Air Force Veteran With Parkinson's Completes Ironman Three Years After Diagnosis

Dr. Sara Whittingham received a Parkinson's disease diagnosis at the Cleveland Clinic in November 2020 after her husband noticed a one-sided resting arm tremor during a family movie night. The 46-year-old Air Force veteran, mother of two and anesthesiologist had moved with her family from Utah to Ohio earlier that year.

Whittingham searched online for her symptoms the same month and consulted a neurologist the next day. Dr. Ben Walter, her neurologist at the Cleveland Clinic, confirmed the diagnosis during her workday.

Parkinson's disease is a progressive illness that affects the nervous system, according to the Mayo Clinic. In the months after her diagnosis, Whittingham experienced anxiety and depression while imagining a steep decline. She enrolled in a study led by Dr.

Jay Alberts that tested whether high-cadence cycling could slow disease progression. The research found that maintaining 75 rotations per minute or more for 30 to 40 minutes at least three times a week produced measurable slowing of symptoms. "It ended up being a lifeline," Whittingham said.

"The more I started riding the bike, the better I felt. " Alberts described the regimen as an "exercise prescription for Parkinson's disease," noting that brain-activity patterns after exercise resembled those seen after medication. A few months into the study, Whittingham's husband registered for a half triathlon.

She began training with him, entered the event without telling anyone, and finished ahead of him. In 2023 she completed the VinFast Ironman World Championship on October 14 in Kailua Kona, Hawaii. "To cross the finish line and hear my name being called — Sara Whittingham, you're an Ironman — three years after my diagnosis was just unreal," she said.