Can swinging in golf help patients with Parkinson’s disease? -Consumer Health News

Wednesday, March 3, 2021 (HealthDay News)-Golf may beat martial arts tai chi to help patients with Parkinson’s disease improve balance and mobility, a new small study reveals Did.

“Exercise is well known for treating the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease,” said study author Dr. Anne Marie Wills, who improves gait, balance, and malaise while providing a measure of depression relief. Said it would be useful to do. Some human and animal studies have also raised the prospect that exercise may help slow the progression of the disease, she added.

However, many Parkinson’s patients are unable to engage in therapeutic activities. “There are few randomized trials comparing different types of PD exercise,” said Wills, an assistant professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School.

To see how golf overlaps with Tai Chi, her team focused on 20 patients whose illness was characterized as “moderate.” I had never played golf or practiced Tai Chi before.

Eight were offered a 10-week golf class where they met twice a week for an hour. The other 12 were trained in Tai Chi at the same time.

Standing and gait tests were performed before and after the training class to determine how long each patient would take to get up from the chair, walk 10 feet, and then return to sit again. RESULTS: After the study, the Tai Chi group performed full exercise about one-third of a second later than at the start of the study. However, the golf group was almost a second faster.

“I’ve observed that people with Parkinson’s disease who play golf regularly seem to get better results,” Wills said, so he wasn’t particularly surprised by the finding.

The study found “statistically significant improvements” among golf groups, showing that golf is at least as safe and effective as Tai Chi.

“Both interventions focus on balance, but golf arm participants seem to enjoy the exercise more, which may help explain the greater improvement,” said Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Wills, who heads the Cure PSP Care Center in Boston, said.

Her Takeaway: “This was a small pilot study, but I’m optimistic that it will be a good exercise option for people with Parkinson’s disease. It seems to be tolerant, safe, and well-balanced. I would like to do a larger study. I will review the findings, but in the meantime, for people with Parkinson’s disease, practice golf swings three times a week, one hour a day at the golf practice field. Is recommended. “

James Beck is Chief Scientific Officer of the Parkinson’s Foundation in New York City. “It’s not a cure for people with Parkinson’s disease, but exercise is like a rising tide that can lift all boats,” he said.

“In the case of PD, exercise can relieve symptoms of stiffness, improve movement, combat apathy and depression, and improve overall function,” said Beck, who was not part of the study. It was.

“Exercise often leads to better fitness and balance,” he said, stressing that it helps minimize falls, the main cause of death in people with Parkinson’s disease.

According to the Parkinson’s Foundation, patients who develop a consistent exercise routine in the early stages of their illness can delay a decline in quality of life compared to patients who are active later.

With that in mind, Beck suggested that the top priority was “not to find the” right “movement, but to get people to start and keep moving.”

“The message is not that people should go out and start playing golf,” he said. “But if these results persist in a larger sample, it’s clear that people living with PD should find the exercise they like and continue with it.”

The findings will be presented at a virtual conference of the American Academy of Neurology on April 17-22. The data and conclusions presented at the conference are generally considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

For more information

There’s more about living with Parkinson’s disease in Parkinson’s Foundation..

Source: Anne-Marie A. Wills, MD, MPH, Associate Professor, Neurology, Harvard Medical School, and Director of the Cure PSP Center of Care at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Dr. James Beck, Chief Scientific Officer of the Parkinson’s Foundation in New York City.American Academy of Neurology, Virtual Conference, April 17-22, 2021