 after John Breslin until half past two. Now this is World Parkinson's month and today is actually World Parkinson's Day. Ireland's only dedicated to Parkinson's coach with over eight years experience is Irene Tracy and Irene joins us now on the line. Irene good afternoon to you. Hi John, how are you? Thanks for having me. What does a Parkinson's coach do? I offer emotional and physical support to people who have been diagnosed with Parkinson's and their loved ones too. Okay. Often people with Parkinson's themselves are sometimes not ready to deal with it so their partners or family members will come to me first. Yeah so that's what I do. It must be a big shock to the system to get a diagnosis like that and a shock as well for you know those closest to the patient. For sure. I'm actually from Tremor, County Waterford and I had a support group here and there was a mother and a father and daughter used to come and she said that you know the day dad was diagnosed we were all diagnosed and this is a man he was only 61, very fit, never drank, never smoked, was really baffled by it all so he and I'm not talking out of school he's shared his story many times to help raise awareness but he got depression from it and you know he just couldn't understand and that laid out through the whole family then as well so it was great that they were able to come to the support group and really help them. In that case it didn't drink or smoke and I'm sure you come across a lot of that and you know you know people who lead other ways healthy lives there's I mean what causes Parkinson's is it hereditary? No well they say maybe 5% hereditary. There's no real reason to can't pinpoint anything but it looks like a lot now from pesticides there's higher numbers growing from that a lot of younger people are getting it so stress is definitely a huge issue so you know when I when a new client would pay it back often people will have it five ten years even before diagnosis so we'll look back and see what big things happened in your life you know so it could be a sudden death or it could be a marriage breakdown or losing the business or a child you know or something like that a big shock and often if we don't regulate our nervous system the shock stays in the system you know so it's really important to learn how to regulate our nervous system for all of us that we release the stress from our body. I often think that you know maybe that's what a lot of cancer diagnosis is is caused by but but you think that maybe Parkinson's can be a result as well. Absolutely and actually a client I had a few years ago she was 19 and she just fell a guy called Claire from Claire she just fell and banged her head and it manifested and just her little toe start wiggling one day and her mother said oh what's up with your toe and she goes oh I don't know that was when she was 19 she didn't get her diagnosed till she was 24 five years later because they just didn't think that somebody so young would have Parkinson's but now I have clients in my 30s 40s 50s you know and I'm 50 and I find it really hard not hard find it really really bewildered and baffling you know that somebody younger than me can have Parkinson's you know it's just yeah because we just think it's kind of like an older person's disease but it's definitely not. I was gonna say we do associate it with you know the elderly but but not the case and and what's what's the first signs is it because it's it's it's to do with movement so the first signs must be physical. No not necessarily smell lots of smell is a big one and hand writing gone small so if you're writing then the handwriting gets smaller as it goes along that's a big sign and then the classic ones would be tremor rigidity stiffness bradykinesia like sliless of movement balance issues memory loss then you've done non-motor symptoms like anxiety depression but there's actually over 40 symptoms of Parkinson's and they look at when you see the four main ones which we stone us of movement rigidity tremors and balance if you have those then they look into it deeper and is it different for for everyone does progress at a are there different types of Parkinson's and do they progress at different rates for sure they progress at different rates and it really so much of it depends on your attitude and how you deal with Parkinson's I'll never forget I went up to a presentation in County Calvin years ago and I was doing the presentation about gratitude talking about how gratitude produces dopamine in the brain and that's the neuro transmitter that people need that we don't produce enough of so it's all about the importance of gratitude and this one was like yeah it's fine for you to be talking about gratitude you're there you don't understand and all of this you know she's really angry so I went to spoke to her afterwards you know and I said really is the anger and she'd only been diagnosed two years and she was so angry and I was explaining that that's going to bring on her symptoms more so really explain but relaxing to breathing to affirmations visualizations to really calm the nervous system that's really going to help and thankfully she took it all on board and she really did notice a difference in her. So there are various things that you can do to to to help yourself if you if you get a diagnosis and and you can have it as Parkinson's fatal. No you don't die from Parkinson's no absolutely not and there's a misconception I won't say is a misconception we're kind of told by the definition of Parkinson's that it is a degenerative neurological disorder without a cure. So often and I'm hearing this from so many clients when they're diagnosed the doctors and neurologists are preparing them for the worst. They're preparing them from a wheelchair I hear that all the time they're preparing me for a wheelchair and that will mess with your mind you know you're going to my own father actually got sick in 2019 and his doctor said to him you'll be in a wheelchair for the rest of your life and I said in the in with the doctor said no I reject that I don't accept that and he said you can do what you want with it he said but you're going to have to go home and get your house to save the friendly. I said no and I was doing all the work with my dad three weeks later he was walking John three weeks later after the doctor's telling me and he's been a wheelchair forever you know so it's it's there's so much we can do one of my clients from Cork Tony Wilkinson and I did a presentation John and Cork I'd say about eight years ago and I was doing a demonstration with smoothies which is these exercise tools that were invented by a man with Parkinson's so I was doing a demonstration in the hall and then I said okay let's go for a walk with them and Tony has a cane and he said I can't walk with that because I've got a cane and I explained that the vibrations from the tool help like it's kind of connects into the nervous system and it'll help you stay more alert and it's good for your balance he started laughing he goes yeah yeah sure let's just try it so he started doing it and he was able to walk with them that same guy to the Cork half marathon and under three years two years ago. So you know sometimes he didn't get worse. Many people don't get worse. Yeah you know I loved the phrase from Henry Ford whether you believe you can or you can't you're right. Yeah and he and Henry Ford of course over his lifetime improved that there's a lot that you can do and when you get a diagnosis of Parkinson's going to you would be a good you know first reference point and you you help people then along the way or initially or at various times how does it work well I've been doing it for eight years so when I started I've been working with people Parkinson's ten years but a Parkinson's coach eight years when I started it was all different ages you know different you know how long they were diagnosed completely various like yesterday I had a client here was who was here for 30 he has Parkinson's 32 years okay I also spoke to a client the other day who was already diagnosed a few weeks ago so it really really varies. I personally now after working for so long really want to work with people who've been newly diagnosed because I find and this is obviously no disrespect I worked with a lady as I say who had Parkinson's 32 years ago yesterday I won't say no to working with people I will help anybody but it really comes down to the client themselves and whether they want to be helped I notice older people they would say but the doctor said I can't do that the doctor said I can't the doctor said you know so they're conditioned not to work with it and as my dad used to say he who's convinced against his will is of his own opinion still so years ago I used to be like come on come on you can do it I'd be doing the exercise for them nearly but they have to come and do it themselves so I find younger people especially if they've got kids you know young kids they're they're really they fight for it more they want more they're hungry for and they believe in healing more and they believe in you know natural therapies and they believe in breathwork there's so much science around breathwork you know from some of the top neurologists in the world and this helps regulate our nervous system I say breathwork to older people and they just laugh at me you know they say I've been breathing for 60 years 70 years I know how to breathe they don't take it you know whereas younger people because they can go on YouTube and see the likes of William Hoff, Dr Andrew Hooperman, Dr Joe Dispenza all of these world-renowned doctors are saying how breathwork can just change everything so younger people are more for it and I see a bigger difference and that's I want to make a difference to people's lives so that's kind of what I'm doing you also have had experience in in hotel management and you put that experience to good use by offering retreats down at Tremor for those Parkinson's yeah yeah yeah I used to live in Lanzarote so I started it there um people come and live with me and I got the idea from one of my clients who had Parkinson's 17 years and she just said oh I mean I just wish I met you when I was firstly diagnosed I just want to come and live with you so you can give me all your knowledge you know it's like that's a good idea so it started so I started it in Lanzarote and my clients come from America clients come from the UK so I just moved back home to Tremor two weeks two weeks yesterday so I've got a brand new apartment in my house renovated a brand new apartment so I'm doing three-day retreats here in Tremor again looking for newly diagnosed people because you know for the for the reasons I said now in saying that I got my first book in yesterday from a lady from Roscommon in her seven she's 70 but she's only been diagnosed last year and her husband rang up and he said did did I hear that you do retreats in your house in in Tremor I said that's right so my wife can come and stay with you for three days and you'll tell her everything she needs to know Jesus that's fantastic he was delighted with that he was just lovely so we were talking on the phone for ages and he was there like that's some service you know the lady herself is dyslexic she doesn't use computers she doesn't read so she was really like oh what can I do so just talking through the phone with her we just had a reconnection even over the phone not even on zoom they don't even have email you know so this was a whole new world for her so it's it's fantastic to be able to do that and I suppose anyone who gets a diagnosis of a serious illness there's a clamour for information and you want to find out you know what's the outcome going to be and what do I need to do and all you have all sorts of questions and that's where you come in and people don't have to be there physically because they can connect with you on zoom yes yeah I do coaching on zoom as well as a person I used to have a studio here in Tremor before COVID and then sure that closed down obvious reasons so I had to learn zoom like the rest of the world and then that opened me up to the world you know so I've clients in America Australia Switzerland all over England yeah oh what would you advise for a 70 year old man with Parkinson's should he continue as normal is heavy work advised is heavy work heavy work yeah heavy as in lifting things heavy I would imagine so yeah yeah well I would continue keep keeping on with work you know as long as it's not like literally so heavy it's going to break your back hurt your back but physical exercise is really important and like if that's heavy exercise heavy lifting but again taking you know mind is back in that but heavy lifting or you know even heavy housework you know if you can build up a sweat with anything that you're doing it produces BDNF which is called brain derived neuro traffic factor and that's like miracle growth for the brain it's like protecting your neurons so it's like neurogenesis we can produce new neurons and when you build up a sweat for that so any exercise any you know labor work or gardening you know if you're gardening give it socks and give it a good go you know high interval training just so much you can do extra like exercise is as important as medication just a traveling trainer to be lifting too many bags of heavy coal yeah well if he's if he's a heap of fish you know mind your back lift with your knees bend with your knees if if someone's listening now and and would like to get in touch like to find out more like to and get some advice and some coaching how can they how can they connect with you yeah my website is helping people with Parkinson's dot com and I also have a free webinar this evening at eight o'clock and this is my top tips top 10 tips to slow the progression of Parkinson's and then next Saturday because April it's all it's World Parkinson's month April today's World Parkinson's Day so next Saturday I have my top tips on how to produce dopamine naturally that's the newer transmitter we're missing and coincidentally I found out last year I've ADHD which is bizarre because that's also deficiency in dopamine so so much of my life is now making sense you know so it's all kind of blending in and then on the 25th I'm doing another webinar for people who have newly been diagnosed so all those details are though on my website helping people with Parkinson's dot com okay iron it's been a pleasure keep up the good work and thanks for having a chat with us on World Parkinson's Day appreciate it thank you very much now free and John appreciate it thanks bye