Exercise

Discovery

BBC

Science, Technology

4.3 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 7 October 2019

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Can exercise help people living with Parkinson’s, a neurodegenerative condition, with symptoms such as loss of balance, difficulty walking and stiffness in the arms and legs. Jane Hill travels to the Netherlands to meet Mariëtte Robijn and Wim Rozenberg, coaches at Rock Steady Boxing Het Gooi and co-founders of ParkinsonSport.nl, a unique sports club ran 100% by and for people with Parkinson’s. It doesn’t take long before a transformation begins to take place in the gym. Boxing is popular in the US as well, says Professor Lisa Shulman, Director of the Parkinson’s Centre at the University of Maryland. She has been encouraging her patients to exercise for the last 25 years. Results from over 200 studies suggest that exercise is a good way to empower people as well as having physical benefits such as delaying disability. In Ghana many people receive a late diagnosis. Sheila Klufio a physiotherapist at Korle Bu Hospital in Accra works with people to help them deal with some of the more common symptoms such as freezing when walking so they feel more confident to go out. And it seems all types of exercise can help, Alan Alda and Michael J Fox both box, ballet dancing is popular, walking, cycling and Tai Chi have benefits and it’s never too late to start. Picture credit: Wim Rozenberg at Wimages.nl

Transcript

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0:00.0	Come on, baby. What do you want me to do?
0:02.0	Left, left, left, right.
0:04.0	Come on.
0:05.0	Hello, I'm Jane Hill, and this is the truth about Parkinson's on the BBC World Service.
0:10.0	This is why we love boxing.
0:12.0	It's a sound. I've come to a big gym in the town of Hoisin in the Netherlands to see a boxing class which is run entirely by people with Parkinson's for people with Parkinson's.
0:26.0	And it's only been up and running properly for a few months and it's already extremely
0:31.1	popular.
0:32.1	PD for sure. extremely popular.
0:33.0	PD for short is the fastest growing neurodegenerative condition in the world.
0:39.0	More than 6 million people are living with it today.
0:42.0	It affects their movement and balance, speech and
0:45.1	facial expressions and causes non-motor symptoms too, including constipation and
0:50.3	depression. There's no cure for Parkinson's but people can live with it for decades.
0:55.8	My dad did and so did his brother. The condition is managed through a combination of
1:01.4	drugs which can have considerable side effects.
1:04.8	But now there's increasing evidence that there's another medicine which has only positive
1:09.1	consequences.
1:10.6	Exercise.
1:11.6	Right, today we're going to target our posture problem, which is very important when you
1:18.4	Parkinson, she tend to bend over, kifotic posture, and we're trying to work on that by doing power exercises training our core.
1:27.0	Mariet Rabin started this class with a friend who also has Parkinson's.
	...

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