Complement your PD Medications with Parkinson’s Exercise Classes
Medication plays a crucial role in managing Parkinson’s disease. Sure, there's still no known cure for PD, but doctors can recommend treatments to alleviate its symptoms. However, even with all treatments available, there’s still something you can do to improve your quality of life.
Like a sidekick to the main hero, integrating regular Parkinson’s exercise classes alongside medication can actually enhance its effectiveness further. Brian M., one of our friends here at the gym, has first-hand experience with doing PD exercises along with taking medications. In fact, his story is proof that exercise is also medicine.
“I feel like how I used to.”
Ever since he started exercising, Brian has experienced significant improvements in his body. For one, his balance and confidence have gotten better. Just imagine, he used to play golf for 50 years and he never got a hole-in-one. But when he started being more consistent with his Parkinson’s exercises, he was able to get three! Plus, he used to have trouble with fragmented sleep but with consistent exercise, his sleep quality improved by a whole lot.
Now Brian used to say that his success in dealing with PD symptoms is 50% due to medications and 50% due to exercise. But those numbers have shifted to 49% medications and 51% exercise. Why the change? Well, that’s because he noticed that exercise gives him something that medications alone couldn’t.
“You know what? I feel like how I used to.”
This is what Brian would say to his wife, Joan, sometimes when they’re on walks. It could be a four-mile walk, for example, and by the third mile, he’d turn around to tell Sharon that he feels as strong as he did before.
Now some people might read this and think, “I’m happy for him but I still believe exercising is just optional because taking meds is enough to control my symptoms.” And that’s true. You don’t have to do PD exercises if you don’t want to. However, if you really want to optimize the effects of your meds, doing exercises is the way to go. In fact, there are several studies to prove the benefits of consistent exercise while taking medications.
Complementing medications with PD exercises
The main culprit of PD is the lack of dopamine in the brain. Dopamine is the messenger that transmits signals to correctly coordinate movement in the body and lack of it means lesser motor control. Now there are a number of meds that can aid with PD and dopamine production. This includes the common ones like Levodopa, Carbidopa, Anticholinergics, and others. But as PD progresses, more dopamine-producing brain cells die and the remaining ones become less able to store dopamine. This is the cause of longer “off times” for people where the effects of the PD meds get shorter.
Now to alleviate this effect, the doctors may advise increasing the dosage taken with the goal of maximizing control without increasing the side effects. This is really hard to do if you’re completely relying on meds that need to be increased over time. But this is also where exercise and physical therapy can come in handy.
In fact, one research was done on 42 participants who were enrolled in a 12-week randomized clinical trial to see the effects of doing resistance training while on medications. The result? It showed that the participants have improved in strength and mobility! But that’s not the only research that was done to show how PD exercises can complement medications.
Another research was done to explore how exercise can affect Levodopa absorption and it showed promising outcomes. And this mini-review recommended combining physical activity with the current treatments. All of these point to the positive effects of consistent exercise while taking meds.
PD exercise is medicine
Although some people see exercise as only an option to meds, studies and personal experiences do show that combining medication and Parkinson’s exercise classes can provide twice the positive effect. And Brian’s story is proof of this, too.
Right now, Brian is still taking his meds but he’s also consistent with his PD exercises. He knows he still needs these two things if he wants to continue gaining control. But the reason why he’s always so motivated to exercise? He wants to give back to all the people who helped him on his journey.
You see, Brian’s inspiration comes from the support he received when he was first diagnosed with PD in 2014. And this love is something he also wants to give back to the world. Currently, he actively participates in the South California Ride for Parkinson's, organizing events to raise funds for The Michael J. Fox Foundation. And he can do more of these because he’s stronger, thanks to exercise.
Listen to his full story in this inspiring interview:
Like Brian, you probably also have a lot of goals to pursue and people to give back to. And you know what? Make them your inspiration to go further. Take your medications on time, every time, and combine them with consistent exercise to help optimize the outcome.
So if you’ve been leaving out PD exercises from your options, why not give it a try? You might be surprised at how it can help you move and feel better, just like Brian did.
Parkinson’s exercise classes you can try
Interested in trying out online exercises? You can check out our video gallery and online classes here.
Or if you’re in the California area, come visit our gym for in-person classes.