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Yoga eases Parkinson's symptoms for some Tuesday, October 28, 2003 By Bette McDevitt Robert Moser and Italo Melocchi walk side by side, each slowly lifting a leg, placing the heel down, then the toe. They make this walk on a wood floor, facing a mirror, moving together in a friendship forged by the affliction they share, Parkinson's disease. Melocchi, 72, of Churchill, is a retired carpenter and a skilled woodworker. Moser, 61, of Shadyside, is the owner of Arthur Moser Design Studios. They met while taking yoga classes at Shadyside Yoga, and are there to restore their well- being. Parkinson's disease, a degenerative disorder of the nervous system, is characterized by a decrease in spontaneous movements, gait difficulty, muscle rigidity and tremors when the body is at rest. Yoga's slow movements and breathing exercises are well suited to Parkinson's patients, the teachers say. "You don't have to turn into a pretzel to do yoga," says one of the instructors, Paul Hajdukiewicz. "The breath... is actually the most powerful tool. We simply need to attach our awareness to our breath, and that opens up all kinds of possibilities." Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and at other centers across the country are beginning to examine exercise as a way to either slow or reverse the effects of Parkinson's. Most of the research so far has been done on animals. But at least anecdotally, Parkinson's patients taking classes at Shadyside Yoga and elsewhere say they experience improved energy and flexibility, more restful sleep, and more strength and endurance. Melocchi, who was diagnosed in 1994, and Moser in 1997, have taken yoga for three years while continuing to take their medication. Melocchi saw improvement within two to three months in increased flexibility and movement and less fatigue. Rigidity decreased as well. Moser experienced immediate improvement. "I could move my legs when they were frozen," he said. It also brightened his mental outlook, but he still acknowledges that he is still pretty angry about being afflicted "with this horrible disease." Sara Azarius, founder of Shadyside Yoga, sees a lot of frustration in Parkinson's patients and believes the yoga helps ease that feeling. "They have determination, but they have a lot of anger and anxiety." To achieve the greatest benefit, students are urged to take breathing (pranayama) and posture (asana) classes, to work with instructors one on one, and to practice at home. "Parkinson's patients tend to be very goal oriented, they cannot slow down, and so they fight hard and do not rest enough," she says. "They need pre-emptive deep resting, and the breathing exercises do a lot of that." Shadyside Yoga offers Iyengar style hatha yoga, a precise and disciplined method that can provide therapeutic benefits for physical problems and sports injuries. In the classes, the teachers start with the basics. "I make them walk very slowly holding on to the bar or the wall, The slower they go the more they wobble, but that's the way they develop balance," Azarius says. "Just to walk is a very intricate process, a highly coordinated activity. If you watch a child, they don't do it overnight. They learn it piece by piece." Moser said his doctors are enthusiastic about his yoga practice. "I go as often as seven days or as little as two," he said. "I wasn't breathing before. I don't know what the hell I was doing, but I wasn't breathing." He had been exercising with free weights and on a treadmill at a local health club when a friend invited him to go to a yoga class with her. He continues to strength train as part of his therapy. Melocchi has developed a stuttering problem with his Parkinson's disease. When the words come tumbling out, Azarius stops him with one word. "Inhale!" If he inhales, pauses, then exhales, he easily completes the sentence without stuttering. The benefits of yoga are hard to measure beyond anecdotal assessments. Dr. Timothy McCall, medical editor of Yoga Journal, and a yoga student, spent several months in India to reconcile the science of medicine and yoga. "...It is enough to drive a Western scientist crazy. With dozens of major styles of yoga, hundreds of individual practices and the variations on these techniques used with individual students and in different systems, there are simply more combinations of possible treatments than it will ever be possible to sort out experimentally," McCall wrote in Yoga Journal. "There is a lot of research on yoga and most of it suggests yoga works for a wide variety of conditions from back pain to cancer to carpal tunnel syndrome. What we don't know is which elements of the practice works, whether it is some particular poses or breathing techniques or the combination of dozens of them." Looking at yoga scientifically raises other concerns, McCall says. "Some view this 'medicalization' of yoga as a problem; they worry that doing yoga for a bodily affliction trivializes this great spiritual tradition." Azarius has no equivocation in her response. "If a Parkinson's patient takes a class, and reports that he or she feels better after a class, they know how they feel. So let the scientists who want to spend their time proving and disproving things do that. But as a yoga teacher, I want to spend my time helping someone." Bette McDevitt is a free-lance writer SOURCE: Pittsburgh Post Gazette http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/03301/234572.stm * * * ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn