An Interesting Thought About Task Specific Focal Dystonia

[tubapress]

Hi all,

Let me start simply by saying PLEASE watch this video! I must also begin by stating that have not been diagnosed with task specific focal dystonia (TSFD)...mainly because I have not approached any doctor inquiring about it. I do have my suspicions, however, based on challenges and symptoms I have encountered in my playing over the years. TSFD has claimed the playing careers of some of our biggest and brightest stars in the tuba world, particularly. I have done some reading about possible causes and current treatments (some of which are so treacherous to your health [e.g. botox] in general that living with such a condition is far preferable). From what I can tell, it all seems like guesswork. No one really knows for sure why this happens. Some amazing work has been done by Jan Kagarice and Joaquin Fabra. They have helped some recover and resume their playing careers after a slow retraining of the muscles and burning new neuropaths (I have certainly oversimplified so apologies to Jan/Joaquin if I misrepresented). I began to wonder if there wasn't a somewhat simpler solution.

Enter Dr. Terry Wahls. My wife stumbled across this video of her TED Talk one evening and we watched it together. Because beer and pizza were not mentioned as key foods in this diet, I was not all that keen on watching at first. But I hung in there....and I'm glad I did. This woman's story left us stunned, inspired, moved....and for me, hopeful. Wahls developed Stage 2 Multiple Sclerosis and through her research, she cured herself without drugs...with FOOD!

Will this work for TSFD? I don't know, to be honest. I don't present this as a miracle cure by any stretch. but I think it is well worth a try and I intend to give it a go. It is certainly less expensive and much tastier than medications and doctors visits. And certainly, whether or not you suffer from TSFD, it is very likely this can improve your health 10 fold! I post this with the hope it may help TSFD sufferers, undiagnosed but suspicious TSFD sufferers and non-sufferers alike

Please take 17:47 out of your day and watch this video. It is potentially life-changing.

Thanks for reading!

GP

[Wes Krygsman]

Thanks for that! I just got into the Paleo diet myself and while it's extremely difficult to change bad habits (playing wise or eating wise), replacing with newer better habits is always worth it. Very inspirational video. Can't thank you enough.

[tubapress]

Thanks Wes. Yes, I know it will be hard for me to do as well. I liked your very Jacobsean observation that this is not changing bad habits, but replacing them with new good habits.

[gwwilk]

A word of caution is in order here. Anecdotal reports of personal experience doesn't equal double-blind controlled experimental proof. If this dietary cure were universally applicable to M.S. some enterprising scientist would have demonstrated it conclusively long ago. Her story is compelling, and it makes you want to follow in her footsteps. Yet something is missing here, and it's corroborative evidence. One convincing tale doesn't constitute scientific proof.

Read this from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society: http://www.nationalmssociety.org/living ... ndex.aspx"

I suspect that as in most adult-onset chronic progressive diseases characterized by relapses and remissions we'll have a very difficult time sorting out all of the contributory causal factors involving M.S. not only because the requisite double-blind controlled experiments would be difficult and unethical but also because there are probably several to many sub-types of the disease that need to be identified and then isolated in a difficult-to-achieve controlled setting.

On the other hand, this diet will NOT be harmful while it COULD be beneficial on its own merits aside from any putative therapeutic efficacy.

[tubapress]

Exactly. This approach effectively cured Terry Wahls and she raises some very interesting thoughts about how to activate our body's natural defenses. Will this work for others or be helpful for those suffering from TSFD or other neurological maladies. No one knows, but it is true that this approach cannot hurt you...it can only be healthy. And who knows...it might even prove to be helpful in the fight against TSFD. At the bare minimum, we might extend our lives. That in itself is a noble cause.

[MaryAnn]

Go for it and report back. Even if it doesn't help with the TSFD, it may make you feel immensely better. Be ready, however, for some intestinal reaction if you try to change your diet abruptly....you might want to ease into it, both for help with starting a new habit, and for help in your system not saying EEEK too loudly.

2011 Neuroscience conference had the results of a trial she did with this treatment for MS, using patients just like her. I didn't google it, but she referred to it at the end of her talk. So no double blind trials to date, but a trail nonetheless.

Scientists have not been trumpeting this because there is no money in treating disease with food; the money is in drugs, and no one will fund a study that is not designed to help them market a drug. That is a no-brainer nowadays.

On TSFD: the best explanation I read was in a book about brain plasticity. I was astonished to come on a page or so about TSFD in this book, after reading a huge amount about plasticity. In my own words, which are probably not that accurate, when the brain perceives that several muscles are generally used together, it decides to become more efficient and activate them all together. The most obvious example is with instruments that use fingers to play, like woodwinds or keyboard. Suddenly two fingers will activate instead of just one, when the person is only intending to activate just one. It can be reversed with work in this instance because it's possible to force one finger to move without the other one and change the brain back to where it was, or at least similar to where it was. With an embouchure, it's just damn near impossible to isolate and restrain the unwanted muscular movement (or whatever is going on) and so there is a problem reversing it. Of course TSFD manifests in other ways.....as locked chops, chops that won't hold still, or whatever. People rarely do overcome it....seek out Dave Vining's blog to read how he overcame his locked-chops version of FD. He does, however, say it is always there in the background.

To avoid developing TSFD, what has to be done is never, ever, just down-and-dirty-I'm-going-to-get-this-thing-under-my-chops practice. That is THE ROAD to TSFD, that teaching your brain that a particular pattern of muscle use always occurs together. If it learns that, it will decide it only needs one signal to activate that muscle pattern, and away you go into TSFD. Instead, widely vary your practice and have patience, patience, patience when your body is trying to learn something. Don't just keep pounding away at it.

MA