Physical Therapy for Parkinson’s Disease

Exercise is important to everyone- no matter your age however, exercise is extremely beneficial to those diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. Exercise can help people with Parkinson’s slow the disease and control the symptoms. Not only is exercise important to those Exercise is a vital component to maintaining balance, strength, mobility, and activities of daily living. The Parkinson’s Outcomes Project shows that people with PD who start exercising earlier in their disease course for a minimum of 2.5 hours per week experience a slowed decline in quality of life compared to those who start later. Establishing an early exercise program is essential in disease management.

Physical Therapy is important as you will have a professional that can guide you and assist in providing you with a plan of care to manage Parkinson’s. A few exercise programs your Physical Therapist may start you on are Amplitude Training, Reciprocal Patterns, Balance Work, Stretching and Flexibility, and Strength Training.

A specific form of physical therapy for Parkinson’s Disease is the LSVT BIG training and LSVT LOUD is therapy to amplify the voice. The concept idea behind the LSVT training is to encourage amplitude of movement and over exaggerate physical movements to slow down the progression of hypokinesia.

Balance training is another important part of Physical Therapy for Parkinson’s Disease because Parkinson’s can disrupt the connection between your eyes, inner ears and feet. A Physical Therapist can help you improve your balance and teach you ways to correct if you do have a moment of balance loss.

If you or a loved one have been diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease and are curious about our services, please visit med1caretherapypartners.org or call 419.866.0555 today to learn more!