A rhythmic remedy for Parkinson's Disease right here

April 11, 2016

Moving muscles is very important and this is what Vonita Singh makes patients do during her dance classes.

(Photo by Shihab)

Like a typical fitness class, participants start with warm-up exercises and stretches, and later comes the intense, choreographed elements, which cover the whole body.

From street to hip hop, and ballet to tap, millions of people around the world may have mastered the art of dance, but with many performers doing it for applause, Khaleej Times has met one lady doing it for a cause.

Fifty-year-old Vonita Singh is a champion of the power of dance. She believes it involves the culturally mediated body, emotion, and mind - and she has opened her doors, quite literally, to help Parkinson's sufferers in the UAE.

After watching her father battle with the degenerative disease for more than six years, she said watching him go from "mobile to immobile with little explanation" was scary.

In 2013, four years after her father passed away, Singh set up a free-of-charge dance class for patients and carers of PD.

Held twice a week at her villa in Umm Suqeim, Singh - who has undertaken a dance therapy programme in New York - said 'Movement Mantra', taps into the therapeutic power of movement to ease the challenges of day-to-day life.

"If you have PD you have to move the muscles as much as you can. My class encourages this movement but it is also a great social platform for carers and patients."

Like a typical fitness class, participants start with warm-up exercises and stretches, and later comes the intense, choreographed elements, which cover the whole body.

Touching on her personal experience with the disease, Singh opened up to Khaleej Times.

"My family was unaware of PD when my father was diagnosed in 2003, but before we got the confirmation, I knew something was wrong."

Watching her father struggle to comb his hair and scratch his face, Singh said she sat him down, and told him "something's not right".

"His reaction was saddening. He said: "I know I'm not okay. I try to do something but it doesn't happen."

After a huge period of denial, they finally consulted a neurologist.

"They told us it was Parkinson's Disease but we knew little about it, and didn't know how to react."

As the years went by, Singh watched her father battle depression  but said she also witnessed the emergence of inter-spousal issues between her parents.

"My mother was caring for my father but because there was such little awareness and information about Parkinson's, she couldn't understand it. That led to many frustrations."

She said the psychological impact is "part and parcel" of the disease.

"That's why it's so important to know how to handle it. The more we talk about it, the more empowered it makes us and then we can really fight it."

A disease which can be very socially isolating, Movement Mantra is one of few support networks for PD in Dubai. "If we get a full class we have up to 18 people. I open the class to care takers as well as they are just as important. They need support too."

http://health.einnews.com/article/320824832/0H9_d0IZAVyQDm08