April is National Parkinson’s Disease (PD) Awareness Month. In order to truly bring awareness to the disease, we want to shed light on some of the major questions surrounding PD. This is just one of the many conditions that we treat as Physical Therapists or “Movement Specialists.”

If you are suffering from Parkinson’s Disease and trying to find a way to manage your symptoms, contact us to set up a time to meet with one of our therapists Our Movement Specialists will help you to better manage your symptoms and to get you back to the hobbies and activities that you enjoy the most.  

What is Parkinson’s Disease (PD)?

PD is a neurological condition in which a specific region of the brain; the basal ganglia, is affected. The basal ganglia is responsible for controlling many of the typical motor movements of your body. As the disease progresses, many patients experience a slow onset of various symptoms that impact their ability to move and perform everyday activities.

There are 4 main symptoms of PD. They include:

  1. Slow movements (bradykinesia)
  2. Resting tremors
  3. Rigidity (stiffness of one’s muscles)
  4. Impaired posture

Amplitude Training and Moving Big

Here at Onondaga PT, one of the many treatment techniques that we offer is amplitude training. Amplitude training is when certain body movements are exaggerated and are made to look big, or larger than how you would typically move.

In PD, walking, bed mobility, or sit to stands may be completed in smaller movements. Over time, this can lead to decreased amplitude and movement capability as PD progresses. However, there is a way to “bypass” this part of the disease process.

How do you bypass some of the effects of PD you are probably asking?

Well, typically movement signals are sent to a region of the brain called the basal ganglia, and in PD the basal ganglia is the main area that the disease affects. With amplitude training, you are actually able to “bypass” the basal ganglia part of your brain which can produce more normalized amplitude with your movements. Thus, with proper amplitude training and physical exercise, an individual may be able to significantly improve their movement capabilities, which can help over the long term with living with PD. 

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By |2022-08-26T07:58:49+00:00April 22nd, 2021|Parkinson's Disease|Comments Off on Managing the Symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease by Moving Big

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