Exercise Protocol Alleviates One of the Most Debilitating Symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease, Study Says
A study showed that Parkinson’s disease could be alleviated through a ‘complex exercise protocol designed’ to stir up different cognitive and motor skills at the same time.
Freezing of gait: This is one of the most debilitating symptoms of Parkinson's disease. It manifests as sudden, short episodes of lack of ability to move the feet forward in spite of the patient's intention to walk.
A study by the Brazil-based University of Sao Paulo researchers showed that the disease could be alleviated through a "complex exercise protocol designed" to stir up different cognitive and motor skills at the same time. In connection with the study, an article recently came out in the Movement Disorders journal.
Backed by FAPESP, the study also presented that resistant training that comes with instability improved brain regions linked to psychological change "typical of gait freezing, boosted neuron activation" and boosted brain plasticity in the affected areas.
Furthermore, as indicated in the study, on top of the favorable reports from patients who underwent the training, clinical tests also evidenced substantial enhancements, specifically, a 60-percent drop in gait freezing and a 70-percent decline the disease's motor symptoms.
According to a USP researcher, Carla da Silva Batista, from the university's School of Physical Education and sports, one more important result of the study concerned the rebuilding of the brain regions directly connected to the problem.
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Brain Regions' Reactivation Verified
Batista, who is also the article's first author, said, "Brain plasticity in these areas is a forecaster of gait freezing mitigation."
Specifically, the brain regions' reactivation, the said study specified, was validated by fMRI or functional magnetic resonance imaging.
The protocol is the first to lessen gait freezing symptoms, be clinically examined in an objective manner, and record the associated pathophysiologic modifications in the brain.
This study was part of the postdoctoral research, and part of it was conducted at the OHSU or Oregon Health and Science University.
The first author said, activating the cerebellar area linked to gait automaticity, as well as the "mesencephalic locomotor region" linked to gait initiation and postural control, explain the gait freezing's reversal following adapted resistance training.
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Modified Resistance Training
In this study, the USP research team involved 32 participants in all who were in "stages 3 and 4 of Parkinson's disease, which is believed to have five stages.
Participants were divided randomly into two groups. One group served as the control group comprising 15 patients who were given provided with conventional rehabilitation physical therapy.
Meanwhile, the other has 17 patients who underwent a complex training program which the study authors designed.
As described in the study, the resistance training the team developed comprised 36 sessions in all, distributed over a period of 12 weeks. It involved exercises that incorporated "instability, motor coordination, and cognitive demands."
According to Batista, all exercises included in the resistance training were intense and needed to be performed simultaneously "to cause complexity."
This then demands a substantial effort from the participant, not to mention confidence in the trainer's part. Batista added that the latter-mentioned would continuously need to give the patient participants the support they need, "so they don't fall."
In this research, this USP researcher said they did not detect any improvement in the control group. "It is essential to stress," she emphasized, that the customary exercises were not capable of lessening "the severity of gait freezing," or generate positive modifications to brain regions.
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Sep 16, 2020 08:00 AM EDT
