What looked promising turned out to be fairly lackluster as far as results – although it appears that putting in time on a treadmill might be better for Parkinson’s patients than some other forms of exercise, when it comes to gait and balance. And challenging courses of treatment were recommended for people with PD.

Exercise and Parkinson’s – comparison

Background and Purpose: Impaired gait, balance, and motor function are common in Parkinson disease (PD) and may lead to falls and injuries. Different forms of exercise improve motor function in persons with PD, but determining which form of exercise is most effective requires a direct comparison of various approaches. In this prospective, controlled trial, we evaluated the impact of tango, treadmill walking, and stretching on gait, balance, motor function, and quality of life. We hypothesized tango and treadmill would improve forward walking and motor symptom severity, and tango would also improve backward walking, balance, and quality of life.

Results: In this study, treadmill walking improved forward and backward walking.

Healing Sounds: an anthropology of Music Therapy

explore embodiment, relationship – building and aesthetic creation as three areas n which music can allow the harnessing of affect towards health goals. I note music’s powerful affect on the human body and movement, and the ways in which these affects are mobilized towards specific clinical goals. I explore the various human –  to – human and human – to sound relationships that are mobilized, created or strengthened through music therapy interventions, and how they relate to health and to the affect of “becoming”. Finally, I note the strong evidence for musical and esthetic creation as a part of self – care, both by music therapists and by their clients, and argue for a broader understanding of how creativity impacts health, by allowing people to affect their environments

Exercise and Gait

Methods: Forty-seven PwPD (mean age: 73 years; 19 females, Hoehn and Yahr stages 2-3) who had participated in 10 weeks of highly challenging gait and balance training were included. Baseline demographics, disease-related factors, physical and cognitive ability, and perceived health were used for the prediction of percent change in balance performance (the Mini-BESTest) and comfortable gait speed between the pre- and postassessments, using multiple linear regression analyses.

Results: Thirty-five percent of the variance of change in balance performance was explained by General Health Perceptions (β = −0.36), the Timed Up and Go test (β = −0.33), and the single-task performance of a cognitive task (β = −0.24). Forty-nine percent of change in gait speed was explained by gait speed while performing a dual task (β = −0.46), dual-task interference while walking (β = 0.43), time to complete the Timed Up and Go test (β = −0.29), and percent error on a cognitive task (β = −0.25).

Discussion and Conclusions: The results may suggest that the PwPD with overall lower perceived health, functional mobility, and cognitive functions are the ones most likely to benefit from highly challenging and attention-demanding gait and balance training.