Am I Parkinson's Patient?

Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2008 8:11 am Post subject: Am I Parkinson's Patient?

Besides exercises medications are important for PD patients as it helps your body movement and flexibility as well as mobility. Consistenance, persistence, endurance and medication are the key for you to combat the disease. I am spending three hours daily to attend gym classes in the fitness centre from monday to saturday except sunday. I engage two trainers to align my body posture, stretching stiffness muscles, cardio and weights lifting as welll as box and kick exercises to train my endurance and balance two times a week. I spend nearly three years in the gym to combat the parkinson's diseases. I do not look like PD as told by my neurologlist and instructors as well as fitness members. I am driving to fitness centre daily.
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Dr. OkunJoined: 19 Jan 2007Posts: 251Location: University of Florida
Posted: Mon Aug 11, 2008 6:02 am Post subject:

Exercise is like a drug in PD so you are making great choices. There is lots of research now that is beginning to support exercise as an important and potentially powerful treatment._________________Michael S. Okun, M.D.


Anonymous
Posted: Wed Aug 13, 2008 1:52 am Post subject: Is Parkinson's is not a bad disease?

From my experience, I have learnt that all Parkinson's patient is different from each other, in many aspects such as symptomatology, rate of disease progression and response to treatment. Managing my Parkinson's patients has been made easier by respecting the differences between each Parkinson's patients - there are no "two Parkinson's patients who are identical". One day, a man came to my clinic and asked me why his 62-year-old wife, who suffered from Parkinson's, could hardly walk despite having the illness for only four years. "I read an article in the newspaper which described how an elderly Parkinson's patient, who had been having the illness for twelve years, was doing some rather strenous exercises in a gym. How come my wife can't do even 5% of this exercise?" he commented. As I have treated his wife for about six years, I could easily understand why she behaved so differently from the other "super-fit" Parkinson's patient. His wife suffered from severe anxiety and depression, while her Parkinson's was actually quite mild. In other words, what "crippled" her was her mood disorder, and not the Parkinson's. Almost all the time, she would just lie on the bed or sit on a chair. Whenever her husband tried to help her to stand up, she would complain of dizziness and feeling like falling down. In addition, she had numerous other symptoms such as blurring of vision, numbness of hands, palpitation, etc (which were the symptoms of anxiety). Her social life was almost zero - she stayed at home all the time and even refused to follow her children to the restaurant. Thus, an important factor that contributes to the varying response to treatment is co-existing psychiatric disorders. Most Parkinson's patients have anxiety or depression or both, in varying degrees, which I think are partly due to difficulty in accepting their illness (i.e. Parkinson's). Some Parkinson's patients are devastated by Parkinson's while others are crippled by the psychiatric disorders (anxiety / depression). Unfortunately, psychiatric disorders in PD are very often neglected by both the patients and doctors. Mr Teo is fortunate that he does not have any psychiatric disorder. In fact, he has a very unusually "outgoing" personality, which most Parkinson's patients do not have. Mr. Teo is an optimistic person who has accepted his Parkinson's, and he always tries his best to cope with his illness. It is this "optimistic" personality that has made him so different from other Parkinson's patients. Dr Chew Nee Kong, Kuala Lumpur.
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Dr. OkunJoined: 19 Jan 2007Posts: 251Location: University of Florida
Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2008 12:09 am Post subject:

Thanks for the wonderful comment._________________Michael S. Okun, M.D.