The ‘Lake Zoar Model’ For Success

To the Editor:

I am writing to you on behalf of my colleague, Angela Gagliardi, MD, director of sports medicine at the Maria Fereri Children’s Hospital of the New York Medical College, and myself to tell you how important the Lake Zoar Water Ski Club is to the health of the disabled participants. You may already be aware that anyone who leads a sedentary lifestyle encourages diseases such as obesity, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes, leading to complications such as blindness, amputation, back injury, and heart surgery, all which carry substantial health care and cost burdens.

For a disabled individual, life expectancy is greatly diminished if they do not get enough exercise.

A person with a spinal cord injury (SCI) has compromised autonomic neural control. This part of the nervous system is responsible for, among other things, the “unconscious control” of the heart beat and respiration. Exercise helps to “boost” the function of the autonomic nervous system. As important as it is for you and I to exercise regularly, it is far more important that a person with SCI gets regular exercise to ensure that his or her heat beats correctly and lungs stay healthy.

One of the best ways to prevent injury is to maintain good proprioception, aka good balance. Again, this is true for all of us, but it is so much more important for those with disabilities. People with SCI have little to no proprioception, and must relearn it and maintain it to the extent their disability allows. Water skiing is the perfect therapy. People who have diminished or lost sight are prone to injuries by falling as a result of bumping into obstructions or falling into hazards, and those with better proprioception will mange the fall far better than those who do not.

Lack of activity promotes inflammation, which if left unchecked, can result in a myriad of diseases and complications, ultimately causing an early and untimely death. The Lake Zoar Water Ski Club provides the opportunity for much needed activity. It is a lifesaving opportunity.

We have participated as volunteers in the Lake Zoar Water Ski Club clinics. We are extremely impressed by the operation. It is a very successful model, which we now promote on our lecture tours. We have spoken to several physical therapy programs in medical schools, and the Lake Zoar Water Ski program is always received with the highest enthusiasm. We expect that it will be a model for more programs around the country.

We wish to congratulate and thank the Lake Zoar Water Ski Club on developing a very much needed program, and we wish it continued success as we work to build more programs from the “Lake Zoar Model.”

If you have any questions, please feel free to call me.

Very truly yours,

Vikki Hazelwood, PhD

Professor

Biomedical Engineering

Stevens Institute of Technology

Hoboken, N.J.                                                                October 17, 2008