How helps moderate exercise benefits people with early-stage Parkinson's disease: Study

A new study has found that people with early-stage Parkinson's disease who regularly get one to two hours of moderate exercise twice a week, like walking, may have less trouble balancing or doing daily activities later. The study has been published in the 'Neurology Journal'.

Researchers found that those who exercised regularly over five years did better on cognitive tests and had slower progression of the disease in several aspects. "Our results are exciting because they suggest it may never be too late for someone with Parkinson's to start an exercise program to improve the course of their disease," said study author Kazuto Tsukita, MD, of Kyoto University in Japan and a member of the American Academy of Neurology.

"That's because we found that to slow progression of the disease, it was more important for people with Parkinson's to maintain an exercise program than it was to be active at the beginning of the disease," Tsukita added. The study looked at 237 people with early-stage Parkinson's. They had an average age of 63 and were followed by researchers for up to six years.

Participants' exercise levels at the start of the study were determined using a questionnaire that measures time and intensity during the previous week of leisure activity, like walking and biking; household activity, like gardening; and occupational activity, like taking care of others. Common cognitive tests were used to measure people's verbal and memory skills and how much time it took to complete mental tasks. Researchers found that people's physical activity level at the start of the study was not associated with the progression of their Parkinson's later on. Instead, they found it was more important to maintain physical activity over time.

People who got at least four hours per week of moderate to vigorous exercise like walking or dancing had a slower decline in balancing and walking five years later, compared to those who did not get that much exercise. Researchers used a common test to rate each person's Parkinson's symptoms on a scale of zero to four, with higher scores indicating more severe impairment. People who got below-average levels of moderate to vigorous exercise, or less than one to two hours, once or twice a week, increased from an average score of 1.4 to 3.7 over six years. That's compared to those who got above-average levels of moderate to vigorous exercise, who on average increased from a score of 1.4 to 3.0 during that time.