Bowler Controls Disease by Relaxing in Fast Lane

The second-youngest athlete in the U.S. Olympic Festival bowling tournament is happy to be competing. He is also happy to be alive.

David Biber, 19, of Riverside, Calif., was struck down two years ago by a mysterious nervous system disorder called Guillain-Barre syndrome. It forced him to stop all activities for 10 weeks, a period in which he gained 40 pounds. He still fears a recurrence.

Severe cases, Biber’s doctor advised him, can cause death.

The disease, characterized by cramps, weakened muscles and a tingling sensation in the hands, caused Biber to become short of breath when walking from room to room and to develop Bell’s palsy on the left side of his face.

“I couldn’t smile or wriggle my nose or ears,” Biber said. “My eye would twitch, and when I drank water, it fell out all over the place.”

Biber, then a freshman at Cal State San Bernardino, was working and bowling competitively in October, 1987, when the disease was diagnosed. He said stress was the reason he developed Guillain-Barre.

“I was doing too much for my body to handle,” Biber said. “It just let down. My central nervous system is the part of my body that gave out.”

It was a hard time for the two-time junior amateur tour champion.

“No medicine can speed the process up,” Biber said. “You just have to wait it out. It drove me crazy.”

Biber pulled out of it just in time to qualify for Team USA, the national amateur bowling team, with a 16th-place finish in February, 1988.

The 5-foot-7 Biber, now 40 pounds lighter at 160, has learned to pace himself.

“If I ignore the warning signs, I can fall into a relapse,” he said.

Never a drinker or smoker, Biber has reevaluated his life-style. He does the usual healthy things--eating right and taking vitamins--and he has lightened up.

“I was concentrating all the time, thinking and worrying (before getting sick),” he said. “It was scary to know that at 17 you have an illness that can kill somebody due to stress.”

Biber has a 207 lifetime bowling average. He works as a bank teller in addition to competing on the lanes.

Bowling, in its first appearance as an Olympic Festival sport, has been sold out for a month--the first sport on the 38-sport festival menu to do so. And the people of Midwest City, the Oklahoma City suburb where the bowling and badminton competitions are being held, made the athletes welcome with a rousing Oklahoma-style picnic.

“This is the greatest thing that’s ever happened to me--Team USA and the Olympic Festival,” Biber said.