#060 Dr. Giselle Petzinger on Exercise for Parkinson's Disease
FoundMyFitness
Rhonda Patrick, Ph.D.
4.8 • 5.5K Ratings
🗓️ 14 October 2020
⏱️ 79 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
Giselle Petzinger
Giselle Petzinger, MD, an associate professor of Neurology at the University of Southern California, studies the extensive effects of how different types of exercise, in particular skill-based exercise, can affect the clinical outcome for people with Parkinson’s disease.
Dr. Petzinger's work focuses on understanding how to promote brain repair after injury, particularly in the context of Parkinson's disease. She is currently investigating ways to enhance neuroplasticity in a preclinical model of the disease. She has examined the role of exercise in Parkinson's disease, with emphasis on how different types of exercise affect distinct regions of the brain. Her work has implications for improving the quality of life of patients diagnosed with the neurological disorder — a condition for which there is no cure.
In this episode, we discuss:
- 00:00:00 - Introduction
- 00:06:57 - What is Parkinson’s disease?
- 00:11:57 - When symptoms of Parkinson’s disease appear
- 00:14:57 - Circuits in the brain can compensate for substantia nigra dysfunction
- 00:18:37 - Hereditary risk factors of Parkinson’s disease
- 00:21:25 - Parkinson’s disease is associated with pesticide and pollutant exposure
- 00:26:57 - Exercise can lower the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease
- 00:35:38 - How skill-based exercise such as boxing reduces disease symptoms
- 00:47:49 - Treadmill exercise increased BDNF and brain health
- 00:58:33 - Exercise at 80 percent of maximum heart rate slowed Parkinson’s disease progression
- 01:01:31 - Why exercise may not fully replace medications
- 01:09:58 - DHA reduces motor symptoms and dyskinesia
- 01:12:12 - Patients with Parkinson’s disease have higher levels of inflammatory biomarkers
If you’re interested in learning more, you can read the full show notes here: https://www.foundmyfitness.com/episodes/giselle-petzinger
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back, Found My Fitness listeners. This episode features a big bold return to our |
| 0:05.4 | expert interview series with guest Dr. Giselle Pettsinger. Giselle is a board-certified neurologist |
| 0:11.5 | specializing in the care of patients with Parkinson's disease. She divides her time between |
| 0:16.1 | clinical care of patients and laboratory research at the University of Southern California. |
| 0:20.8 | One of the areas of her research that I'm particularly interested in is the role of exercise |
| 0:25.2 | in slowing the progression of Parkinson's disease. Parkinson's disease is a progressive neurodegenerative |
| 0:30.5 | disease with no cure. It's caused by the death of dopamine producing neurons in a region of the |
| 0:35.8 | brain called the substantiate negra, an area of the brain involved in movement. Genetic mutations |
| 0:41.5 | and exposure to certain pesticides are risk factors for Parkinson's because they inhibit complex |
| 0:46.6 | one of the electron transport chain in the mitochondria, setting up an energy crisis leading to the death |
| 0:52.9 | of dopamine producing cells. No therapy can slow or halt Parkinson's disease progression. |
| 0:59.9 | Dopamine replacement drugs such as L-Dopa provide some symptom relief, but as the disease advances, |
| 1:07.0 | more frequent dosing is needed and debilitating side effects often develop. And this is where |
| 1:12.9 | exercise comes in. Mounting evidence suggests that people who exercise are less likely to get Parkinson's |
| 1:19.1 | disease later in life. And as we discuss in this episode, exercise can benefit those already |
| 1:25.4 | diagnosed with the disease. The functional symptoms of Parkinson's don't manifest until about half |
| 1:31.1 | of the dopamine producing neurons are lost. Using imaging studies, scientists can detect changes |
| 1:37.3 | in dopamine receptor density in the brains of living patients, allowing them to assess the effects |
| 1:43.1 | of exercise-based interventions. For example, one study showed that eight weeks of intensive |
| 1:49.1 | treadmill training increased dopamine receptor expression by 80 to 90%. These changes in dopamine |
| 1:56.1 | receptor expression are clinically meaningful and correlate with improved postural control. |
| 2:02.0 | The take home from these imaging studies is that the right intervention can be profoundly |
... |
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