{"id":8209,"date":"2024-02-28T12:15:14","date_gmt":"2024-02-28T17:15:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/6c3d125d92.nxcli.io\/baltimore\/parkinsons-and-the-benefits-of-exercise\/"},"modified":"2024-02-28T12:15:14","modified_gmt":"2024-02-28T17:15:14","slug":"parkinsons-and-the-benefits-of-exercise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carepatrol.com\/baltimore\/parkinsons-and-the-benefits-of-exercise\/","title":{"rendered":"Parkinson\u2019s and the Benefits of Exercise"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By CarePatrol of Baltimore<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A chronic and progressive movement disorder, usually associated with aging individuals, Parkinson\u2019s is not currently curable, but it is treatable, and many people go on living productively with managing the disease. One of the most important and effective treatments is exercise.<\/p>\n<p>Parkinson\u2019s effects how you move, and exercise helps keep you moving. Walking, swimming, cycling, whatever you enjoy doing that is active, is beneficial. Come up with a plan with your care team, one that is suited to your interests and fitness level and make it a priority in your treatment. Consider an exercise \u201cprescription\u201d as designed with a physical therapist, to get you started and to focus on the areas you need the most attention.<sup>\u00a01<\/sup>\u00a0Parkinson\u2019s effects individuals differently so understanding your symptoms is an important step to creating an exercise plan that best meets your needs.<\/p>\n<p>For Parkinson&#8217;s complications such as slowness and stiffness, feeling weak, and cognitive problems, exercising is a good solution. Exercise helps with overall balance and coordination and helps build strength and stamina. This is important for everyone but especially important for people with Parkinson\u2019s because these are areas that are compromised by the disease. The level of compromise varies from person to person. Research has shown that exercise can have a restorative effect, helping to slow the progression of the disease and improve overall balance and coordination.<\/p>\n<p>In people with PD, exercise training not only improves their muscle strength and function, it has additional benefits as well:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Reduced shaking, improving movement (helping with slow movement), and balance<\/li>\n<li>Enhances the efficacy of levodopa therapy, the primary treatment for Parkinson\u2019s<\/li>\n<li>Improves heart and lung capacity \u2013 which supports stamina<\/li>\n<li>Improves endurance \u2013 through enhanced strength and stamina<\/li>\n<li>Improves\u00a0 gait disturbances<\/li>\n<li>Improves cognitive function<\/li>\n<li>Improves quality of life\u00a0<sup>2<\/sup><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Certain types of exercise are particularly beneficial \u2013 some doing what medications cannot. In a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.michaeljfox.org\/podcast\/podcast-how-can-exercise-help-manage-parkinsons\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">podcast<\/a>\u00a0 with the Michael J. Fox Foundation, Dr. Lisa Shulman, movement disorder specialist and professor of Neurology at University of Maryland, discusses the benefits of exercise as a treatment for Parkinson\u2019s. Especially when there are issues of mobility \u2013 exercise has a good capacity to relieve symptoms. Research is finding that many different approaches are effective. One size doesn\u2019t fit all. Aerobic exercise impacts endurance. Weight training impacts strength. Dance or yoga impacts flexibility and balance.<\/p>\n<p>It has been discovered that exercise can improve symptoms that no pill can: treadmill training has a direct affect on how fast you are able to walk and how far, how long, and improves gait. Gait improvement is a significant area where medications simply don\u2019t work. Similarly, it was discovered that individuals who practiced Tai -Chi improved balance, an area that is hard to improve with medication, but improves with exercise.<\/p>\n<p>Improved mood or reduction in fatigue are other good benefits to exercise when you have Parkinson\u2019s. Exercise is a social outlet, it has emotional benefits, which is more difficult to research, and we can\u2019t measure definitively the brains of people with Parkinson\u2019s who are exercising. We don\u2019t know if it\u2019s changing the underlying biological progression of the disease. But we do know that it is having an impact.<\/p>\n<p>Can we delay the trajectory of the disease? In Dr. Shulman\u2019s opinion, yes \u2013 and that\u2019s adding years of quality of life to people who have Parkinson\u2019s.\u00a0<sup>3<\/sup><\/p>\n<p>References:<\/p>\n<p>1 \u201cExercise\u201d, The Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson\u2019s Research.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.michaeljfox.org\/news\/exercise\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/www.michaeljfox.org\/news\/exercise<\/a><\/p>\n<p>2 \u201cWhat is the Role of Exercise with Parkinson\u2019s Disease?\u201d\u00a0 ParkinsonsDisease.net; Health Union\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/parkinsonsdisease.net\/treatment\/exercise\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/parkinsonsdisease.net\/treatment\/exercise\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>3. Shulman, Dr. Lisa, \u201cPodcast: How Can Exercise Help Manage Parkinson\u2019s,\u201d\u00a0 The Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson\u2019s Research.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.michaeljfox.org\/podcast\/podcast-how-can-exercise-help-manage-parkinsons\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/www.michaeljfox.org\/podcast\/podcast-how-can-exercise-help-manage-parkinsons<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By CarePatrol of Baltimore A chronic and progressive movement disorder, usually associated with aging individuals, Parkinson\u2019s is not currently curable, but it is treatable, and many people go on living productively with managing the disease. One of the most important and effective treatments is exercise. Parkinson\u2019s effects how you move, and exercise helps keep you&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":8210,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,51,12,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-caring-for-seniors","category-clinical-resources","category-owner-voices","category-resources-information"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carepatrol.com\/baltimore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carepatrol.com\/baltimore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carepatrol.com\/baltimore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carepatrol.com\/baltimore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/carepatrol.com\/baltimore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carepatrol.com\/baltimore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carepatrol.com\/baltimore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carepatrol.com\/baltimore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carepatrol.com\/baltimore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}