Have you ever heard your loved ones complain or say that when you are up and about in public you seem different? They may describe you as lively, happy, and energized but moving better even. However, they gasp, as my husband often does, asking why can’t we simply have that kind of motivation when we are at home rather than just sit around like bumps on a log?

Not long ago when my family and I traveled to Hawaii for vacation my husband finally put a term to this positive effect of well-being that ensues when confronted with something utterly delightful to us. The ‘Kamehameha effect’ as my husband lovingly has coined it, is the end result of a natural boost of dopamine in our brain’s when confronted with pleasurable, enjoyable things. After hours of touring the island, there I was barely able to walk, shuffling, feeling stiff all over particularly in my lower back which was beginning to hurt down to my feet. I was choking on my own saliva and was beginning to lose my voice. When suddenly we came upon the current Supreme Court of Hawaii – also known as Aliiolani Hale building which has in its courtyard a statue of King Kamehameha I which is facing Lolani Palace. At the site of this grand structure I became so ecstatic since it happens to be the headquarters of Commander Garret and his Hawaii 5-0 unit. Seems like within minutes, I was no longer stiff, shuffling or choking. Husband was astonished at the effect calling it the ‘Kamehameha effect’ and still teases me about this every chance he gets.

He insists that this effect is purely is psychological and wishes I could summon it at will. However, although it has a psychological component is not that easy. It is instead a chemical reaction that takes place in our brains once ignited by exterior forces. The ‘Kamehameha effect’ is one that can be seen even in groups of Parkinson’s people at the same time if united by same outside force as was the case in New Orleans when the Saints won the Super bowl in 2010. According to Dr. Georgia Lea, a neurologists and assistant Neurology professor at the Oschsner Institute in NOLA, that during the super bowl championship all her PD patients who were fans of the SAINT’s suddenly were cured for hours to days!

This is the ‘Kamehameha effect’ at its core – ignite our own happy endogenous neurochemicals to bring forth dramatic improvement in our PD symptoms.
Although, this effect is not a switch which can be turned ‘on’ and ‘off’ at will, there are things we can do to promote the repeated occurrence of this phenomena by doing things which brings us joy, passion, love, gratitude and satisfaction. As one of my favorite literary authors Gabriel Garcia Marquez would say; “there is no medicine to cure what happiness cannot.”
Go ahead find your passion and unleash the ‘Kamehameha effect’

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all rights reserved by Maria De Leon