A diagnosis of Parkinson's Disease can be devastating because the understanding that most doctors and patients have is that the condition is degenerative with an expectation of worsening symptoms. In this episode you will meet John Coleman who through unbelievable personal adversity reversed his Parkinson's symptoms and went on to support over 3000 other people diagnosed with the same condition.
A diagnosis of Parkinson's Disease can be devastating because the understanding that most doctors and patients have is that the condition is degenerative with an expectation of worsening symptoms. In this episode you will meet John Coleman who through unbelievable personal adversity reversed his Parkinson's symptoms and went on to support over 3000 other people diagnosed with the same condition.
John, I've known of you for so many years, decades, and I've come across your name in different spheres of life, different conferences, people have mentioned you, but I've actually never connected with you. So nice to meet you at last.
John Coleman:It is it's wonderful to meet up with you. So same I've known of you and your great work, and it's good to chat at last.
Daniel Baden:So John, you have one of the most remarkable stories I've heard often, but your condition, Parkinson's disease is significant, the symptoms can be significant. medicine doesn't offer you that much hope. And subsequently, you're just left to destiny with an expectation of increasing pharmaceuticals, and eventual palliative care. I don't think there's any other nicer way to put it. I'm
Unknown:Well, okay. Well, there was a family interest in I began studying Naturopathy in 1980. Because of my partly because of my son's illness, he had leukaemia. So that taught me a lot. And then I began studying again, in 1990. And in 1995. In the middle of my studies, I collapsed. At work, I was working at a major hospital, and what quickly I was diagnosed with advanced Parkinson's disease and
John Coleman:Yeah, I think the Americans call it fake it till you make it. really difficult situation with two other children, both of whom were needy in a terrible house. With no heating, no hot water, no toilet, no bathroom, just a drafty old house with a outside, Danny that she had to dig holes for every week. And if you wanted to bath any of us, she had to heat up water on the fire stoves or wood stove. If she had to chop the wood. She was a good half hour walk or That's right. Well, I spent a lot of my life faking it. So I'm just beginning to understand that after researching a lot of papers, medical literature, complementary literature, I looked for counseling, and found some really good people and some not so good people. And then I found a remarkable guy called Peter Clark, who was a flower essence counselor. And Peter, worked with me for two
Daniel Baden:so sorry to interrupt the listeners, they wouldn't know what flower essences are, what do flower essences mean to you.
Unknown:Flower essences are often flowers, but parts of plants that have any innate energy, and it's a very Gumi Gumi esoteric thing to explain, but our ancestors have known for 1000s of years that plants as well as giving us nutrients, and, and minerals, vitamins, etc. They also have an energy and, and perhaps we can feel that best if we're out in in a park or, or in the bush when the whole
Daniel Baden:Thats a very nice explanation.
Unknown:So I found that enormously helpful. I also found a homoeopath, who was prepared to work with me, who, as she said later, didn't really know what was what was going to help me but I was so pigheaded. She decided she had to help work with me. And she used lots of remedies issues, Classical Homeopathy, she was very empathetic. And she also helped with counseling. So I gradually worked changed from left brain speech to right brain singing, and things work well. So that then I was able to find that walking was terrible, I fell so often. But if I dance, so if I sang to myself, and I danced like some of our indigenous people who dances they bought or Native American Indians. Yeah, and, and Africans in a day, they kind of dance in their ward. So I tried to mimic that singing music
Daniel Baden:You've been through this yourself. And obviously you've experienced what you could do to improve your life situation. I imagine that you've dealt with a number of Parkinson's patients throughout your career because, you know, like, attracts like, yes. Have you found a similarity across other patients that singing and dancing may have helped them communicate better?
John Coleman:Absolutely. Absolutely. And this has been a theme because communication is very difficult for people with the symptoms. And and I want to just put in at this stage, I don't consider Parkinson's disease to be a disease. Okay. I see it as a set of symptoms, which are fairly broad in number, but there are common symptoms, like tremor, paucity of movement, fixed facial expression,
Daniel Baden:Okay, and what about other I mean, the vagus nerve travels, obviously, from the from the head and it ends up going all the way down to the pelvic floor really, branches of it in through the lungs. So, would you expect that by Breathing vagal tone a lot of the associated symptoms throughout the upper torso particularly will generally improve that
John Coleman:they do improve theta. And and there's a lot of conservative research now into that phenomenon. But also, we need to remember that that yes, these symptoms manifest from neurotransmitter deficiencies. So return dopamine, serotonin color, domain, anandamide, etc. Now, most of those neurotransmitters are made in the gut. And they transferred to the brain along the vagus nerve. So vagal
Daniel Baden:That's really interesting. And it ties into some research that came out this year. In fact, just last week, that talked about some unusual bacteria found in the gut of Parkinson's patients. Now, I don't know if that's if Parkinson's causes these bacteria, or these bacteria cause Parkinson's or it's just an anomaly, but it's something interesting to note particularly with, with
John Coleman:it, it is, and, and it's, it's something to be interested in and not take too literally, because I've looked at that research also. We we know that, that two important things happening in the gut one is the production of neurotransmitters, such as 70% of dopamine 90%, of serotonin 70 80%, of anandamide. But we also know that alpha nucleon is made in the bowel and the appendix and
Daniel Baden:Yeah, that it also to my mind. And please correct me if I'm wrong ties in with other research around Parkinson's and other neurodegenerative conditions, talking about exposure to toxins, environmental toxins, particularly, it's interesting, you know, you can be exposed to toxins early in life in your teens or 20s, and not develop the symptoms of Parkinson's, or other new neuro
John Coleman:see that these age onset, neurodegenerative disorders, manifesting and accumulation of influences. So the three groups of causes were ideological pathways to neuro degeneration, in my view, a trauma and high stress, toxins from our food environment, agriculture, industry, personal products, etc. And a certain group of infections primarily stilt infections. Now, what I seen in all don't understand all the mechanisms yet. We know that teenagers who have been brought up on dairy products have a much higher risk of early fractures, particularly girls. We know that people with dairy products have a higher risk of breast cancer and prostate cancer as well as other disorders. Now another, Hatton, I see is that a patient may have had general toxic exposure and, and stress but
Daniel Baden:If you look at the medical approach to Parkinson's, it's often said that it's got a strong genetic component. And I would seek your comment around that because to my way of thinking, it's not so much a genetic component, because if you say it's generic, it almost in medicine almost throws it away goes generic, there's not much you can do about it, just deal with it. But to me, the
John Coleman:Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. This was a very significant time in my Life. I mean, I adored my kids. And I was at the time in a very stressful work as well. And when Damien was diagnosed and he was diagnosed initially by an integrative GP fabulous guy, who then referred us directly to a major hospital, and the brutality of the treatment in that hospital was in some ways worse and these were just written off as you know, you're busy your stress, blah, blah, have a holiday. Well, it couldn't have a holiday, because I was working too hard now. Yeah, ma'am, little gap. So there was a lot going on. And then, a few years after Damien's death, my marriage fell apart, there was divorce, and then a few bit three months after separation, I lost my job. And I'd been in the senior
Daniel Baden:John, that's a significant experience that you've had personally. How do you manage that when you see patients with similar life experiences or how you know, other stresses? How do you help them through that because everyone has stress?
John Coleman:Yes, they do. But I mean, there are strategies handling significant stress and and a terror response to stress is important. So if he turned, shall we say, ordinary stressful life? We can look at strategies of me adaptation, EFT, maybe we use some homeopathy or herbs or flowers such as just to allay that response to stress. So if this is not the major, significant driver of
Daniel Baden:Do you feel that with your son's passing and the grief that would have come with that, that you ever dealt with that appropriately at that time?
John Coleman:No, no, I was not permitted to grieve. And, and I did not permit myself to grow because I felt that I had responsibilities. My then wife, who bless her heart, she's never dead. But she was she was a wonderful mum. But she couldn't cope with me being sad. And so she would say, you know, don't be sad when you come home, I can't fewer that I was not able to talk in my work environment.
Daniel Baden:Right. Okay. So when you hit your diagnosis of Parkinson's, who received a diagnosis, somewhere along the line, I read that you had quoted that you had lost everything? What does that mean? You eat? Are we talking about relationships, money? Health, anything else?
John Coleman:Yeah, I think I think that was it. You're so lost my, my family and loss sheets, even though I was seeing my, my son, on a regular basis, I felt that there was a remoteness here, I'd left my job but lost my money, I'd lost my house, lost my car. I sold off a lot of other assets, to pay bills. And then my one hope was that I could finish my advanced diploma as it was then in
Daniel Baden:Yeah. You have another hope. And that was your other son, Shawn. Yes. And Shawn, I understand was your absolute pillar of strength. And
John Coleman:he's a wonderful human being. But he was a very frightened person. When I was diagnosed, I was 52. He was 3222. So he was 22. He was finishing uni. And it was very scary for him because you're I watched his brother dives, looking at his dad and I was very unwell. So the there was a separation for a while the Shawn and I rebuilt her relationship and he's, he's a hero in my life. The
Daniel Baden:You walked Kokoda
Unknown:Yeah and that was, again, a remarkable experience because I, I was not aware that I was developing neuro degeneration, but obviously slow was and one of the effects was altitude sickness from 800 meters, and most of the Kokoda track is above 800 meters. So I was exhausted, I was always behind. And then Sean injured his ankle. So after three days, so we were carving, and about one day's
Daniel Baden:It's certainly when you when you have those experience when you're traveling and strangers just provide that unbelievable kindness. It's so reassuring, isn't it? As a human?
Unknown:Yeah, I tried to. I thought, no, no.
Daniel Baden:When did you feel that your journey to recovery had started? I know, you've seen a number of different therapists. I also know that you had some unfortunate experiences with the medical profession. And you'd got through those. And I suppose at some point, you decided to follow a more holistic slash naturopathic approach. And could you talk to that? You know, what took you to that
Unknown:Well, perhaps I need to look at the first steps. First, I think the first step was Hainsworth Koch his influence in sending me to a cranial sacral therapist. And I noticed that that helped mitigate some symptoms some of the time. So that gave me a little word, and, and Hein also talked about food to me. And then I saw a neurologist, a sort of Professor of experimental neurology, who I
Daniel Baden:You must be a very strong person because most people who are diagnosed with a significant disease, pay attention or have reverence of the professor. And so I'm curious how you, you know, with your history and background and him to be honest lack of privilege as a young child, you know, where that strength of character comes from John?
Unknown:I don't know, I think experience, one of my advantages, I think is my age, because I experienced doctors when they were doctors, you know, we, in when I was a kid, the GP came to the house, and he talked to me, and he talked to the, my mother or my father and said, Look, you know, this boy needs rest, because I had asthma as a child, and then I had rheumatic fever six times, and, and you
Daniel Baden:One of the early influences for you was a naturopath, Haynesworth Cook, and then to earth he said, he talked to you about food, was there any significant dietary change that he encouraged you to make? And did you make it?
John Coleman:I did what I could so he wanted me to eat, you know, a lot of vegetables and, and fresh food and whatever he he was of the old school of still consuming animal dairy and, and whole grains. But he encouraged me to improve my diet not to have fast foods and whatever, right? And what about my best? It was difficult. Daniel, it was very difficult because I was living. I was in a
Daniel Baden:of dietary advice would you give to a Parkinson's patient now with all of your experience, okay,
John Coleman:eat lots of food, lots of good clean protein, lots of vegetables, a good variety of fruit, no grains, no animal dairy, no sugar, no caffeine, and little or no alcohol.
Daniel Baden:Very good. That's kind of an anti inflammatory sort of diet.
John Coleman:Absolutely. Because we know there's significant inflammation involved in disorders like Parkinson's,
Daniel Baden:and do you prescribe or recommend any probiotics or other supplements or herbal medicines?
Unknown:Yeah, yeah, I do. First of all, there's there's some where I call the basics, and we know that it's difficult to get adequate nutrition from food in certain areas, even even if we eat really, really well and this week rowing in itself so I always prescribed some vitamin C, magnesium, for gut nerve health and brain health. The vitamin B complex, which is you know, always good for energy and
Daniel Baden:these products, something you take short term to get to a point or are they a lifelong type of medicine?
John Coleman:Both some people, take them until they will, and then decide to stop them some carry on, I still take them at very low dose because I feel that, you know, it's helping my overall wellness by keeping the HPA Axis comm by hydrating the cells, as you know, a lot of people take them lifelong for general health.
Daniel Baden:Okay, and what about other lifestyle factors like exercise, for example, and sleep? How do you manage all of that.
John Coleman:So again, I, I give my patients a little handbook, which I know your listeners can't see. But it's a handbook, which details the foods to read the supplements to take the sort of exercise that will help them and we know that aerobic exercise will help. Even if they are care bound, they can still exercise the upper body, they can lift their feet and knees while they're sitting.
Daniel Baden:John you've seen 3000 odd patients with Parkinson's? How would you define your overall results? With everything you apply that we've just talked about?
John Coleman:It's a difficult one, because a lot of people drop out. And if I go back to an earlier remark, you know, you said that most people see or hold reverence for the medical profession and what the doctor says. And a lot of people find it most difficult to make the transition from being told what to do. And doing it yourself because I can't make anybody will. I can only give them advice
Daniel Baden:John, you've treated yourself successfully. If we said the word cure, could we apply that to other people? Do you believe that through naturopathic medicines, and beliefs and meditation and everything else we do? That cure is possible for Parkinson's disease?
John Coleman:Yeah, I don't I'm sorry. I don't like to use the word cure. Because I don't think we're cured. I think we still have a disease potential. But we've recovered we no longer in the illness process, and we have no symptoms. But yes, it's happened. So Lionel was an 86 year old, who came to see me he was much more severe. He needed help with everything. He was on enormous medication list. know, she's walking she belongs to two gymnasiums. She goes to pull up. So you know, sometimes people are getting well. Yes, I don't always hear about it.
Daniel Baden:It also depends on the level of support with every chronic disease or set of symptoms, the level of human support that these people have around them, whether it's family or friends, seems to be one of the most critical factors in every parties recovery from everything. Yeah, and the biggest curse is possibly loneliness.
John Coleman:Well, you know, my, my wife says that, you know, family is a real F word. And they can be so fabulous. And they can be effing awful. And, and I've watched people die because of family. Yeah, because there was so suppressed and bullied. And to, you know, you gotta do what the doctor says, blah, blah, blah. And the only way out was to die. And that's tragic when that happens. But
Daniel Baden:John, just in closing, if someone has a diagnosis and medical diagnosis of Parkinson's disease, what would be something you would suggest to them to help them on their way to a better opportunity for recovery?
John Coleman:Well, I've written a book.
Daniel Baden:What is that book John's book called
John Coleman:rethinking Parkinson's disease. And it's a big book for hundreds of pages. And it's available online if they go on to Amazon, or on to rethinking Parkinson's dot com. So we'll find all the details. And that will give them just about everything that I've talked about today.
Daniel Baden:Wonderful, that is great. And how can people get in touch with you if they need to,
John Coleman:via that website, rethinking Parkinson's dot com, there's a Contact Me button there. And they can contact me, I get loads and loads and loads of emails. So it will take me some time to respond. But I will respond.
Daniel Baden:There are currently 32 people diagnosed with Parkinson's every day in Australia, currently about 100,000 patients. And that's expected to double over the next five years, because the population is aging. And we're also probably been more exposed to toxins and other stressors in their lives. So, you know, it's such an important area, and I'm so grateful that you could spend some
John Coleman:Thank you, Daniel. I've enjoyed myself, thank
Daniel Baden:you. Okay, take care. Bye. If you feel that this story could be of benefit to you, or someone you know, please like it and share it. If you have a health story yourself and feel that sharing, it might make a difference to another person, please head over to our website, a patient's story.com We would love to hear from you. And as a reminder, in this podcast and on our website, the