Dedicated to defeating dystonia

Reclaim your life from dystonia

Defeating Dystonia is grounded in extensive neuroscience research into focal task-specific dystonia (FTSD), along with firsthand experience and recovery. It presents a proposed cause, mechanism, and cure for FTSD through a structured motor retraining protocol.

Mission

Why Defeating Dystonia exists

Defeating Dystonia is an organization built to end FTSD. The mission is straightforward: to help cure as many people with FTSD as possible through a structured motor retraining approach, and to make that approach mainstream and accessible so patients can find it quickly, understand it, and apply it, instead of spending years sifting through noise and dead ends.

Right now, when people search dystonia online, they are often met with major hospital websites that still describe it as incurable and lifelong. For patients, that message can be devastating.

Part of the reason patients keep encountering that message is the research-to-practice lag. Public-facing clinical information is not always updated to reflect newer research, leaving a gap between the research literature and what is communicated in everyday clinical practice and public-facing resources. Defeating Dystonia exists to close that gap by making the path to cure easier to find, clearer to understand, and practical to follow.

Research

The research

Here are the two papers published in Brain Sciences and the research presentaions at SfN 2025 and CNS 2026.

Paper 1

Focal Task-Specific Dystonia: An M1-Centered TSMS Framework

Paper 1 introduces the core M1 synergy framework and the structured motor retraining protocol.

Read Paper 1
Paper 2

Focal Task-Specific Dystonia Beyond M1: Network Adaptations and a Causal-Architecture Taxonomy of Dystonia

Paper 2 extends the model beyond M1, reframing network-level findings as downstream adaptations and proposing a causal-architecture-based taxonomy of dystonia.

Read Paper 2
Presentation at Neuroscience 2025

A Proposed Cause, Cure, and Mechanism for Focal Task-Specific Dystonia: A Theoretical-Empirical Approach

Research presentation at Society for Neuroscience's (SfN) annual conference, Neuroscience 2025.

Read Presentation
Presentation at CNS 2026

A Proposed Etiological, Pathophysiological, and Rehabilitative Framework for Focal Task-Specific Dystonia: A Theoretical-Empirical Approach

Research presentation at Organization for Computational Neurosciences's annual conference, Computational Neuroscience Meeting 2026.

Read Presentation
Videos

Videos

A conversation between Steve Gilson and Norman Lu. Steve fully recovered from FTSD within one month after applying below- or at-threshold retraining (BATR).
Can Focal Dystonia Be Reversed?
The Mechanism of Dystonia | Part 1
The Cause of Dystonia | Part 2
The Cure for Dystonia | Part 3
Testimonials

Testimonials

Pianist Jonathan Story - My Experience Working with Norman Lu | USA
Violinist Baek Kim’s Dystonia Recovery Testimonial | USA
Trombonist Logan Chopyk's Dystonia Recovery Testimonial | USA
Violinist Weiwei Le - My Experience Working with Norman Lu | USA
Guitarist Didier Roegiers's Dystonia Recovery Testimonial | Belgium
Pianist Alexander Kiladze’s Dystonia Recovery Testimonial | USA
Guitarist Richie Zidich's Dystonia Recovery Testimonial | USA
Drummer Cem Guvener’s Dystonia Recovery Testimonial | Netherlands
Guitarist Djonathan Nagtalon's Dystonia Recovery Testimonial | Philippines
Guitarist Atai Wangsa’s Dystonia Recovery Testimonial | India
Pianist Allan Godoy's Dystonia Recovery Testimonial | Brazil
Violinist Daewon Kim - My Experience Working with Norman Lu | South Korea
Guitarist Jun ki Shin's Dystonia Recovery Testimonial | South Korea
Contact

Get in touch

Feel free to reach out with questions or for guidance on how to apply the retraining approach to resolve your FTSD.

Email: defeatingdystonia@gmail.com
Facebook: Join our group →

You can contact me directly by email or go to our Facebook group to ask a public question, share progress, or discuss and learn with others.