SERIOUS PLAY
Exercise found to help people with Parkinson's disease
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Dennis Fiely
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
During an exercise class at Ohio State University, patients with Parkinson's
disease try to keep balloons airborne.
Stretching exercises keep the legs nimble.
The scene resembled a child's birthday party more than an exercise class for
adults. Dozens of men and women, middleaged and elderly, filled the air with
balloons, whacking them like pinatas with their hands. Occasionally, one
burst.
"We play just like kids," said Kathy Cooper, 59, of Granville.
Cooper joins dozens of other patients in an expanded Ohio State University
program to combat Parkinson's disease with sit-ups, toe raises, arm pumps
and balloon tosses.
"Exercise is probably the thing I get most jazzed up about," said Karen
Thomas, a neurologist at the Madden Center for Excellence - for the
treatment and research of Parkinson's and other movement disorders.
OSU has offered a weekly exercise class to Parkinson's patients for several
years.
This year, new initiatives include a second weekly class in March as well as
a workbook, video and summer lecture series.
Parkinson's Education and Advocacy for the Community emphasizes exercise as
one of the best defenses against a brain disorder that afflicts 1.5 million
Americans.
(About 60,000 new cases are diagnosed each year, according to the National
Parkinson's Foundation.)
"It is just as important as medication," Thomas said.
Thomas H. Mallory, a Columbus orthopedic surgeon, last year established an
endowment to enhance the program and donated class space at 720 E. Broad St.
Mallory retired from his practice five years ago, when he was diagnosed with
Parkinson's, characterized by tremors.
"He found that exercise made him dramatically feel better, and he wanted to
share that with the community," Thomas said.
Mallory, 68, declined to discuss his involvement.
"He feels that this is about the patients and not about him," said son
Scott, a Columbus real-estate developer.
"But he is thrilled about what OSU is doing because he has had a tremendous,
positive response from exercise."
The profile of Parkinson's disease was raised during the 2006 political
campaigns when actor and patient Michael J. Fox lobbied for stem-cell
research in search of a cure.
Excitement over the promise of scientific breakthroughs and new medications,
Thomas said, often overshadows the importance of regular physical activity.
She recommends stretching, strengthening and walking to all 1,300 patients
at the Madden center.
At the doctor's urging, Cooper entered the exercise class two years ago.
"I was ready to become an invalid," she said.
She was found to have the disease in 2004: She struggled to get in and out
of cars. Slack muscles distorted her face. She walked with short, unsteady
steps and shook so badly that she couldn't write.
"Life just wasn't fun anymore," she said.
The weekly class, along with daily workouts at home, helped restore her
gait, handwriting and smile.
"It might be overly dramatic to say exercise saved my life, but it certainly
saved my quality of life," Cooper said. "I hardly have tremors anymore. I am
normal again."
Despite some exercises that seem unusual, "Everything we do has a point,"
said Jackie Russell, a registered nurse.
"We work muscles that traditional classes don't even think about."
The process of inflating, tying and launching balloons, for example,
develops lung capacity, small-motor movement and hand-eye coordination.
Such skills are necessary to counteract the loss of muscle control.
OSU physical therapist Deb Kegelmeyer and certified trainer David Zid of
Columbus Health Works have teamed up to design and teach the classes.
Workouts combine her therapeutic approach with his fitness orientation.
"We have all levels of disease progression in our class," Zid said, "but it
is best to hit this thing early and hard. We found exercise delays symptoms,
so why wait? "
Some exercises work on symptoms peculiar to Parkinson's: Patients step
through and over cones to offset "freezing" - the inability to walk through
narrow hallways.
The classes include some speech therapy.
"Patients come in here and scream," Russell said, "because they often lose
capacity to move air over their vocal cords."
More-traditional routines focus on strength, balance and flexibility.
Parkinson's occurs when dopamine-producing nerve cells in the brain die or
become impaired. (The chemical allows for the smooth functioning of muscles
and movement.)
About 85 percent of cases involve people older than 50, according to the
National Parkinson's Association.
It's "common sense," Thomas said, that exercise would treat movement-related
symptoms.
New research indicates, however, that regular activity might also influence
the disease process.
"That's the exciting part," she said.
Thomas cited studies at the University of Pittsburgh in which exercising
rats - injected with a toxin that kills brain cells - showed no damage to
the brain and didn't develop symptoms.
Tremors, she noted, are among the "least-impairing" symptoms of Parkinson's.
In different patients, of course, the disease progresses at varying rates.
Yet exercise seems to help them all, Thomas said.
Dorothy Stanton, 77, of the West Side noticed better balance after taking
part in the class for one year.
"I still bowl two days a week and walk a couple of days a week," said
Stanton, who learned she has the disease five years ago.
The fatigue is most troubling for Chuck Hiser, 69, of Hilliard.
Six months in the class "has given me more drive," he said.
"I know it does me good. I am moving around a lot better and have more
control over my body."
The social network among participants, who often eat lunch together after
class, is a side benefit.
"When people leave, they are grinning from ear to ear," Cooper said. "That
is why they keep coming back."
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