Warm greetings and thank you for accepting my friend request.
Most of you don't know me from Adam. My name is Glen and I am an engineer, scientist, and consultant.
In 2008, at the age of 39, my left index finger began shaking. By 2011 I was diagnosed with "Parkinson's Disease" (PD), an idiopathic bucket diagnosis, really just a classification of symptoms stemming from a myriad of causes. The symptoms generally consist of tremors, rigidity, and slowness of movement. The symptoms are for awhile responsive to medications that replace the neurotransmitter dopamine in the brain, as it is thought that an area in the midbrain called the substantia nigra is no longer producing adequate dopamine to properly control movements.
By 2013, I was taking massive doses of drugs and they were recommending brain surgery. The surgery would not stop the disease, and I viewed it as dangerous and unpredictable.
With the thought of two 6mm holes being drilled through my brain in order to facilitate more years of drugs, I decided it was time to get exceedingly clever. As Matt Damon's character in "The Martian" exclaims upon being marooned on Mars - "Well I guess I'll have to science the s--t out of this!"
I did so. I made some really important observations about diet, exercise, and sunlight that were just being overlooked, but yet were as simple as a walk in the sun to the supermarket. This raised the question in my mind as to whether my observations, focusing on nervous system health and performance, would just help everyone.
As a result I've reduced my medications by 95% and avoided brain surgery for almost 3-1/2 years now. I also got rid of acid reflux, digestive disorders, allergies, asthma, and problematic cholesterol. I have better energy and lost over 40 pounds. I've been in the top 5 out of 500 employees in my firm for going on 4 years now.
And my first thought was to begin helping people by getting the word out. So I wrote a book entitled "Powerful Food And A Walk In The Sun", which is available on Amazon Kindle. I also post important observations on this blog, and I do regular blog-radio shows through
www.parkinsonsrecovery.com . I know I've helped hundreds, perhaps thousands. Nothing negative.
The book has been selected by the World Parkinson's Congress for the 2016 convention in Portland Oregon.
I asked to be your friend because since 1 in 200 people develop it, you all know someone who has it. I selected many of you because you have PD, clearly knew someone with PD, or were a part of a PD advocacy organization. Many of you just appeared interesting-at-first-sight, and there's room in the lifeboat (LOL).
Thank you again, and God bless you all,
Glen Pettibone
