Preventing Parkinson's disease symptoms
Parkinson’s disease is a neurological movement disorder triggered by a loss of dopamine. Dopamine's role is to send messages to the part of your brain that controls movement and coordination. Symptoms start slowly at first, but as the disease progresses, it can greatly impact your routine activities. The disease usually develops in middle or late life, most commonly around age 60 or older.
Even though the risk increases with time, a new study has identified an activity that could help halt symptoms and modify the associated risks.
What you need to do
According to the new study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, exercise could help alleviate the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.
In the study, researchers from Johns Hopkins Medicine and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston found that during endurance or aerobic exercises, a hormone released in the blood reduces levels of a protein linked to Parkinson’s disease and is able to halt movement problems in animal models.
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About the research
The researchers looked at mice engineered to have Parkinson’s disease symptoms and the role of irisin. The team proved that the hormone released when exercising was able to prevent the accumulation of alpha synuclein clumps and its associated brain cell death.
They injected the mice with a viral vector, which increased blood levels of irisin and which can cross the blood-brain barrier into the mice. After six months, the researchers saw that mice who received irisin had no muscle movement deficits.
Additional studies have also shown that the exercise hormone can lower levels of Parkinson's disease-related alpha synuclein by 50 to 80 percent.
Which exercise should you pick?
All kinds of exercises are healthy for your body, so you should choose the ones based on your interests and capacity. With time, you can work on your stamina and training to try other exercises of interest. The main goal is to do any exercises or activities that increase your breathing and heart rate in a healthy way.
Some popular and easy exercises to include in your daily life are cycling, doing pilates, swimming, jumping rope, or simply walking and jogging.
Symptoms of Parkinson's disease
One of the early signs of Parkinson's disease are tremors. These usually begin in the limbs, hands or fingers. Parkinson's disease may also slow your movement, whether in walking or performing your everyday simple tasks. Muscle stiffness can happen in any part of the body, and can also be painful. You may experience decreased ability to perform unconscious movements like blinking, smiling or swinging your arms when walking. Your posture may become stooped and you may also experience problems in balancing your body. There can be changes in your speech as well.
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Other modes of prevention
Apart from regularly exercising, some research has also shown that people who consume caffeine — found in coffee, tea and cola — get Parkinson's disease less often, compared to those who don't drink it.
Green tea is also related to a reduced risk of developing Parkinson's disease. More research and evidence is needed to suggest that drinking caffeinated beverages can protect one against Parkinson's.