EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT OF YOUR PARKINSONS

AS MOVEMENT SPECIALISTS, WE HAVE DEVELOPED A COMPLETE PHILOSOPHY TO HELP MANAGE YOUR PARKINSONS. HELPING YOU GET ON THE ROAD TO RECOVERY QUICKLY AND EFFECTIVELY, WHILE BUILDING THE LONG TERM STRATEGIES NEEDED FOR YOUR MOVEMENT HEALTH & WELL BEING.

Understanding the issue

Parkinson’s is a degenerative condition in which parts of the brain get progressively damaged over time. It directly effects neurones that produce dopamine in the area of the brain known as substantial nigra. Dopamine is responsible for motor function, reward motivated behaviour and pleasure. This lose of dopamine doesn’t cause symptoms until around 80% of the normal levels are lost.

Symptoms vary from person to person however there are common physical symptoms such as: a tremor, slow movement, stiffness and balance/postural issues. unfortunately PD is not limited to physical symptoms and patients may experience other symptoms such as cognitive impairment, sleeping issues and depression.

The research around prevalence of PD ranges in values as diagnostic criteria has been changing. Currently it is estimated to effect around 1% of over 60 year olds. There has been an increase in the diagnosis rate of parkinson disease more recently, this has been put down to a number of factors: Ageing population, the rate of PD is higher in the elderly population so with an increase in the number of people living longer an increase of PD can be seen. Better diagnostics’ and understanding, our understanding of PD has improved and diagnosis criteria has been changed accordingly, this is an area that is constantly improving.

OUR FIRST ACTION: ASSESS YOUR CURRENT MOVEMENT

First point of action is to see a neurologist if you have not already. This allows an in-depth assessment and diagnosis to work with.

In our initial session we will complete our neurological assessment; this is designed to look at your full spectrum of movement from small fine motor skills to large more complex movements and patterns. We will also look at your lifestyle, this is an important aspect with parkinson as regular activity has been shown to be great with parkinsons’. Your movement specialist will be able to give you ideas about different types of activities that could benefit you.

The information from the assessment will highlight your strengths and weakness’ allowing us to put together an individual exercise programme for you. It also gives us important benchmarks so we can map your progress and create an individual report to send to your consultant. We will be in contact with your consultant to create a comprehensive treatment pathway for you.

The sessions will be taken by one of our movement specialists and will last either 30 or 60 minutes. The session will consist of multiple exercises’ that will vary depending on your specific requirements. These exercises’ could be a mixture of resistance training, co-ordination, balance, gait training and fitness training. The sessions will be based on some of the latest research for parkinsons’ as will your home exercise program.

The ability of our team to identify poor movement patterns, muscle imbalances, timing faults and related issues both above and below the specific issues means the team are ideally placed to explain and address these factors to move you to a better long term result and allow you to spend more time doing the activities you enjoy.

Causative Factors In Parkinsons

The cause of Parkinson’s is unknown. It is thought to be multifactorial with genetic and environmental factors influencing it. However we need to keep our focus on the main thing and in this case it is the balance of good medication along with an exercise programme that challenges the neural pathways to help retain and improve them to allow you to keep doing the activities you enjoy.

Current promising research

Research into calcium blockers has shown promise in animal trials. The calciums blockers seem to slow the progression of the disease, however researchers aren’t clear how or why calcium could be damaging cells involved in PD. The research is currently undergoing clinical trails and should be concluded soon (2019). Unfortunately there are some drawbacks. Calcium is a very important chemical in the body, it is involved in bone health, heart and circulatory process’ as well. So blocking it could cause blood pressure issues amongst others. Thankfully the clever people conducting the research are looking into a number of ways to counteract this. It must be noted that dietary changes to try and avoid calcium will most probably be ineffective and the benefits of calcium rich foods outweigh the risks (parkinsons UK)

MAINTAIN YOUR LIFESTYLE

The hardest part for everyone is to stay motivated once you are moving well again. We all know life gets in the way of looking after you. If you feel you need further help to maintain your lifestyle, there are ways we can help you.
If you have completed the first two steps, you are now ready to achieve lifestyle goals, step 3. At this phase our great sports rehabilitation team will continue to work with you and both continue to challenge and monitor your progress of your management.

Start your journey today and enjoy your life again.

BUILD A BETTER YOU

Building your foundation is the key to step 2, to complete this phase we need to monitor your underlying movement patterns that need addressing. You have a couple of options here depending on your specific requirements and end goals:

Movement Screen – a brilliant way to understand how you move affects your tissue loading and can be easily related back to many of the reasons behind the injuries we see in clinic each and every day.
Pilates Discovery Session – can be an exciting option looking forward at your long term movement health, the the screen helping identify issues in your movement that cna then be addressed through targeted Pilates sessions.
Walking / Rehabilitation Evaluation – your lower limbs are crucial to walking and understanding how you move and load joints that can affect your arthritis is important, the pathway options to improve patterning and create long term movement health

You will have the ‘how you move’ identified and explained in full detail to you, and this will allow your movement specialist to plan the next phase of your PD management.

Ready to start your recovery?

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Have a question?

Wondering how we can help you? Give us a call and one of our expert team will be happy to answer all your questions!

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You can book your appointment online by clicking below. If you’d prefer to talk first you can call us on 020 7924 6068 or email battersea@body-logic.co.uk

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