Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 03/06/2015
Boxing may not seem an obvious help to people with Parkinson's disease, but one man with the condition found boxing training reduced the severity of his symptoms and has now set up a program called the Punchin' Parkos to help others.
Transcript
LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: A boxing program is helping people with Parkinson's disease, that devastating neurological condition that affects a person's control over their body movements. A 68-year-old retired Sydney pharmacist found that boxing training helped relieve the severity of many of his symptoms and he's developed a non-contact boxing program to help others too. Monique Schafter reports.DYLAN RESNEKOV, HEAD COACH: He's got a nickname. It's called Hitman. And he also hits very hard and just kind of stuck.
HITMAN, PUNCHIN' PARKOS PARTICIPANT: Hitman's alright.
DYLAN RESNEKOV: Well that's cool.
ADRIAN UNGER, PUNCHIN' PARKOS FOUNDER: Punchin' Parkos is an exercise program designed to help people suffering with Parkinson's disease to conquer their symptoms. Someone who doesn't know about it, they're usually surprised. One associates boxing and - with Parkinson's causing - probably causing Parkinson's - Muhammad Ali, people like that. When we talk about it being a boxing program, there's no contact. No-one's punching them. They're not punching anyone. But there's plenty of punching going on. Our head coach is Dylan Resnekov, who has a World Title in Muay Thai. And everyone's graded to see what level of disability they have and we assign the exercises to that various function.
DYLAN RESNEKOV: They've come here, some of them can barely even get out of the chair and some of them can barely punch and over the weeks you're seeing huge amount of progress where some of them are walking by themselves or getting up by themselves, which was almost impossible for them.
ADRIAN UNGER: I was diagnosed in 2004. One morning I woke up and I was like this (shakes hands). I had some little hints earlier. My father had Parkinson's for 25-odd years. He was in a wheelchair. And - but he did nothing that would help himself. And when I got diagnosed, I said to my wife, "I'll do everything I can to keep out of a wheelchair." I was - had been boxing for eight years up until that point and I continued it and I attribute the exercise to my mobility today.
NEIL MAHANT, NEUROLOGIST: So when I started in neurology, the treatment for Parkinson's was medication and that was all we had. There's growing evidence that exercise is really useful for people with Parkinson's. It's useful not just from the physical fitness perspective, but also useful in terms of the social interaction that you see. The more effort we put into it, the more we can get out of it.
PUNCHIN' PARKOS PARTICIPANT: I just enjoy that camaraderie and seeing how people have improved and feel myself improve.
PUNCHIN' PARKOS PARTICIPANT II: I just love punching the bags because it gets rid of my frustrations (inaudible). But I still feel a lot fitter and stronger than I was before I started coming, which was at the beginning of the year.
ADRIAN UNGER: It's been scientifically shown that people who do exercise which is forced, complex and repetitive have much greater chance of neural plasticity, which can help reduce the symptoms of Parkinson's. Forced means you push them just outside their comfort zone. There's no drugs that can cause this to happen, so exercise is the drug.
MONIQUE SCHAFTER, REPORTER: What improvements have you noticed in you since you started coming here?
DYLAN RESNEKOV: One of things when he did start was that he couldn't keep his feet very grippy on the ground. He'd be falling over, his knees would be buckling. We tried to slow him down, but he's out there to show the world that he can kick arse. And basically, about two weeks ago or three weeks ago, the first time I noticed it, that he didn't have, like, one of the assistants or the volunteers holding him with a belt, which they normally held him. They didn't actually hold you; you used to drag them around.
HITMAN: I haven't trained with a belt for about three weeks now.
DYLAN RESNEKOV: Three weeks? Yeah, that's right, yeah. It's about three weeks now. That's pretty cool.
PUNCHIN' PARKOS PARTICIPANT III: I like Punchin' Parkos because it does me a lot of good.
MONIQUE SCHAFTER: How has this helped you?
PUNCHIN' PARKOS PARTICIPANT IV: Yes, a lot, because stiffness less and slow - movement is not so slow any more. And the trembling is also less.
ADRIAN UNGER: Unfortunately, people with Parkinson's will not win the war at the - at this moment. There's no cure for Parkinson's. But they're winning some battles. And they - this gives them hope.
LEIGH SALES: Monique Schafter reporting.
http://health.einnews.com/article/268827516/WS6gpDFMVVeoIQ4i
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