I was watching Sunday Morning today on CBS and saw a story titled: Fighting back against Parkinson's - in the ring.  The name of the program is "Rock Steady" and they have classes all over.  Since I have a TER friend with Parkinson's, I thought I would share it on this board.  

Bits of the story are....."When you say boxing for Parkinson's, it's kind of counter-intuitive," said Marongiu. "But the difference is this: We do non-contact boxing, so they don't fight against each other. They don't get hurt, they don't get hit."...............Mills continued: "When I first started coming in, I was not able to walk straight to the ring. I would have to wobble to the ring. It was very hard to walk. Now it's piece of -- I don't wanna say a piece of cake, I don't wanna sound cocky! But physically, it made a big difference."......."We studied people over a two-year period who participated in boxing and we didn't see any progression of the disease in the people that boxed."  "It arrested the disease?" asked Stahl.  "Right. In fact, in some cases, they were better after the two-year period of time. Their function was better."

Hope this might help someone

but the fact that you are active that helps counteract the effects of Parkinson's?

In other words, it would not surprise me if the next article(s) spoke up the benefits of ballrooom dancing or any activity that involves physical exercise & visual-spatial coordination.

Interesting topic, thanks for sharing :-

END OF MESSAGE

The point of the article was:

Each exercise works on a symptom:

a)Stretching is for their stiffness
b) Foot work is for balance
c) Punching is to steady their tremors
d) Shouting is to counter their soft voice syndrome
e) Sparing is for coordination

One guy said “Boxing is the opposite of Parkinson’s.  Everything is designed to pump you up instead of shrink you.

He was diagnosed 1.5 years ago. PT, and the drug Sinemet  have been a big help to him. He's in his 80s.

Steph xoxo

-- Modified on 11/9/2015 7:41:50 AM

-- Modified on 11/9/2015 8:05:28 AM

Certain kinds of massage/bodywork can directly address the symptoms of Parkinson's.
There are many different modalities of this kind of work, from gentle to aggressive, that
can help improve the quality of life for many afflicted with this neurological disease.
Give it a try.

I saw the story on TV and if I remember correctly there was at least one person that was over the age of 80.

Believe it or not, ballroom dancing, or any type of dancing is great for people with Parkinson's.  Dancing requires both mental and physical skills and has been shown through numerous studies to slow the decline due to Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.

Here is the link to the story;

I've worked with PD in clinical studies in my regular work. In a short, professional massage therapy physiologically one hour to the body is equal to 8 hours of rest. An individual with PD gets very little rest ( physiological / all systems of the body are on and working overtime internally) depending on how developed the disease is with them. With the benefits of massage therapy you can give some one some rest and peace for the day. One of the most professionally rewarding groups of people to work with. As far as types of massage all are benifcial but bodywork is good for posture and Swedish is good for relaxing.  
If anyone has questions regarding professional massage or PT, please drop me a note.
Alyssa