Our Parkinson's Place: Looking for Pearls: Choir helps people with movement disorders find their rhythm

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Tuesday, February 13, 2018

Looking for Pearls: Choir helps people with movement disorders find their rhythm

By Ben Goggins - February 12, 2018

Last Sunday I answered Dr. Alice Gerber’s siren call to go with her to see the next big thing in Parkinson’s disease therapy. So off we went to Savannah Commons to an informational meeting about forming the Discover Your Voice Choir.

The session was presented in conjunction with the St. Joseph’s/Candler Movement Disorders Program and the Savannah Parkinson Support Group. It was led by licensed and board-certified music therapist Candace Deshler.

https://youtu.be/wPHXNjHqG4c

Alice has a gift for finding all the innovative and effective treatments for Parkinson’s. When her husband was diagnosed in 1980, there was little information or help available. So she and friend Shirley Marx organized the first Savannah support group. Savannah State University coach Frank Ellis spoke at their first meeting.

Ever since, Alice has sought to learn as much as possible about Parkinson’s and spread the information. Years ago she brought to Savannah the French neurosurgeon who developed DBS (deep brain stimulation), something like a pacemaker for the brain that stops Parkinson’s tremors.

In 2015, after seeing a television show about an exercise program that was benefiting Leslie Stahl’s husband, who has Parkinson’s, Alice put her head together with Michael Cohen, a former Olympian and Olympic and Paralympic coach.

In short order, GEM (Get Excited and Move) was created. Group exercise sessions, tailored for people with movement disorders, are offered mornings and evenings at the Anderson-Cohen Weightlifting Center. The results have been near-miraculous.

From what I saw at Savannah Commons, the Discover Your Voice Choir is another gem in the making. Deshler took the attendees through some music therapy theory. Then she said, “Let’s have some fun,” and led everyone in songs that made the case.

She played the guitar, and we sang “When the Saints Go Marching In.” Folks clacked castanets and shook tambourines. Everyone laughed as we tried to remember a second verse.

She talked about how everyone automatically tapped their feet and found the rhythm. How emotions and memories also came automatically. “With singing, you are expressing, not just receiving.”

She described how singing and the muscles you use for it improve digestion, respiration, balance. How singing reduces stress, is good for the heart and immune system and actually changes brain chemistry.

As a music therapist, Deshler will lead a choir where “rehearsal is for the benefit of the process as well as the product.” She will elicit all the benefits to improve speech, movement, mood and social strengths.

Next we sang “Every Little Thing is Gonna Be Alright.” Some chimed in their own suggestions for the “don’t worry about a thing” verses. Don’t worry about — getting old, your health, the deficit, the Super Bowl. Lots of laughs, and I would say that at the end, no one was worrying.

Deshler has worked in hospitals with patients from infants to older adults. She’s worked with special education classes and in mental health environments. Fran McCarey, SJ/C Movement Disorder Program outreach coordinator, said, “We are very lucky to have her offer this program; music therapy is a powerful major therapy.”

Maddy Ginsberg said she and her husband Lou Venegas will definitely participate. “He’s from a musical family; this will help him recover strength in his voice. He loves the GEM program, so this is another good therapeutic, enjoyable opportunity.”

I visited the gym the next day and saw GEM in action. Cohen and his coaches have charisma. The mantra is: everybody moves, everybody talks, everybody has fun.

Coach Gary Pauley has Parkinson’s himself, but you wouldn’t know it. Eight years ago he had DBS surgery. He showed me a video in which he turned off his implanted electrode controller, and immediately went from normal speech and muscle control to disabling body and voice tremors.

I met Jim Hazel, who’s been coming to GEM since day one. “You use all your muscles. My balance has improved dramatically. When I started, I could only lift 40 pounds over my head; now I can lift 88 pounds.”

Participant Jim Lanahan said, “I like that here you are an athlete, not a patient. I feel improvement in every way. In my golf game, I hit my drives 15 yards farther.”

Deshler says, “We are treating the person, not the diagnosis. The brain that engages in music is also changed by engaging in music.”

With Discover Your Voice, I predict Lanahan’s voice will soon carry well more than 15 yards farther if he has to call “Fore.”

Ben Goggins, a retired marine biologist, lives on Tybee Island. He can be reached at 912-786-6181 or bengoggins9@gmail.com.