In this second of two holiday bonus episodes, we again get a bit more personal with season one expert guests whose own experiences have inspired and informed their professional pursuits – “My Expert Odyssey” times four.

In this first of two Season 1 bonus episodes, we get a bit more personal with the expert guests whose own experiences have motivated and informed their professional endeavors.

Dr. Jacob Meyer, Director of the Wellbeing & Exercise Lab at Iowa State, on his experience with depression and exercise; Dr. Sheri Colberg, who was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at age four; and physical therapist Dr. Lisa Lowe, who became a para rower after a terrible car accident.

“I want to row with my last breath.”

That’s a pretty strong endorsement for any sport. And we heard this deep love of rowing several times from committed rowers at the 2022 Head of the Charles Regatta (HOCR), the rowing world’s premier event, with 11,000 rowers competing and hundreds of thousands watching from the banks of the Charles River in Boston.

This episode features three body odysseys of competitors at the 2022 HOCR.

Our protagonist in this episode, Generational Gene, may at first seem like a special case. A middle-aged school superintendent with a father and grandfather who’ve contracted Type 2 diabetes later in life, Gene seems at higher-than-average risk to develop the condition, as well.

But in fact Gene is very much like a huge percentage of North Americans over the age of 40 in the pre-diabetic category and thus at elevated risk for developing diabetes, and some forms of cancer, without major lifestyle changes on the diet and exercise fronts.

In this episode, we learn how Gene, a former college athlete and now busy Dad, educator, and doctoral candidate, has taken on the pre-diabetes challenge.

Howie, a recently retired software engineer, has been an avid cyclist most of his adult life, with a total mileage equivalent to a few laps around the planet. But more remarkable is the fact that Howie has done a good bit of that cycling with cancer – not one, but six cases of lymphoma, or cancer of the lymph nodes.

Consider one of Howie’s favorite charity rides, The Pan Mass Challenge, which benefits cancer research through the Jimmy Fund. It’s a two-day, 200 mile ride across Massachusetts that Howie has done 24 times. “I’ve ridden it with pneumonia,” he tells us. “I’ve ridden it with cancer.”

Howie credits his oncologists and cancer therapy for surviving this decades-long odyssey, but he’s quick to add that cycling has contributed as well. “Because of all the riding I do,” he says, “they’re able to hit me harder with chemo, with radiation when they have to.”

Six months ago, Josie was bedridden with a flare-up of the Multiple Sclerosis (MS) she has been battling for a decade alongside her husband Joe and with some help from their much loved custom tandem bike. Over that same decade Josie and Joe have logged over 10,000 miles and raised $100,000 for research on MS, a disorder where the immune system attacks the nervous system and triggers a loss of strength and muscular control.

Would this latest flare-up permanently sideline this avid cycling couple?

“When this flare up happened, I could not move a muscle. I couldn't lift anything,” recalls Josie. “Joe will say he was feeding me in the hospital ‘cause I couldn't lift the fork to my mouth.”

“And when you were flat on your back and said you wanted to bike again,” recalls Joe, “I was skeptical…but hopeful.”

Jess is a successful and respected yoga teacher – young, fit, doing all the right things to stay healthy. She’s also highly knowledgeable about anatomy and physiology, with two graduate degrees in the field. But a series of mysterious episodes involving circulation to one arm led her to urgent care for examination and testing.

“And the doctor came out and said, ‘Yes, you do have a blood clot,’” she recalls two years later, the shock still present in her voice. “I was, like, floored. How could this have happened?”

Thoracic Outlet Syndrome (TOS) is a rare but serious disease that more frequently afflicts hypermobile individuals using repetitive arm motions in their work or sport. A former Division I backstroker in college and a dedicated yogi since, Jess falls into that category and is prescribed blood thinners to reduce the risk of clotting.

Her thoracic surgeon then recommends the standard, more permanent solution for TOS: removal of her top rib to relieve the compression between her rib and clavicle that pinches a vein and triggers blood clots that could travel to her heart or lungs.

Two years later, has Jess figured out her TOS? Listen in for a body odyssey of the unexpected sort, when an otherwise healthy yogi grapples with a life-threatening condition through her knowledge of anatomy and deep experience with movement.

"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 behavioral and physical challenges, she (begrudgingly) starts training for a marathon.

“Each person needs a plan that is well suited for that personality and for their functioning level,” advises Dr. “Shosh” Bennett, a clinical psychologist who has personally struggled with postpartum. “The take-home message shouldn't be: I have to run a marathon in order to beat postpartum depression. It should be: Find something that's going to give them great satisfaction.”

Does Mom-on-the-Run Erin find that satisfaction in a 26.2-mile run? Listen in to see how putting in extra miles helps her kids, her partner and herself.

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 hamstrings.”

This odyssey highlights the challenge of diagnosis even for an experienced Doc like Sarah and confirmed by Divya Muthappa, a General Practitioner in Texas.

“There are patients that I am just 99% sure that I know what their diagnosis is,” confides Dr. Muthappa. “And it ends up being something else.”

While Dr. Jeffrey Sparks, a rheumatologist at Mass General Brigham, notes that Sarah’s ordeal is by no means atypical.

Tune in for an odyssey of self-diagnosis and self-discovery as Doc Sarah emerges a better listener to her patients and to her own body’s aches and pains.

Iron Woman Diane, a recently retired power industry executive with Type 1 diabetes, has completed three full Ironman triathlons, numerous marathons and many lengthy cycling events, such as the New England Tour De Cure where My Body Odyssey first met her.

One day, though, Diane drinks some juice just before a yoga class and “next thing you know I’m inside an ambulance.”

Maintaining healthy blood sugar levels is a delicate, often dangerous balancing act for the many millions of Americans with diabetes, especially Type 1 or juvenile diabetics like Diane. Unable to create insulin, she wears an insulin pump to maintain normal blood chemistry. Even so, Diane’s triathlon race plan “consists of a two-page spreadsheet that’s nothing but…how to manage my blood sugars.”

This episode also features expert commentary from Dr. Michael Riddell of York University, a Type 1 diabetic himself and one of the world’s great authorities on diabetes and exercise. “I was diagnosed at a time when insulin came in a vial and you took one or two shots a day… to keep your blood sugar in a reasonable range,” says Riddell, who on top of his research has helped world class athletes like the NHL’s Max Domi with their diabetes management.

If Maxi Domi routinely handles the intensity of a pro hockey shift, and Diane has conquered 13- hour triathlons, how then did a simple yoga class land her in the emergency room?

Listen in to find out on “Iron Woman Diane: The Rewards & Challenges of Exercise With Diabetes,” the second full episode of My Body Odyssey, a Fluent Knowledge production.

In My Body Odyssey’s first full episode we meet Ultimate Mark– an uber competitive weekend warrior in many sports, but most frequently Ultimate Disc (formerly Ultimate Frisbee).

Mark hurls himself on the Ultimate field just as he once did as an aspiring soccer goalie. Problem is, Mark today has a fully fused spine dating back to severe scoliosis in high school. And that lack of spinal flexibility, along with his love of competition and high pain tolerance, puts him at risk for frequent injuries and possibly another major surgery.

“There’s something called adjacent segment disease,” explains Mayo Clinic Neurosurgeon Mohamad Bydon, one of two experts providing insights into Mark’s Body Odyssey. “It's not unforeseeable that as, as the years go by, he'll begin to develop problems and a decision will have to be made on extending that fusion.”

Meanwhile, Ultimate Mark continues to play at high intensity. “I'm extremely competitive and I want to win at all costs, he tells us. “Like I, I do what I can to win and if it hurts me, but it helps the team, it's worth it in my mind.”

Our second expert guest, Mark Stoutenberg, PhD of Temple University and the NGO Exercise is Medicine, has led numerous studies and programs on the benefits of sport and exercise. Still, Dr. Stoutenberg sounds a cautionary note on Ultimate Mark’s love of intense competition with a fully fused spine. “I don't think our younger selves really understand what being 50 and having chronic back pain is like,” says Dr. Stoutenberg. “I just hope people at that point would say, you know what, I gotta change my lifestyle.”

Does Ultimate Mark love sport too much? Mark finds the tradeoff acceptable for the social and behavioral benefits he gets from Ultimate Disc. Tune in to learn more about Mark’s highly intentional sacrifice of bodily injury for a healthier mind on this first episode of My Body Odyssey, a podcast about the rewards and challenges of an active lifestyle.

Original music by Ryan Adair Rooney.