My Body Odyssey

“I haven’t had any medical people tell me that I shouldn’t go all out,” says our protagonist in this episode, Nordic John. He’s 80 years young but still competing internationally in cross-country skiing despite  the onset of Parkinson’s disease a decade ago. “That is really effective when you push yourself to the limit.” Our expert guest, Dr. Jerry Vitek, Head of Neurology at the University of Min...

The benefits of open water swimming are widely felt and observed but not yet fully documented by the scientific community, as they combine the effects of immersion in nature, cold water and strenuous exercise all at one time.  “It actually does change your pulse and it changes our physiology as humans,” says our protagonist, Atlantic Annie. “And it's apparently activating the parasympathetic nervo...

Completing the 200-mile Pan Mass Challenge (PMC) bike ride every year for two decades would be an accomplishment for anyone; but it’s particularly remarkable in the case of Cycling Sue, who has ridden 10 of those 20 years with metastatic breast cancer. “I've had many friends who I've met through this journey,” Sue tells us in this third episode of a series on cycling and cancer. “And they aren't h...

In this season two episode, Generational Gene details the serious risk of colon cancer and his two pronged approach of cycling and weight loss against three related medical issues– obesity, diabetes, and cancer, all of which run in his family.  This builds upon our season one episode where Gene described his choice of cycling to help manage blood sugar and hold off diabetes. “Some days it feels li...

My Body Odyssey rode along the 20th Annual Maine Lighthouse Ride this year, interviewing 4 protagonists who faced steep uphill challenges to even get to the starting line of this scenic ride. Rebecca, a yoga teacher in her early sixties, has missed the event the past few years- first, due to a recurrence of endometrial cancer, then COVID, and then work obligations. She counts three challenges in c...

My Body Odyssey rode along with Larry Langmore on the 40 mile option of the 20th Annual Maine Lighthouse Ride this year, a benefit for the Eastern Trail Association that attracts 800 riders from near and far.   40 miles is a good long ride for anyone. But it’s both particularly challenging and potentially rewarding for a prostate cancer survivor three months out from chemotherapy.  “I was diagnose...

My Body Odyssey attended the 51st Falmouth Road Race- the local, 7-mile pub crawl that quickly evolved into a major, international event with 75,000 spectators and ten thousand runners annually. Our episode features three participants at this year event, including the only runner to have completed all 51 Falmouth Road Races: Dr. Brian Salzberg.  “I've had just a slew of injuries,” said Dr. Salzber...

As a former competitive weightlifter, strength coach, and now Chair of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine at Vanderbilt Medical School, Dr. D.J. Kennedy specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of back issues that nearly all of us experience- including chronic back pain. “The numbers are 80 to 90% of people have low back pain at some point in their life,” says Dr. Kennedy in the bonus episode,...

Three decades ago, Esther Gokhale created the Gokhale Method to apply primal posture to modern pain. Gokhale emphasized small improvements in everyday movements to prevent and heal back pain and musculoskeletal damage. Now, more than 20,000 people have learned to walk, sit, bend and sleep more efficiently by adopting Gokhale’s primal posture approach. Dr. D.J. Kennedy, professor and chair of the D...

You deeply love your sport and the community of those who play it. But your body, through pain and injury, is telling you it’s time to move on.  At some point in our adult years, we all deal with this transition. And in this episode, our protagonist, Mark, still in his early thirties, talks about his own transition from high level Ultimate Frisbee player (aka Ultimate Mark) to lower risk recreatio...

Long COVID can feel like a lifetime sentence — yet scientists are developing more effective treatments for these deeply debilitating cases. Dr. David Putrino, Director of Rehabilitation Innovation for the Mount Sinai Health System, is a major contributor to this effort. He joins Long COVID patient and journalist Kaelyn Lynch and My Body Odyssey co-host Brittany Thomas for a report from the front l...

“Who am I with Long COVID?” When Kaelyn Lynch caught COVID-19, she was a multimedia journalist, filmmaker, mountain climber, weightlifter, and roller derby enthusiast. That changed when Long COVID crashed into her life. After two back-to-back COVID infections, she had frightening symptoms – numbness, a racing pulse, and crushing fatigue so severe that sometimes she couldn’t even feed herself or sp...

You find a bull’s-eye rash around a tick bite. If you get to the doctor quickly, get a Lyme disease diagnosis, and take the standard antibiotics, everything will be fine, right?  Not for a sizable percentage of Lyme patients. And not for our protagonist in this episode, Siri. She’s a seventeen-year-old Nordic ski racer from Vermont who’s suffered repeated bouts of pediatric Lyme disease. Siri trai...

In this second of two holiday bonus episodes, MBO gets personal with four expert guests whose experiences inform their professional pursuits. As a kid in Canada, Dr. Mark Stoutenberg (Temple University) dreamed of becoming an American football coach but changed course after discovering exercise physiology and the need for greater public accessibility to exercise programs.  Dr. Michael Riddell’s pa...

In this first of two Season 1 bonus episodes, we get a bit more personal with the expert guests whose own experiences motivate and inform their professional endeavors.   Dr. Jacob Meyer, Director of the Wellbeing & Exercise Lab at Iowa State, confides that, “My own personal struggles with depression coincided with periods when I was much less active.” Diabetes ran in the family of Dr. Sheri Colber...

“I plan to row till my last breath” is a strong endorsement for any sport. Yet we heard this sentiment numerous times at the 2022 Head of the Charles Regatta (HOCR), the rowing world’s premier event.  The resulting episode features three remarkable protagonists:  Jules from Portland, Oregon, was introduced to rowing twenty years ago as she battled a recurrence of cancer.  Ping, a traditional Chine...

Generational Gene may seem a special case; a middle-aged school superintendent with a father and grandfather who’ve contracted Type 2 diabetes, Gene is at high risk to develop the condition.   But Gene is like a huge percentage of North Americans over the age of 40 who, because of elevated blood sugar, are at risk for diabetes and cancer. In this episode, we learn how he’s taken on this challenge....

We all know we should be more active. But life does have a way of getting in the way.  My Body Odyssey chronicles the rewards and challenges of individuals pursuing active lifestyles despite chronic illness, recurrent injury, behavioral issues and more.  We follow our “protagonists” over months and seasons and years as they pursue their favorite sports and activities against considerable odds.  An...

Howie has been an avid cyclist most of his adult life, with mileage equivalent to a few laps around the planet. But more remarkable is that he has done a good bit of that cycling with cancer – in fact, through six cases of lymphoma.  Howie credits cancer therapies for surviving this odyssey but is quick to add that cycling has contributed, too. “Because of all the riding I do,” he says, “they’re a...

Six months ago, Josie was bedridden with a flare-up of the Multiple Sclerosis (MS) she's been battling for the past decade, alongside her husband, Joe, and some help from their much loved custom tandem bike. Over that same period, Josie and Joe have logged over 10,000 miles and raised $100,000 for research into MS, a disorder where the immune system attacks the nervous system.   But would her late...

Jessica is a respected yoga teacher–young, fit, doing the right things to stay healthy. She’s also highly knowledgeable about anatomy, with two graduate degrees. But a series of episodes involving circulation to one arm lead her to urgent care and a diagnosis of Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, or TOS.  Her surgeon soon recommends the standard solution for TOS–removal of her top rib. This will relieve co...

"Pregnancy is no joke," Erin tells us in this body odyssey that's both deeply personal and all-too-common. Having been on bed rest with preeclampsia, Erin confides, “I wasn’t good at being pregnant.” Weight gain and postpartum depression --a condition affecting 1 in 8 new moms-- made matters worse.  But when a close friend and fellow high school teacher tells Erin that running might help her behav...

How do we know when to push through pain to pursue the activities we love? And when should we suspect that injuries are part of a disease process?  In this episode we meet Doc Sarah, a pediatrician, mother of four, and avid runner bedeviled by these questions. “I had gone for 30 years with no injuries,” Sarah recalls. “Then all of a sudden I've got IT band, plantar fasciitis, I’m tearing my hamstr...

Iron Woman Diane has completed three full Ironman triathlons, numerous marathons and many cycling events, such as the New England Tour De Cure where My Body Odyssey first met her.  One day, though, Diane drinks some juice before a yoga class and “next thing you know I’m inside an ambulance.” Maintaining healthy blood sugar levels is a balancing act for many millions of Americans with diabetes, esp...

In My Body Odyssey’s (MBO) first episode, we meet Ultimate Mark – uber-competitive weekend warrior in Ultimate Disc: “If it hurts me but helps the team, it's worth it in my mind.” Problem is Ultimate Mark has a fully-fused spine dating back to scoliosis in high school. And that lack of flexibility, along with his competitive spirit, puts him at risk for frequent injuries and another surgery.  “The...