Tag Archives: gait

Dance, Dance for Parkinson's, Exercise, Parkinson's, Research, Reviews , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

A review on dance and PD

by

Dance classes for Parkinson’s patients was one of the things that got me involved in Power for Parkinson’s© and the Georgetown Area Parkinson’s Support group to begin with. For me, it has helped to improve symptoms and quality of life tremendously.

In this desk review of many studies, the authors came to the following conclusions:

Overall, the reviewed evidence demonstrated that dance can improve motor impairments, specifically balance and motor symptom severity in individuals with mild to moderate PD, and that more research is needed to determine its effects on non-motor symptoms and QOL. RCTs that use a mixed-methods approach and include larger sample sizes will be beneficial in fully characterizing effects and in determining which program elements are most important in bringing about positive, clinically meaningful changes in people with PD.

 Carapellotti AM, Stevenson R, Doumas M (2020) The efficacy of dance for improving motor impairments, non-motor symptoms, and quality of life in Parkinson’s disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis. PLoS ONE 15(8): e0236820. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0236820

I have come to the conclusion that every study or review has to include the phrase “more research is needed.” And it is true.

You can read the article in its entirety at the URL in the citation, or download it directly from this link:

The efficacy of dance for improving motor impairments, non-motor symptoms, and quality of life in Parkinson’s disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis

 

Dance, Dance for Parkinson's, Music, Parkinson's, Research , , , , Leave a comment

Oh, I’m walking to New Orleans… or maybe the Outback

by

Here’s a conference poster reporting some recent research on music and gait… and the effects of dual tasks on Parkinson’s Disease diagnosed people. It seems that all the researchers are in Australia, hence the title to this post.

Walkin’ and Talkin’: dual task effects on Gait

They had a few different tasks – just walking, walking while saying all the words one could think of starting with the letter (name a letter), and walking while counting in intervals. The conclusion was that Dance For Parkinson’s® had a positive effect. Naturally, they called for more research with larger numbers of participants.

In the meantime, as I always say: Don’t stop moving to the music!

 

###

Music, Parkinson's, Research , , Leave a comment

Oh, the title is long, and I can’t get through it in one breath

by

Music and Metronomes Differentially Impact Motor Timing in People with and without Parkinson’s Disease: Effects of Slow,Medium, and Fast Tempi on Entrainment and Synchronization Performances in Finger Tapping, Toe Tapping, and Stepping on the Spot Tasks

Well, the title is a mouthful, isn’t it?

Basically, this study looked at the different effects of external Rhythmic Auditory Stimulation (RAS) on folks with Parkinson’s Disease (PD) compared with folks without PD, using different tempi and different ways to observe the ability to synchronize with the beat.

Although this blog has noted a previous study which indicated that an internal RAS (e.g., singing a song) was superior to external RAS to immprove one’s gait, I have received feedback from several caretakers that their person with PD can not sing or carry a tune, but has been able to improve gait and reduce freezing with external RAS. Thus, this study should be of interest.

Bottom line: This study showed that music was superior to a metronome stimulus in “entrainment” of the motor systems involved after the cue was removed. (look up entrainment in biomusicology on Wikipedia for a full description of what it means). In other words, once a body gets synchronized to the musical RAS, they can continue to walk at the same pace as if the music were still playing.

Of course, there is more to it than this brief report. For that, I’ve provided the link to the full article above.

###