Physical activity can enhance both the quality of life and the severity of movement-related symptoms in patients with Parkinson’s disease. According to a preliminary Cochrane assessment of the available research, no form of organized exercise is better than any other. The review examined 156 randomized controlled trials that compared exercise with no exercise, various types of exercise, and no exercise at all. It included 7,939 participants from around the world, making it the largest and most thorough systematic review to examine the effects of exercise on patients with Parkinson’s disease.
Dr Elke Kalbe, Professor of Medical Psychology at Germany’s University of Cologne, led the Cochrane review in collaboration with independent, international experts. found that physical exercises ranging from dance, water-based exercise, strength and resistance exercise, and endurance exercise to tai chi, yoga, and physiotherapy produced mild to large improvements in the severity of movement-related (`motor`) symptoms and Quality of Life.
“Parkinson’s disease is a progressive disorder of the nervous system that mostly affects people over 60,” said Professor Kalbe. “Symptoms begin gradually and include movement problems such as tremors, stiffness, slowness of movement and balance, and lack of coordination. People also have emotional and mood problems, fatigue, sleep problems, and cognitive Difficulties can also occur. Parkinson’s disease cannot be cured, but symptoms can be relieved, and physiotherapy or other forms of exercise may also help. Until now it was not clear whether certain types of exercise work better than others. We wanted to find out which exercise works best to improve speed and quality of life.”
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The average age of participants in the studies included in the review ranged from 60 to 74 years. Most had mild to moderate disease and no major deficits in their thinking process. The review found that most types of exercise worked better for participants than no physical exercise at all.
The review’s first author, Moritz Ernst, is a member of Cochrane Hematology and deputy head of the working group on evidence-based medicine, which is led by study co-author Professor Nicole Schoetz at the University Hospital Cologne. ,
He said: “We observed clinically meaningful improvements in the severity of motor symptoms for most types of exercise. These included dance, training to improve gait, balance and speed, multi-exercise training and mind-body training We saw similar benefits. in the severity of motor symptoms for water-based training, strength and resistance training, and endurance training, but the estimates of improvement were not precise, which means we are not confident in saying that these The improvements are clinically meaningful.”
For effects on quality of life, we observed clinically meaningful beneficial effects for water-based training, and effects that are potentially clinically meaningful for many types of exercise, such as endurance training, mind- Body training, training to improve gait, balance and movement, and multi-exercise training. Again, these estimates were rather accurate.
“The estimates of the effects on symptoms from different forms of exercise had varying degrees of certainty because some of the studies were very small, and information on the severity of motor symptoms and quality of life was not provided for all participants. However, the authors state that Their review highlighted that most types of exercise produced meaningful improvements, and they found little evidence of much difference between different exercises.
Prof Kalbe said: “We think our results are good news as they indicate that people with Parkinson’s disease may benefit from a variety of structured exercise programs to improve the severity of motor symptoms and their quality of life. In our review highlights the importance of physical exercise. The general, while the precise exercise type may be secondary. Therefore, special attention should be paid to the individual preferences of people with Parkinson’s disease to motivate them to adhere to an exercise program. Any exercise counts!” It is important to point out that our findings do not rule out that some motor symptoms are most effectively treated by programs such as physiotherapy designed specifically for people with Parkinson’s disease. May go.”
Ernst concluded: “Although our results are quite promising for people with Parkinson’s disease, the certainty in the evidence on the efficacy of different exercise types and potential differences between them was generally limited. This was also because most of the studies had very small sample sizes.” Shape.
Therefore, although there is already a large amount of research in this area, we would encourage researchers to conduct larger studies with clearly defined samples, as this would help to draw conclusions with greater confidence.
In addition, it would be laudable to see studies that focus on people with more advanced disease and cognitive impairment, so that we can find out whether physical exercise may also be beneficial for these people.”