Moderate- or high-intensity exercise can help with Parkinson’s disease symptoms like fatigue, a recent study shows.
Philip Millar, PhD, lead author of the research and an associate professor of human health and nutritional science at University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, said many Parkinson’s patients may skip out on fitness if their symptoms are overwhelming. They shouldn’t do that because “if you stop physical activity, your body adapts and you lose physical function,” Millar said.
The report was published Sept. 1 in the Journal of Applied Physiology.
The team evaluated 29 people who were at various stages of Parkinson’s disease. Each group exercised three times per week at the gym over the course of a 10-week span. The people participated in moderate-intensity continual workouts or high-intensity interval training. All of the participants ranged in age from 45 to 79.
Investigators on Millar’s team tracked metrics such as oxygen consumption, fatigue level, gait, balance, strength and motor symptoms.
The data showed that working out improved participants’ oxygen capacity, with the bigger benefit in those who did HIIT as opposed to moderate-intensity continual exercise. Both forms of exercise resulted in a 25% reduction in motor symptoms, HealthDay reported. Additionally, fatigue levels went down for participants in both groups over the course of the study without regard to the type of workouts they performed.
Gait, balance and blood pressure did not change in participants in either workout condition.
“Prior work found that high-intensity interval training may improve how far someone with Parkinson’s can walk, but this could be due to becoming more stable or confident in their gait,” Millar said. “It might have had nothing to do with cardiorespiratory fitness and the impact on motor symptoms was previously never studied.”
The authors recommend that people with Parkinson’s disease engage in any level of exercise because it can be so beneficial.
Easing motor symptoms “can make a meaningful change to someone’s life,” Millar said.
“We want to help contribute to greater knowledge of the benefits of exercise for those with Parkinson’s so that clinicians, rehabilitation specialists, community supports, partners and family can help advocate for patients to exercise as much as they should.”
In general, he said, “a big push is convincing people of the benefits. Across any disease, when we think of taking medication, we should equally think of exercise as well.”
