How to Help Someone Thrive
Exercise helps manage
Regular exercise, along with physical and occupational therapy, can help maximize someone's fitness, mobility, and ability to continue her daily routines after she's been diagnosed e.g. Parkinson's disease. Helping her function at the optimum level now may offset some of the physical limitations that can develop later.
First you'll want to help her understand why exercise is important. Then you can focus on ways to help her work the best kinds of activity into her life.
Exercise is vital for your disease management. At a time when someone feels like she's losing control of her world, one of the best things she can do for herself is exercise, movement disorder experts say. Not only do regular workouts and physical activities lift the spirits, release stress, and tune up the heart, they can also build strength, flexibility, and endurance and improve posture.
A new British analysis that pooled the results of multiple studies found that various exercise interventions boosted physical functioning, health-related quality of life, strength, balance, and walking speed in Parkinson's patients. And some research on mice with Parkinson's disease-like symptoms even hints that exercise can enhance the brain's supply of dopamine, the chemical lacking in Parkinson's patients.
Physical therapy helps a Parkinson's patient exercise. Even if the person is a couch potato, it's never too late to benefit from exercise. To get started, she should first discuss with her doctor whether she has any health issues that might preclude certain kinds of activities.
Get workout pointers from a physical therapist. It's important to take advantage of rehabilitative care services such as physical therapy early, particularly in the elderly, rather than waiting until problems arise, says Julie Carter, associate director of the Parkinson Center of Oregon, in Portland.
The person can ask her neurologist for a referral to a PT to help her plan a moderate exercise program. It's preferable to consult someone knowledgeable about your loved one's disease rather than simply see a trainer at the gym. As some people get older, they often develop a stooped posture in which their spine and shoulder muscles -- along with other big muscle groups in the arms and legs -- flex forward. Strengthening the major extensor muscles, such as the back shoulder muscles, can work to counterbalance this, but the average personal trainer may not realize the importance of this in an aged body.
Based on an evaluation of the patient's physical condition and her personal goals, the PT can design a targeted program of strengthening, stretching, balance, or aerobic fitness exercises. Your family member can do these on her own or work on them with a gym trainer (make sure the trainer doesn't modify the program without the PT's approval).
Goals of physical therapy include maintaining or increasing activity levels, decreasing rigidity and bradykinesia, optimizing gait, and improving balance and motor coordination. Features of the PT program may include:
Physios Can Help Older People In Many Ways:-
The APA would like to see physiotherapists being able to provide the full breadth of their services into aged care, including:
Stretching is key. e.g. Parkinson's patients tend to become stiff and lose the ability to turn the torso, flexibility exercises are crucial for improving range of motion. In Portland, Carter's centre set up classes in pilates, a low-impact exercise system that focuses on breathing and rotating, extending, and flexing the spine. Pilates or a basic stretching routine can make "a big difference in how functional people are over time," says Carter. "You can just see that they're visibly able to take bigger strides, they can reach better, they can turn better."
Similarly, gentle yoga techniques of stretching, breathing, and relaxation can lengthen the spine and extend the big muscle groups, says physical therapist Marilyn Basham of the Parkinson's Institute and Clinical Center in Sunnyvale, California. "If the spine is elongated, breath comes in easier, swallowing is easier, conversation is easier," she says.
Troubleshooting movement problems:
If the patient has difficulty with walking, balance, pain, or activities such as dressing or getting in and out of bed, the PT can analyse her gait and mobility and offer a range of treatments and coping strategies. For tripping and falling problems, the PT may set her up with an assistive device such as a hiking stick or walker. Ideally, the PT or an occupational therapist (OT) will make a home visit and give tips on improving the safety of her living situation.
The PT can also treat slowness of movement. Parkinson's disease typically impairs the automatic processes in the brain that allow a person to move without thinking about it.
One technique for helping the patient, say, stand up from sitting in a chair is to teach her to consciously think about each step of the motion in advance. It's also worth asking whether the person has slowed down because the illness has made her more sedentary, causing muscle weakness. If so, the solution is to try to get her walking more, according to Basham.
Slowness, stiffness, or gait problems, along with nonmotor Parkinson's disease symptoms such as depression and apathy, can sap a patient's motivation levels. You or other family members might try joining her for walks on a flat route. Start with 5- to 10-minute jaunts and build her up to 30 minutes, at least three to five times a week, says Basham. Keep in mind that walking may require her full focus on putting one foot in front of the other. Trying to engage in a conversation at the same time may tax her; if so, suggest holding off on chitchat until you take a break.
Many thanks to Ingfei Chen, Senior contributing editor
Exercise helps manage
Regular exercise, along with physical and occupational therapy, can help maximize someone's fitness, mobility, and ability to continue her daily routines after she's been diagnosed e.g. Parkinson's disease. Helping her function at the optimum level now may offset some of the physical limitations that can develop later.
First you'll want to help her understand why exercise is important. Then you can focus on ways to help her work the best kinds of activity into her life.
Exercise is vital for your disease management. At a time when someone feels like she's losing control of her world, one of the best things she can do for herself is exercise, movement disorder experts say. Not only do regular workouts and physical activities lift the spirits, release stress, and tune up the heart, they can also build strength, flexibility, and endurance and improve posture.
A new British analysis that pooled the results of multiple studies found that various exercise interventions boosted physical functioning, health-related quality of life, strength, balance, and walking speed in Parkinson's patients. And some research on mice with Parkinson's disease-like symptoms even hints that exercise can enhance the brain's supply of dopamine, the chemical lacking in Parkinson's patients.
Physical therapy helps a Parkinson's patient exercise. Even if the person is a couch potato, it's never too late to benefit from exercise. To get started, she should first discuss with her doctor whether she has any health issues that might preclude certain kinds of activities.
Get workout pointers from a physical therapist. It's important to take advantage of rehabilitative care services such as physical therapy early, particularly in the elderly, rather than waiting until problems arise, says Julie Carter, associate director of the Parkinson Center of Oregon, in Portland.
The person can ask her neurologist for a referral to a PT to help her plan a moderate exercise program. It's preferable to consult someone knowledgeable about your loved one's disease rather than simply see a trainer at the gym. As some people get older, they often develop a stooped posture in which their spine and shoulder muscles -- along with other big muscle groups in the arms and legs -- flex forward. Strengthening the major extensor muscles, such as the back shoulder muscles, can work to counterbalance this, but the average personal trainer may not realize the importance of this in an aged body.
Based on an evaluation of the patient's physical condition and her personal goals, the PT can design a targeted program of strengthening, stretching, balance, or aerobic fitness exercises. Your family member can do these on her own or work on them with a gym trainer (make sure the trainer doesn't modify the program without the PT's approval).
Goals of physical therapy include maintaining or increasing activity levels, decreasing rigidity and bradykinesia, optimizing gait, and improving balance and motor coordination. Features of the PT program may include:
- Regular exercise, such as walking (1+ kilometers a day), swimming, golf, or dancing, depending on the patient's preferences and abilities
- Stretching and strengthening
- Exaggerated or patterned movements, such as high stepping and weight shifting
- Mobility aids, orthotics (such as braces or splints)
- Training in transfer techniques
- Training in techniques to improve posture and walking
Physios Can Help Older People In Many Ways:-
The APA would like to see physiotherapists being able to provide the full breadth of their services into aged care, including:
- assisting in the management of fatigue,
- mobility,
- optimising comfort,
- activities of daily living (including influences of cognitive impairment and responsive behaviours that are challenging),
- falls and falls prevention,
- pain,
- shortness of breath,
- exercise tolerance,
- exercise,
- oedema,
- incontinence,
- deconditioning,
- frailty,
- contractures,
- sleep,
- rest, and
- skin integrity.
Stretching is key. e.g. Parkinson's patients tend to become stiff and lose the ability to turn the torso, flexibility exercises are crucial for improving range of motion. In Portland, Carter's centre set up classes in pilates, a low-impact exercise system that focuses on breathing and rotating, extending, and flexing the spine. Pilates or a basic stretching routine can make "a big difference in how functional people are over time," says Carter. "You can just see that they're visibly able to take bigger strides, they can reach better, they can turn better."
Similarly, gentle yoga techniques of stretching, breathing, and relaxation can lengthen the spine and extend the big muscle groups, says physical therapist Marilyn Basham of the Parkinson's Institute and Clinical Center in Sunnyvale, California. "If the spine is elongated, breath comes in easier, swallowing is easier, conversation is easier," she says.
Troubleshooting movement problems:
If the patient has difficulty with walking, balance, pain, or activities such as dressing or getting in and out of bed, the PT can analyse her gait and mobility and offer a range of treatments and coping strategies. For tripping and falling problems, the PT may set her up with an assistive device such as a hiking stick or walker. Ideally, the PT or an occupational therapist (OT) will make a home visit and give tips on improving the safety of her living situation.
The PT can also treat slowness of movement. Parkinson's disease typically impairs the automatic processes in the brain that allow a person to move without thinking about it.
One technique for helping the patient, say, stand up from sitting in a chair is to teach her to consciously think about each step of the motion in advance. It's also worth asking whether the person has slowed down because the illness has made her more sedentary, causing muscle weakness. If so, the solution is to try to get her walking more, according to Basham.
Slowness, stiffness, or gait problems, along with nonmotor Parkinson's disease symptoms such as depression and apathy, can sap a patient's motivation levels. You or other family members might try joining her for walks on a flat route. Start with 5- to 10-minute jaunts and build her up to 30 minutes, at least three to five times a week, says Basham. Keep in mind that walking may require her full focus on putting one foot in front of the other. Trying to engage in a conversation at the same time may tax her; if so, suggest holding off on chitchat until you take a break.
Many thanks to Ingfei Chen, Senior contributing editor