Paul was born in Boston, Massachusetts in December 1923, and upon graduation from Brown University in 1944, received his commission as an Ensign in the Navy. Paul was assigned to one of the most awkward ships ever put to sea, the Landing Ship Tank, an amphibious craft that transported vehicles, machinery and men into battle.

After the war, armed with courage, cockiness, and three weeks of Berlitz Spanish classes, he set out for South America to seek his fortune. Representing American companies selling everything for heavy machinery to raincoats, he landed in Bogotá, Columbia and was immediately mistaken for an American spy. Two years later, he returned to the United States, relocated to New York and began his career in magazine publishing. Over the next three decades, he published twenty magazines in several languages, all designed to help developing nations.

Paul Green has experienced great success and has encountered personal as well as professional adversity. He learned from these experiences and has managed to triumph despite it all. Throughout his life and career, his greatest talent has been his ability to utilize his skill with words to successfully market himself and his ideas to others.

At the age of eighty, he became an advocate of vigorous exercise of body and mind to slow the progress of Parkinson’s and aging. His crusade has been written about in magazines and newspapers and featured on NBC news in New York. Paul has also been a guest on radio programs as well as a lecturer and facilitator at several Senior centers in the New York metropolitan area.

Paul and his wife Eleanor live in a beach cottage in Westport, Connecticut. They share nine children and twenty grandchildren.

Parkinson’s Disease (P.D.), just like aging, is progressive and can be debilitating. I was diagnosed with P.D. six years ago when I was 75 years old. The first sign was a slight tremor in my right hand and it became awkward even to drink a cup of coffee. I refused to believe it was anything more than another sign of aging.

In clinical terms, P.D. is a disorder of certain nerve cells in the brain that produce dopamine, a chemical messenger that directs and controls movement. When dopamine-producing nerve cells break down, the brain signal that directs movement is affected. Simply speaking, Parkinson’s is a breakdown of mind and motion. The classic symptoms are tremors or trembling, rigidity or stiffness of the limbs, and slow movement.

Parkinson’s most often progresses gradually over ten to fifteen years, but as it does, a myriad of insidious symptoms appear hampering patients differently and in different stages. Some may have few troublesome symptoms for many years, while others have especially severe cases affecting their mobility right away.

I was told that drugs were available to help manage symptoms, but they would not stop the disease from progressing. I processed this information and embarked on my own search for answers.

Throughout most of my life I was a physical fitness buff, and as I got older, I realized how important it was to maintain my strength and stamina. According to a 2004 Harvard Magazine article entitled, “The Power of Exercise,” an active lifestyle is the magic bullet that can help prevent stroke, diabetes, and many cancers. Vigorous exercise increases blood flow to the brain, producing dopamine, the very thing that Parkinson’s attacked.

At the outset, I want to recognize that every case is different and everyone has his or her own threshold and medical situation that will determine an individual’s level of physical exercise. Whatever you can do, do it!

The Nevah Surrendah Exercise X Five Program offers other ideas for combating aging as well as the effects of a disease like Parkinson’s. The name was inspired by Winston Churchill’s indomitable spirit during World War II.

Fortunately there are hopeful scientific developments and someday there might be a cure for P.D. if you’re like me, you cannot afford to wait. Our goal is to help those who have the disease live with it now.