Parkinson’s patients pedal to a healthier, happier life

The Enterprise — Elizabeth Floyd Mair

Pedaling for Parkinson’s is always taught by a specially certified instructor who walks around the room throughout the class, checking on participants. Here, instructor Nina Floyd of the Guilderland YMCA — sister-in-law of Enterprise reporter Elizabeth Floyd Mair — checks Phil Livingston’s bike to make sure he is not going faster than is healthy for him.

GUILDERLAND — Phil Livingston, 73, of Guilderland, rarely exercised until a couple of years ago.

That all changed when he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, a progressive neurological condition that can bring slowness of movement, rigidity, and tremor. Some people also experience depression and other emotional changes.

Research shows that exercise can help Parkinson’s sufferers to manage symptoms and possibly slow the progression of the disease, according to the website of the National Parkinson Foundation.

Now Livingston attends a Pedaling for Parkinson’s spinning class at the Guilderland YMCA three mornings a week, and takes classes in zumba, chair yoga, and tai chi there too, all twice a week. One afternoon a week, he attends the Y’s integrated exercise and wellness class called Parkinson’s Wellness Recovery.

And on Saturday nights, Livingston and his wife go out square dancing. “It’s something she feels like she can do to help me along,” he said.

Livingston said he feels that the exercise is helping. The Pedaling for Parkinson’s class, he said, “makes my legs feel stronger and less shaky.”

“Exercise is vital to all of us to be in our best health, but is particularly important to people living with Parkinson’s because of its effects on strength, balance, posture, sleep, and mood,” says Dr. Eric Molho, professor of neurology and the Riley Family Chair in Parkinson’s Disease at the Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders Center of the Albany Medical Center Neurosciences Institute. Molho advises patients to choose exercise that they will enjoy and can do at least three times a week without injuring themselves by overdoing.

Intensity counts

“When it comes to exercise and PD, greater intensity equals greater benefits,” says the National Parkinson Foundation (NPF) on their website. “Experts recommend that people with Parkinson’s, particularly young-onset or those in the early stages, exercise with intensity for as long as possible as often as possible.”

The NPF website also says, “People with Parkinson’s enrolled in exercise programs with durations longer than six months, regardless of exercise intensity, have shown significant gains in functional balance and mobility as compared to programs of only two-week or ten-week duration.”

Albany Medical Center’s Molho told The Enterprise, “People ask me what kind [of exercise] — I don’t try and limit them. I generally want them to do what’s motivating to them and they’re going to keep up and do on a regular basis, and not hurt themselves.”

He said that researchers are studying the benefits of spinning for those with Parkinson’s, and that there is a hope that the motion of cycling somehow helps with problems that are specific to Parkinson’s, including the “freezing of gait,” where sufferers find that, as they are walking, their feet suddenly get stuck, “like a stuttering of the feet.”

Researchers are looking into, he said, whether there might be some “durable benefits, beyond the immediate benefits of the exercise,” with “remodeling of motor pathways in the brain.”        

Hope Soars

Mark Burek of Castleton, a postal carrier who has been living with Parkinson’s for eight years, founded a not-for-profit organization called Hope Soars. This group brought the Pedaling for Parkinson’s program to the Capital District YMCA. Burek noted that the program now has close to 100 members at all area branches combined.

Albany Medical Center sponsors a yoga class, offered through Hope Soars, that is taught once a week at the Healthy Weight Food Coop in Albany. That class is free and there are no medical forms to fill out in advance. As Burek says, “Just come and enjoy it.”

Burek said that participation in the yoga class varies with the weather, adding, “The colder it gets, the tougher it gets to move around.” He estimates that the class has anywhere from 4 to 12 participants per session, although in the summer as many as 20 may attend. Men and women of all ages are welcome.

The class is predominantly chair yoga, Burek said, and can be done even by someone with advanced Parkinson’s who cannot stand unassisted.

In Albany, there is also a Pedaling for Parkinson’s class that is completely free; no Y membership is necessary. It is taught at the Healthy Living Center, which is within the Hannaford Supermarket in the Century II mall at 900 Central Ave.

The Healthy Living Center is a partnership between three different organizations —Hannaford, CDPHP, and the Y — explained Nancy Gildersleeve, director of Healthy Living at the Capital District YMCA. It is not a full YMCA branch. It offers health education program, physical exercise programs, and dietary advice.

Y-sponsored classes require that paperwork be filled out by a doctor in advance.

The website of the National Parkinson Foundation recommends that anyone with a family member who has PD also commit to this same kind of exercise regimen. “One neurologist [in the NPF Center of the Excellence network] told us that he tells people with a relative who has PD to exercise 300 minutes a week, with at least half of it intense running or bike riding.”

In addition to the physical benefits, Livingston said, exercise helps the spirit. “I think it helps mentally, as something you can to help determine your own fate,” he said.

Only 49 when he was diagnosed, Burek says, “I found the secret to it — it’s the same with all diseases. You accept it, and just make the best of it, and don’t let the disease define you.”

For more information, see her website at healingwithmovement.net, or call (518) 669-9677.

More Guilderland News

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