July 28th. I had decided to head out right away on the route as it was going to be very hot and I wanted to take advantage of the early morning coolness. Good thing, too, as the temps were at 30 by 11 in the morning.

I left Windsor at 8:10 after registration and arrived at Acadia at 12:15. I had been worried about Mount Denson, but that wasn't a tough hill. It was the last hill from the Gaspereau to the top of Ridge Road that almost did me in. I ended up walking the last 100 metres to the top and cruised down the last little bit into Acadia. I did it! It took me 4 hours and more than 3 litres of water but I did it. The next morning I would do it in reverse. In the pouring rain. Glorious, cool, wet rain that soaked me completely and kept my body at a very comfortable temperature. I had a tire flatten as I was pulling into the rest stop in Hantsport, but after it was fixed, I set out again. The return was a little slower for me and some of my teammates caught up with me, so a bunch of us were able to cross the finish line together. I did it! Former couch potato and person with MS. An athlete!

I am signed up again for this year's tour so I'm on a quest to fundraise. If you'd like to contribute to my quest, click on the link for fundraising. If you'd like to join the bike tour visit www.mssociety.ca

fundraising

S.