Physical Activity and Its Effect on Parkinson's Disease: Can it Help?

Pathology:

Since Parkinson’s Disease is the second most popular neurodegenerative disease in the world, most people probably have a general idea of the symptoms and behaviour of this illness. Therefore, let us save you some time and jump into the changes that lead to this disease. Beginning with the brain, there is a specific part of it called the ‘basal ganglia’ where changes start to impact a person and lead to the disease.

The basal ganglia is located within the brain: the corpus callosum to be exact, and it is in touch with the thalamus to relay the incoming information to upper regions of the brain. The basal ganglia’s role in the body is to order/stop the execution of a movement. Yet, it is not as simple as it sounds; indeed, there are many pathways to be activated and chemicals to be released in order for the proper execution of movement to happen, but we are not to get deep into this here. In other words, the basal ganglia works like a “go, no-go” switch as it allows a movement to take place or not. The basal ganglia does this through both direct and indirect pathways and what happens in Parkinson’s disease is that the chemical changes; dopamine producing neurons become dysfunctional, results in increased inhibitory output due to facilitated indirect pathways. The indirect pathway stops conflicting movements and smooths out our movement. For instance, imagine how you can walk and at the same time make a turn and continue walking. Yup! Basal ganglia allow this “simple” movement to happen without us even noticing it which is a hardship in patients with Parkinson’s disease.

It is important to note that Parkinson’s disease is not just a motor disease (tremor and rigidity), but it also negatively affects mood and behaviour. Researchers have long been investigating to see if there are any medications that can prevent this disease from happening or delay its occurrence. But in line with our goal, we are going to see if exercise can be a game changer in those with Parkinson’s disease and if it is, how it should be done/or what the research says about it. 

 

Research:

Parkinson’s disease is an illness that is quite well known to the public and the research involving this disease is very extensive and thorough. Systematic reviews investigating the effects of physical activity on Parkinson’s disease have concluded that physical activity has positive effects on both physical and cognitive capacities for those with Parkinson’s (Lauzé et al. 2016). This positive effect seems to have the most impact on a person’s gait, their mobility, their posture, and their balance (Lauzé et al. 2016). This being said though, it seems that physical activity has much less of an effect on psychosocial aspects of life for those with Parkinson’s disease (Lauzé et al. 2016). Furthermore, epidemiological data has also suggested that exercise may reduce a person’s risk of developing Parkinson’s disease in the first place and that physical activity can improve both motor and non-motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease (Bhalsing et al. 2018). However, typically those with Parkinson’s disease become more inactive as the disease progresses due to motor, mental, and emotional symptoms (van Nimwegen et al. 2011). A study investigating the relationship between inactivity and Parkinson’s disease, with participants between 60 to 76 years old, saw that more daily physical activity was associated with decreased disease severity, gait impairment, and disability in daily living (van Nimwegen et al. 2011). Furthermore, when a group of researchers looked at 143,325 participants in the Cancer Prevention Study II Nutrition Cohort from 1992 to 2001, they saw that the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease declined in those who had the highest baseline recreational activity (Thacker et al. 2008). Though, it is important to note that Parkinson’s disease is a multifactorial illness, where both environmental and genetic factors interact to create the conditions leading to the start of the disease (van Nimwegen et al. 2011).

        Therefore, those with Parkinson’s Disease are able to improve both their physicality and cognition by becoming more physically active.

 

Exercise:

As what has been seen through the research, physical activity in general seems to hold many benefits for those with Parkinson’s disease. However, with such an illness that affects both a person’s cognition and physicality, it is extremely important to critically analyze a person’s current situation before beginning an exercise program. When recommending physical activity for Parkinson’s Disease patients consider: motor symptoms, the risk of falls, apathy, fatigue, depression, and cognitive dysfunction (Bhalsing et al. 2018). The reason for this is because of the fact that any one of these symptoms can reduce a person’s participation in physical activity and add to a more sedentary lifestyle which is something to be avoided (Bhalsing et al. 2018). Therefore, once these factors have been identified and worked around, you are able to help the individual to perform consistent physical activity; no matter how small, which will hold benefits for a person with Parkinson’s disease. 

 

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**Please note that the exercise related programs from the studies are not the only effective training modality that produce benefits. If you believe that exercise will help you or someone you know, please contact a registered healthcare professional for more information.

**For more detail on this topic or to recommend future content, please email us.

 

Articles Referenced:

Bhalsing, K. S., Abbas, M. M., & Tan, L. C. (2018). Role of physical activity in Parkinson's disease. Annals of Indian Academy of Neurology, 21(4), 242.

Lauzé, M., Daneault, J. F., & Duval, C. (2016). The effects of physical activity in Parkinson’s disease: a review. Journal of Parkinson's disease, 6(4), 685-698.

Thacker, E. L., Chen, H., Patel, A. V., McCullough, M. L., Calle, E. E., Thun, M. J., ... & Ascherio, A. (2008). Recreational physical activity and risk of Parkinson's disease. Movement disorders, 23(1), 69-74.

van Nimwegen, M., Speelman, A. D., Hofman-van Rossum, E. J., Overeem, S., Deeg, D. J., Borm, G. F., ... & Munneke, M. (2011). Physical inactivity in Parkinson’s disease. Journal of neurology, 258(12), 2214-2221.