Hello Jack, Your e-mail just arrived at a moment that I was asking myself the same = question. Feeling obliged to my physique I bought a bicycle about 4 = weeks ago. Not to exaggerate things I started to make trips of 20 km = (~13 miles) for about 2 weeks, twice a week. After I overcame the infamous saddle-pain I increased it the third week = to double that distance. I noticed though on one occasion that my right = leg felt completely paralyzed and since this was the very first time = this happened to me, it scared me a lot.=20 Last Monday I was bold enough to go for a 70 km ride. Except for being = dog-tired it was a satisfactory ride and I felt proud. The subsequent = night I slept very restlessly and the next day I felt some sort of = depressed. It is now Friday as I write this and only today I feel a bit = better.=20 I've been affected by PD mainly on my right side and according to my = physician it is a question of time that also my left side will be = tainted. Only this week had I problems with my left hand, which as = already said is recovering a little today. I haven't been on my bicycle = this week anymore, since I feel a bit shaky about it. I was surprised to read that you had a similar kind of experience too. I = was thinking maybe that I used so much dopamine in the exercises, that = it took almost 4 days to feel a bit better. I wonder if you stopped also and felt better after a few days as well. I'm not going to stop bicycling though, but what I would have imagined = to be good for my body and soul turned out sour on me and makes me feel = even more shaky about my future. By the way I'm not taking any medications, since the negative = side-effects didn't weigh against the positive ones. Hope this add some to your information. Regards, Jan Rolff ---------- From: JACK TIBBS[SMTP:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Thursday, August 08, 1996 22:29 PM To: Multiple recipients of list PARKINSN Subject: I have a problem --snip-- All this was not unexpected but the decreased physical activity meant = that I was becoming unfit. Not liking the thought of that and feeling = that a good level of physical fitness should leave me better equipped to = cope with Parkinson's I borrowed an exercise bicycle from a friend and = started to go to work on that. Which brings me to my question. I have = been using the bicycle now for a few months and my cardiovascular system = is presumably no worse for it. But I am less sure about the absence of = an effect on Parkinson's. I feeI I have deteriorated recently more = rapidly than previously and that this deterioration has paralleled the = use of the bicycle. So my question is- "What is known about possible factors which speed up the deterioration = arising from Parkinson's and is fairly strenuous exercise likely to be = one of these?" I shall be very pleased to hear from anybody who can relate to this one. Jack Tibbs([log in to unmask])