Exercise Therapy for Parkinson’s Patients

It has been emphasized that “drugs, surgery, and rehabilitation, are the troika for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease.” Parkinson’s disease requires standardized and individualized drug treatment; among non-drug treatments, deep brain electrical stimulation surgical treatment is in the first place, but there is a golden period for doing surgery, which needs to be done at the right time to be able to achieve good treatment; and throughout is rehabilitation treatment, which is extremely important to slow down the progress of Parkinson’s disease and improve the quality of life of patients. The purpose and significance of rehabilitation therapy is to guide the patient to the correct exercise regimen and suitable home life style in order to improve the patient’s function and slow down the progression of the disease. In the latest version of Parkinson’s disease treatment guidelines, rehabilitation has become an integral part of the treatment. Patients who start rehab early and with regular training in place can reduce the amount of medication they need to take, potentially delaying the onset of motor complications, which can greatly improve their quality of life. It’s too late to train until the body is out of control. As we all know, there is a “honeymoon period” for Parkinson’s medications, and many patients think about rehab only after their disease has progressed to the middle and late stages, and after the honeymoon period has passed, their physical discomfort is uncontrollable and seriously affects their quality of life. Once diagnosed, Parkinson’s patients should begin rehabilitation as soon as possible. Proper rehabilitation can extend the honeymoon period of Parkinson’s medications and maintain a longer time frame for self-care. Parkinson’s rehabilitation includes physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech and swallowing therapy. Specifically, physical therapy focuses on exercise therapy, supplemented by physical therapy, and focuses on improving the patient’s balance, coordination, gait and relieving pain, with professional therapists guiding the patient to choose the appropriate exercise modality. And occupational therapy focuses on helping patients with cognitive training, hand function training, and guiding them to relearn dressing, dining, and bathing to further improve their ability to take care of themselves in daily life. Some patients with Parkinson’s disease will have symptoms such as drooling and choking on water when the disease progresses to the middle and late stages. Proper swallowing training can greatly reduce these symptoms and help patients to better eat and drink independently. And targeted speech training can help patients improve their verbal communication skills. Parkinson’s disease motor therapy has a set of easy-to-use training tools: 1, facial training: frowning in front of the mirror, forcefully open and close the eyes, pouting, pursing the mouth, tongue and cheek puffing and other expression movements. 2, head and neck training: head back for 5 seconds, both eyes look up at the ceiling, then head down, jaw as far as possible to touch the chest. Head to the left and look backward for about 5 seconds, then the same action to the right. 3, hand training: finger grasp and release training, finger-to-finger training, finger counting training, hand fine motor training, such as picking up beans, etc. 4.Lower limb training: hip and knee flexion, straight leg raising, squatting and kicking. 5.Torso training: bridge exercise – patient lying down, legs bent, arms close to the bed to prevent sliding, held by the therapist or family members, slowly lift the hips, maintain a period of time and then slowly put down. 6. Turn over training: turn the body to the right, turn the head to the right, put the left hand on the right side, put the left leg on the right leg and use the inertia of body rotation to turn over. Repeat in the opposite direction. 7, joint mobility training: hands and knees position under the support, the center of gravity were forward, backward, left, right, so that the shoulders, elbows, hips, knees to get exercise. 8.Balance training: sitting, kneeling, standing under the weight front and back, left and right, lateral movement. 9.Sitting training: four steps of sitting – stretching arms, bending over, pouting buttocks, get up. 10, gait training: start with the foot following the ground, then the palm of the foot, and finally the toes on the ground, stride as slowly as possible, arms swing back and forth as much as possible when walking. Rehabilitation training should be adhered to throughout life Currently, there are two types of rehabilitation training. The first is that most patients receive exercise instruction and treatment in an outpatient clinic, with regular follow-up visits; the second is that a small number of patients are hospitalized for a short period of time, and professional rehabilitation doctors and therapists develop individualized exercise prescriptions based on their dysfunction, ensuring that patients master the appropriate training methods and continue to exercise with the help of their families when they return home. It is not enough for Parkinson’s patients to train in the hospital for a short period of time, but daily training at home is more important. Using the pencil grip analogy, a wrong pencil grip can be corrected immediately after someone else corrects it, but if there is a lack of supervision and continuous training, the original wrong pencil grip will come back unconsciously, and so does Parkinson’s rehabilitation, which requires family members to constantly remind and correct the patient’s “out of shape” movements. Therefore, it is important to encourage the patient’s spouse or children to accompany the patient to the hospital for rehabilitation and to supervise the patient’s continuous training after returning home. For Parkinson’s patients, rehabilitation should last a lifetime.