I wonder if they could learn to swim again? Essentially become AOS?

---

"...the street finds its own uses for things"

i can't view the NYTimes article, so have questions:

Is the loss of swimming technique due to the Parkinson's or due to the brain implant ? Or a combination of the two?

Can some of the swim smoothness be relearned, and if so, is it better than learning completey as if the person had never been a swimmer ? What i am trying to ask is: is there some sort of hidden residual 'memory' of the technique that can be re-developed ?

---

run well, run happy
george

The problem seems to come from a disruption of the centers of the brain that coordinate movements. I’d be interested in seeing if musicians also experience problems. But back to swimming, this must be a profound disruption to affect a lifelong activity. Amazing how a small area of the brain is implicated in the lifelong coordination of swimming.

Maybe another hypothesis is that us adult onset swimmers are unable to appropriately access this circuitry of the brain to manage the timing of movements in the right firing pattern in a non gravitational environment. Childhood swimmers like fish develop that circuitry. The rest of us are trying to get to that part of the brain, but its off limits for us???

But it only happened in a small set of the patients, other patients could still swim. I do wonder if they looked into the time span (number of years) and amount (frequency) of swimming the patients did. Is there a difference between the ones who stopped being able to swim, and those who were not affected.

This would be hard to imagine, and quite frustrating if this were one of us. I think I had a similar experience lately, but with a guitar. I learned to play at about 12 years old, but just played occasionally over the next years. Then I stopped, but picked up guitar every 4 or 5 years, and could still play a few songs I had learned. I picked up a guitar the other day after maybe 15 years of nothing, put my fingers on the frets, and not one song came to them. I sat there kind of perplexed, noting came to me, not one single riff I had played over and over. It was very frustrating, not sure what happened, except that I just forgot it all.

It did make me think I need to buy another and begin again. Just to see if it all comes back quickly or not, but at least I can still swim...(-;

I suspect that most if not all of the "swimmers" in this study were casual swimmers, the kind that swim 10-15 min per swim, or swim very slow breaststroke (like 5:00/100 yd) for an hour or so. I highly doubt that any of these swimmers have a super smooth stroke derived from 20 million or more yards in the pool. I highly doubt that this would happen to very experienced swimmers, espec if they keep swimming 6-7 days per week throughout their "senior years". :)

---

"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

Brain implant? I thought they discovered Parkinson's mechanism. It is a protein produced in the gut, responsible for spreading through the peripheral nervous system from the gut to the brain, destroying neurons along the way. Apparently protein is produced in a gut with unhealthy (whatever that means, research is still ongoing) microbiome (chrons or IBS etc etc....). It has been known that half of all Parkinson's patients have had lifelong gastrointestinal issues, but no one connected the dots until recently.

Anyway I'm no expert. Just like to read science journals. What would a brain implant accomplish here?

"At first, doctors thought the case of the man in the lake was an isolated event, Dr. Christian R. Baumann, an author of the paper, said in an interview.
But when the same thing happened to another patient, one who had been a competitive swimmer, Dr. Baumann and his colleagues began to ask other patients about swimming. They found seven more cases among about 250 patients."

It appears to not matter.

---

"...the street finds its own uses for things"

This has nothing to do with "(re-)learning" how to swim.

(coincidentally, I forwarded this article to my orthopedic surgeon, who happens to be an Ironman triathlete, who has developed Parkinson's (thus ending his surgical career) and who also recently had these implants. His response: "I have compromised breathing synchronization, on the right side only. Some lack of coordinated movement is also present". Not sure what that means.)

---

----------------------------------
"Go yell at an M&M"

Not all children develop that circuitry, and not all AOS are unable to develop that circuitry.

---

----------------------------------
"Go yell at an M&M"

Parkinson's is a shit disease. My mother did triathlons until her mid 60s, inline skate races, etc. and Parkinson's took it all away. She now needs an aide to do nearly everything, while in her early 80s she would still do mile races/fun runs. She still has the drive to walk and does that with the help of an aide. She works out with a personal trainer daily, for therapeutic exercise. No more swimming, cycling, running, or even self toileting or showering. The disease strips one's dignity.

The disease takes away the brain's ability to initiate movement. Part of the brain initiates movement and another part of the brain keeps movement going. There are times it can take 10 or 15 minutes for a person just to stand up, because the initiation part of the brain doesn't work. The patient knows how to stand up, they have the muscles to stand up, but can't get the initiation part of the brain to work. The disease leads to depression in the majority of patients.

A shit disease.

It says "had been a competitive swimmer". The Q I would have is did he/she keep swimming 6-7 days/wk across their lifetime??? I think you are much less likely to develop any type of issues if you stay extremely active. That is all. :)

---

"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

Yes, it’s easier for the brain of a kid to learn new skills, but the biggest reason triathletes without a swim background have a tough time getting better at swimming is they don’t swim enough and when they do swim they are overtrained from the bike and the run. There isn’t any ability at that point for the brain to learn that new skill.

---

http://www.magnoliamasters.com
http://www.snappingtortuga.com
http://www.swimeasyspeed.com