THE MASTERY OF MIND OVER BODY

Martial arts training leads to turnabout in student's health

OCALA - When Ocala police were called to investigate a late night disturbance at Central Florida Community College recently, they expected to find a trespasser. But when they encountered a man flinging around a 12-foot-long spear, they could only stare as he performed an intricate martial arts routine.

Joe McNamara, 30, has spent the last five years in China learning and teaching internal martial arts.

As a child, McNamara took tae kwon do lessons. When he got older, he was diagnosed with autoimmune rhabdomyolysis, a rare, incurable disease that attacks the central nervous system, stiffens the muscles and results in kidney damage. When he had the opportunity to go to the Wudang Mountains of southwest China to learn how to better maintain his health, he left law school at Cornell University and took a flight halfway around the world. Expecting to only be there for a couple of months, he stayed there for half a decade.

"All the doctors said, 'You're going to go to the mountains? You're going to go there and die,'" McNamara said. "I'm friends with the doctors. They're good guys - but they were wrong."Read More...