Exercise Interventions for Parkinson’s Disease
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a progressive, neurodegenerative disease, occurring when brain cells that produce the chemical dopamine die. Dopamine is vital for normal movement. People with insufficient dopamine develop muscle rigidity in their limbs, tremors, and impaired balance. Other, nonmotor symptoms of PD include loss of the sense of smell (due to the presence of Lewy bodies in the olfactory lobe) and constipation, sleep disorders, and hypotension (low blood pressure when standing up). Fear and anxiety, weight loss or gain, fatigue and energy loss, and depression are other symptoms. About 18 in 2,000 people over age 65 have Parkinson’s.
People who have PD have abnormal deposits of Lewy bodies—clumps of protein that develop inside nerve cells, leading to problems with movement, behavior, mood and thinking. They also have the plaques and tangles characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease. About 50 to 80 percent of people with PD will eventually develop dementia.
Exercise Therapy for PD. But a new review shows that physiotherapy can maximize functional ability and minimize secondary complications, optimizing patients’ independence, safety, and well being, leading to improved quality of life.
For this review researchers identified 39 randomized trials involving 1,827 patients to study the short-term benefits of physiotherapy to treat PD (Cochrane Library 2013) Researchers found improvement with physiotherapy intervention compared to no intervention. Significant benefits were observed for gait outcomes of speed, the two- and six-minute walk test, functional and mobility outcomes of the Timed Up & Go test (how long it takes a person to get up from a chair, walk a certain distance, then walk back to the chair and sit down) and Functional Reach tests (how far a person can reach before he/she loses balance) and the Berg Balance Scale, which assesses multiple aspects of balance via a questionnaire. While differences were small, they were considered minimal clinically important changes, leading reviewers to conclude that benefit for physiotherapy was found in most outcomes over the short term, particularly in those areas cited above.
Virtual Reality Technology. Virtual reality (VR) technology, a new rehabilitation tool that stimulates movement via computer-based game systems, such as Nintendo, Wii, or Xbox Kinect, has been successful for PD patients. The technology enables individualized skill practice in an interactive environment. Researchers found VR interventions lead to greater improvements in step and stride length compared to regular physiotherapy interventions, but less so in gait, balance, and quality of life compared to active control interventions. The study sample was small; researchers recommended additional, larger-scale studies to confirm the current findings. (Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2017.)
Dance! A 2014 review of five trials concluded dance might be able to improve motor and non-motor disabilities in PD patients. Researchers found that dance gives short term, clinically meanngful benefits to patients with Parkinson’s disease, and that future studies should determine the long-term benefits of dance and how it compares to other exercise therapy. (Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 2014.)
The post Exercise Interventions for Parkinson’s Disease appeared first on University Health News.
Read Original Article: Exercise Interventions for Parkinson’s Disease »
Powered by WPeMatico
