Ottawa – Dr Marcia Falconer

Sunday 25 May 2008


It’s always a delight to hear Marcia speak on her specialist subject of inflammation and its relationship to post polio syndrome (PPS). To recap, Dr Marcia Falconer is a polio survivor, as well as being a molecular biologist and virologist who led a government research laboratory in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. She retired from active research in 2000 because of PPS, however she continues to follow new developments in the area of PPS such as neuroinflammatory processes and virology.

Marcia travels to Australia regularly to visit family in Sydney and has spoken on a number of occasions for the Post-Polio Network (NSW). In 2004 I went up to Sydney with Jill to see one of her talks and was so impressed, I communicated with her for the next 18 months to see if she could be enticed to come to Melbourne, which finally she did in May 2006 (see write up in Polio Perspectives Winter 2006: http://www.polionetworkvic.asn.au/newsletters/items/2006/09/102206-upload-00001.pdf). Further information on her theories can be found at: http://gmtv.medicdirect.co.uk/clinics/default.asp?step=4&pid=2020

However, today we did a lot of talking about how to decrease the chronic inflammation that plays such a major part in so many cases – including PPS. Marcia is her own test case regarding the efficacy of reducing inflammation via weight loss, diet, pacing and meditation. Although it took three years of observing a rigorous regime, Marcia believes her PPS symptoms have improved considerably. Interestingly, with a bit of knowledge and a lot of perseverance and willpower, these are all things that people can do for themselves. Marcia quotes from two books that she believes are extremely well written and researched called: “The Anti-Inflammation Zone” and “The Omega RX Zone”, both by Dr Barry Sears, which should be readily available in book shops or online through Amazon.

Marcia’s ideal PPS clinic would be made up of physical therapists and orthotists for people with muscle weakness; and a specialist to work with inflammation, specifically in the area of stress reduction – both physical and emotional, but also diet. So this specialist role may be made up of one or a number of therapists such as an OT, nurse, psychologist, and nutritionist. However, Marcia places a caveat on the philosophy of nutritionist, believing it would need to be based on the low GI diet and not the traditional pyramid type. She says that many of the carbohydrates represented in the largest portion of the food pyramid can, in fact, exacerbate inflammation - and fat - if eaten according to the recommended portions.

With increasing research being done in the area of inflammation as a component of many illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease and arthritis, Marcia believes that the “inflammationologist” (a made up name) will have an important role in clinics of the future. She also believes there is a real place for additional/complementary therapies such as chiropractors, acupuncturists, naturopaths, aromatherapy and gentle yoga (or similar) to be used as an adjunct. Of course, they would also need to be aware of the specific pathophysiology of PPS, which polio survivors themselves may need to provide the education for.

There was so much more discussed during this session that the video tape ran out, but I captured most of it on my digital audio recorder. Hopefully, all these ideas will come together in a book (or two) in the not-too-distant future. We spent many hours at Marcia’s lovely house, with her wonderfully green garden in full Spring bloom and black squirrels running all over the place. We even met her daughter and two granddaughters during the morning before being treated to lunch on the outside deck in the sunshine. Later that evening, Jill and I were taken out to an Indian restaurant for dinner by Marcia and her husband, David, which was very pleasant. Marcia said she had contemplated cooking us dinner but I’d had an allergic reaction to her two cats during the day and this, on top of my infection, made for a lot of tissue use.

We were driven back to the motel at around 9.00pm where it was time for Jill and I to say our farewells after five weeks of travelling together. Tomorrow I have an appointment with Respiratory Rehabilitation Services at The Ottawa Hospital Rehabilitation Centre before catching a train to Montreal, and Jill is catching a flight to the UK. It’s odd to think that our joint adventures end here as those weeks seemed to have rushed by. And Marcia made the point that we were still talking to each other! All in all, I think we made a good team, with Jill adding her OT informed opinions to my observations – and we even enjoyed each other’s company! So, it was with some emotion that we parted company. But only until she comes back to ParaQuad to report for voluntary work in a month or so.