Physical exercise improves gait speed, muscle strength, fitness in patients with Park
 

http://www.sciencecodex.com/physical...disease-101497

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CHICAGO – Physical exercise, including treadmill, stretching and resistance exercises, appears to improve gait speed, muscle strength and fitness for patients with Parkinson disease (PD), according to a report of a randomized clinical trial published Online First by Archives of Neurology, a JAMA Network publication.

Gait impairment is associated with functional decline in patients with PD and current therapies are inadequate at preserving mobility as PD progresses. There is growing interest in the use of exercise to improve mobility and function, the authors write in the study background.

Lisa M. Shulman, M.D., of the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, and colleagues conducted a randomized clinical trial of three types of physical exercise to compare the effectiveness of treadmill, stretching and resistance exercises in improving gait speed, strength and fitness for patients with PD.

The study included 67 patients with PD who had gait impairment and were randomly assigned to one of three groups in the trial: a higher intensity treadmill exercise (30 minutes at 70 percent to 80 percent of heart rate reserve); a lower-intensity treadmill exercise (50 minutes at 40 percent to 50 percent of heart rate reserve); and stretching and resistance exercises (two sets of 10 repetitions on each leg on three resistance machines). Patients performed the exercises three times a week for three months.

"The effects of exercise were seen across all three exercise groups. The lower-intensity treadmill exercise resulted in the greatest improvement in gait speed. Both the higher- and lower-intensity treadmill exercises improved cardiovascular fitness. Only the stretching and resistance exercises improved muscle strength. Therefore, exercise can improve gait speed, muscle strength and fitness for patients with Parkinson disease," the study notes.

According to the study results, all three types of exercise improved distance on the 6-minute walk: lower-intensity treadmill exercise (12 percent increase), stretching and resistance exercises (9 percent increase) , and higher-intensity treadmill exercises (6 percent increase). Both types of treadmill training improved cardiovascular fitness, whereas stretching and resistance had no effect. Only stretching and resistance improved muscle strength (16 percent increase).

"The fact that the lower-intensity treadmill exercise is the most feasible exercise for most patients with PD has important implications for clinical practice. Although treadmill and resistance training are beneficial for gait, fitness and muscle strength, these benefits were not accompanied by improvements in disability and quality of life," the authors conclude. "Future directions for study include trials of combinations of exercise types, longer training periods and investigation of the potential for exercise to modify the trajectory of disease progression over time."

.I am much slower in the morning.(parts of my neck and shoulders and back stiff and painful) then, in stretching my muscles to their absolute limits ....my body seems to waken . It seems like my energy flow was asleep , also....because there is a feeling of release and my eyes will water and breathing changes after going thru my basic stretches before getting up.
I used to be a lot worse in the mornings before starting fava tincture... stretching a muscle group for maybe 10 seconds and then my body would breathe really hard (like I just ran a block and had to give it time to recover before my body would relax and I could stretch again)...it is amazing what a little l-dopa supplementation and more daily exercise can do for us. Stretch and exercise all you possibly can..you will see results!