Friday, March 26, 2010

Fit For Life. Chapter Three


Most people who know me often ask “Are you still riding your bike?”
“Yeah, sure, I went out yesterday and did the mountain. They patched the potholes so the descent was awesome!”
“Aren’t you getting a little old for that?”
“For what? Potholes?”
I still don’t understand these strange comments. They know I’ve always been an athlete, and I know I’ll always be an athlete. I don’t know any other way to be. Why don’t they ask me why I still don’t have a TV? Or is broccoli all I ever eat?
Cycling is a lifestyle for me. When I was invited on training rides with a bunch of guys that became pros in cycling, we were committed to training. No one showed up late. We were a tight social network.
When Lance Armstrong was diagnosed with cancer, it was a direct hit to our cycling family. He had ridden with us a couple months earlier, so the news hit hard. Every week in our paceline, the question was always “What’s the news on Lance?”
The cancer had spread throughout his body. Some said he would beat cancer and some said he wouldn’t. The French gave up on him by kicking him off their cycling team. During his treatments, Lance spent almost every day on a stationary bike, logging up to fifty miles. Then he got back on his bike and won the Tour de France seven consecutive years in a row.
Why did Lance survive when others didn’t, regardless of age or treatment? Why did he survive, jump back on the bike, and become the cycling legend he is today? Was it his passion for challenge? Did his brain have anything to do with his recovery, or his life as an athlete? I think it did, and now science does too.

Greg. Another Miracle
I have a close friend in Utah who is an athlete. I met Greg when I experimented with internet dating sites gaining popularity on the web. I tried it once, just for fun. When I saw Greg’s profile pic, something stopped me after dozens of “I don’t think so’s”. I sent him an email. He sent one back. Then I did something crazier than hitch-hiking Europe for a year by myself. I drove nine hours to Salt Lake City to meet him, and I didn’t know why.
Greg and I sat on the lawn of a shopping center parking lot for twelve straight hours talking. This guy had the winning combination of being an athlete, a brain connecting dots like a supercomputer, and a passion for challenge. It was like we had finally tracked each other down. We just picked up where we left off. You hear stories like this, and you always wonder how they play out in people’s lives.
Greg and I shared athletic adventures. We skied every steep chute Utah had to offer. He took me on his grueling four day Kokopelli mountain bike tour in Moab with a bunch of his friends and family.
All athletes.
Greg is known all over the Salt Lake City area as an elite competitive mountain biker and skier, and he’s also been fighting a malignant tumor in his brain for three years. Greg’s surprise tumor grew until it left him on the floor, paralyzed on most of his left side. Amazingly, his brain function was spared. He was given the same dismal prognosis Lance was. He was told he had a three percent chance at survival and three weeks to live. He started aggressive radiation plus drugs three times a month for three months, infusions of drugs for six months, and another round for four months. Repeat.
Through it all, no one could challenge Greg’s fighting spirit. If anyone was foolish enough to try (including me), he was in your face demanding why you would give up on him (and even yourself). His tumor had stabilized, and he wasn’t kind to pessimists. He wasn’t reluctant either to describe his treatments and what they were like. “They take you this close to death and hope it kills the cancer first”.
Greg’s had more treatment rounds than his doctors have given to any patient. Every time, they took him close to death hoping his cancer would die first.
Through it all, Greg got on his stationary bike for as long as he could stand it. He was awarded miracle status by his medical community. And his tumor stabilized. Greg was ready to get his left side working, get back on the bike, and on to life.
Then late in 2009, Greg took another direct hit. He lost his balance, went down, and broke his hip. He had no muscle to protect and support his bones. And just a week before that, his MRI showed the outline of his brain tumor growing again, which probably affected his balance. He had another intensive round of treatments a couple months ago that required three days in the hospital.
Now in a wheelchair, he’s starting to lose faith he’ll ride again, because he can’t get on his stationary bike. As an athlete he knows if he can’t get a workout that gets his heart rate up and builds muscle, his chances at recovery become slim.
When I talked to Greg last week, I asked permission to write about him and use his name. He finally agreed. I’m not sure he wanted his investment clients to know what had happened to him. But now they all know what he’s fighting, and I’m surprised by their support. They have not abandoned him. They know he’s one of the smartest in the business, and they’ll take Greg’s brain any way they can get it.
I asked Greg what he thought the most important factor was for his miraculous long-term survival. Why had he made it for three years when others didn’t, like Ted Kennedy and Robert Novak? I asked him why his numerous oncologists and radiologists remain amazed. Why did they give up on him so easily before? Why . . .
He didn’t even let me finish. He told me he had been an athlete for life, and that was at the top of his list, because he knew. I was not surprised, but I needed to hear it for myself.

Cancer is not a disease
David Agus is a medical doctor and professor of medicine at the University of Southern California. His studies in proteomics have changed how cancer is treated. Instead of the reductionist approach, a systems approach has become highly effective. Like a plant, changing the soil may not save the plant, but changing its environment will, if changed soon enough. If a seed is given a sustainable environment that’s maintained, it’s less vulnerable to insects throughout it’s life span.
At his TED presentation, Dr. Agus stated the reductionist approach promoted by the National Cancer Institute is just “all wrong”. Cancer is not genetic, nor is treating a body part effective. He defines cancer as a cell no longer in control and regulated by it’s environment. He measures cancer dynamically as a system. His input is similar to diet, environment, stress, and physical fitness. His output is cancer and symptoms that may be hidden from detection, making target treatment very difficult. He targets all cells in the body as a systemic whole. He doesn’t shrink a cancer growth, he controls the body’s environment.
I think Dr. Agus “all right”.
One example of the body as an environment is a study he completed mapping global countries with the highest obesity rate. Interestingly, these countries also had the highest cancer rate, dramatically higher than a decade ago. Another recent web post by doctors in Barcelona claim their research and statistics indicate one-third of all breast cancer victims could have avoided this systemic malfunction with vigorous exercise and weight loss.
Now, Dr. Agus predicts rather than going to a breast or brain cancer clinic, you may go to an EGFR clinic (epidermal growth factor receptor). You can learn more about this by web searching EGFR, or watch Dr. Agus’ TED video.
What if we controlled the environment of our bodies? Would we be more resistant to “cells gone wild” or other invaders?

The Top Ten
William Evan’s book “Biomarkers” defines ten metabolic functions of our bodies that promote disease resistance, longevity, and vitality. Based on his research, building muscle mass and vigorous sustained aerobic activity positively affects all ten. Yoga affects three, and jogging affects none of them.
I was really surprised by the jogging statistic, so now I need to read the book, which also offers recommendations about diet and motivation. Exercises are recommended, but “may appear a bit daunting for the over-50 group who may never before have participated in a regular exercise or fitness program”. This is not good news for “Boomers” concerned about affordable health care that have lived a sedentary life. They risk further debilitating effects of sarcopenia in old age, which is an overall weakening of the body in favor of fat at the expense of muscle.
Satchel Paige, the “ageless” baseball pitcher, views biomarkers as an indicator of how old you would be if “you didn’t know how old you was”, which he doesn’t. Many of you already know my opinion on “doing the numbers”. Buying into a date an obstetrician wrote down on a piece of paper when you popped out seems arbitrary when you think of all you can do to define your real age, doesn’t it?
It’s known athletes grow new neuron connections in their brain that sedentary humans do not. This reduces the chance of memory loss, and my friend Greg is no exception.
Now I know why I drove nine hours to meet a stranger. Greg wasn’t a stranger at all. He was my next mentor.        
I’ve been asked to post updates on Greg’s progress. No science data yet, maybe tomorrow, but apparently a bunch of people offering up prayer works. Send yours his way through any power source you choose, including yourself.
You can also get out there on your bike today, and hit the gym while you’re at it. It’s a good way to pray.