Prosthetic Physiology

health, fitness, medicine, science · EN

Prosthetic Physiology is a podcast about what happens when the body's automatic systems stop working and you have to build replacements for them.David Bainbridge is an ultra-endurance adaptive cyclist living with Classical Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, structural baroreflex failure, complete GI dysmotility, dysautonomia, Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, coronary heart disease, and narcolepsy. He takes no oral medications. His gut cannot absorb them.In December 2022 he was ending his 19th year as a full-time wheelchair user. He has since ridden over 6,000 miles, including 148 miles solo and unsupported at the Dunwich Dynamo Plus, and a 450-mile Yorkshire Divide with 30,000 feet of climbing.None of that is the subject of this podcast.The subject is the framework that makes it possible. Six components built to replace autonomic functions the body no longer performs: cognitive anticipation in place of absent reflexes; continuous motion as a circulatory pump; precision timing governing effort,