Approximately 60,000 Americans are diagnosed with Parkinson's disease every year. Researchers really don't know what causes it but they do know medication can help. What they're also learning is certain kinds of exercise can make a significant difference in a patient's quality of life.
Rich Borelli noticed the first uncontrollable twitch in 2010. It took years, though, for an official diagnosis of Parkinson's disease.
"You go through this sense of my body is betraying me," Borelli said.
Parkinson's is a disorder caused by a loss of neurons in the brain that produce dopamine. The symptoms include shaking, stiffness and instability.
Borelli had always been an athlete and though he was also dealing with other health issues, physical therapy and exercise helped. That exercise included cycling on a stationary bike, something he did with Pedaling for Parkinson's, a class created by researchers at the Cleveland Clinic and implemented in local gyms.
"Patients will say that they feel better after just one session," said Dr. Kathleen McKee, a Partners neurology fellow in movement disorders and fellow in health policy and hospital management at Massachusetts General Hospital. McKee is one of the investigators studying the effectiveness of the Pedaling for Parkinson's programs in the greater Boston area. The study was funded by the MGH McCance Center for Brain Health.
Her work was inspired, in part, by a patient in the Netherlands featured in 2010 in the New England Journal of Medicine.
That patient was a man with advanced Parkinson's disease, hardly able to walk without assistance yet he was able to ride his bike for miles every day. When he rode, many of his symptoms were temporarily gone.
Research done in a lab has shown cycling at a fast pace, 80 to 90 revolutions per minute, can improve symptoms for other patients, as well.
"We think it has something to do with the fact that by forcing themselves to go quickly, it may feed back to the brain and allow them to then keep going quickly and to move more smoothly even after they've stopped riding the bicycle for the hourlong session that they've been on it," McKee said.
The question for McKee and the other investigators was if a similar outcome could be replicated outside the lab environment. That's where Pedaling for Parkinson's comes in.
Implemented by local YMCAs, patients cycled three times per week for eight weeks, at that fast pace. It was a pace Borelli had to get used to.
"You have a real sense of accomplishment when you go 40 minutes on a bike, and do whatever your routine looks like," Borelli said.
Perhaps just as important, the class gave him a sense of community.
"When we're biking some will say, 'Well, I woke up feeling terrible this morning. You know, my legs were stiff, my back was stiff.' It's the understanding of I'm not so different from everybody else," Borelli said.
The studies wrapped up this spring and the data is being analyzed right now.
https://www.wcvb.com/article/boston-researchers-look-to-cycling-as-possible-treatment-option-for-parkinsons-disease/28338152
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