Don't be a "Parkinson", let's talk about Parkinson's

Parkinson's disease (PD) is not new to everyone. It is a common neurodegenerative disease in middle-aged and elderly people. It was first reported by British doctor James Parkinson in 1817. It has a history of more than 200 years. The medical community has done a lot of research, but due to the complexity of its etiology and pathogenesis, it is still not completely clear. It is generally believed that Parkinson's disease is related to environmental, genetic, age and other factors. It is not caused by a single factor, but by the interaction of multiple factors.

The main clinical manifestations of Parkinson's disease include motor symptoms such as resting tremor, muscle rigidity, bradykinesia, postural balance disorders, as well as non-motor symptoms such as sensory disorders, mental disorders (such as sleep, depression, anxiety, cognitive disorders, etc.), and autonomic dysfunction (such as constipation, abnormal sweating, etc.).

The treatment principle of Parkinson's disease is to carry out comprehensive treatment of its motor symptoms and non-motor symptoms, including clinical drug therapy, rehabilitation therapy, psychological intervention and daily care, etc. However, current treatments can only improve symptoms, improve quality of life, and delay the progression of the disease, but cannot cure it fundamentally.

Parkinson's disease rehabilitation

As a comprehensive auxiliary treatment method, rehabilitation therapy cannot change the course and outcome of the disease, but starting rehabilitation therapy as early as possible can improve patients' symptoms, delay the use of drugs, improve mobility and self-care ability, improve patients' quality of life, and indirectly improve patients' depression, anxiety and other mental disorders.

Next, let’s learn Parkinson’s rehabilitation exercises together.

Face

• Alternate eye closing and eye opening exercise;
• Eyebrow raising exercise;
• Alternating eye movements
• Alternate cheek inflating and concave movements;
• Open your mouth and say "Yeah" and keep your mouth in that shape for 5 seconds and then relax;
• whistle, blow bubbles;
• Press the tip of your tongue against your cheeks to the left and right, and stretch out your tongue as much as possible.

Head and Neck

• Gently turn your head to the left and right 5 times each;
• Gently flex your head to the left and right 5 times each;
• The head, jaw, and neck are flexed forward and extended backward simultaneously 5 times each.

Be careful to move your head and neck slowly and gently.

Shoulders

• Shrug one shoulder upwards, as close to the earlobe as possible, alternating between the two shoulders;
• Shrug both shoulders up at the same time, as close to your earlobes as possible;
• Push your shoulders back, contract your back muscles, and bring the inner sides of your shoulder blades as close to each other as possible.

Perform each of the above movements 10 times.

trunk

• Standing wall push-ups: Stand with your hands raised horizontally in front of you and placed on the wall, bend your elbows slightly and do push-ups facing the wall.
• With both upper limbs placed on the waist, gently perform waist flexion, lateral flexion and rotation activities.

Perform each of the above actions 5 times.

Upper limbs

Upper limb lifting exercise, abduction exercise, alternating flexion and extension of the left and right limbs, alternating patting the opposite shoulder with the left and right hands, etc. Perform each movement 10 times.

Wrist and finger exercises

• Cross your hands and make fists to perform wrist flexion and extension exercises;
• Practice clenching and unclenching your fists alternately with your left and right hands;
• The thumbs of both hands perform inter-finger movements with the index finger, middle finger, ring finger and little finger respectively, and then do the opposite.

Perform each of the above movements 10 times.

Lower limb exercise

• Lie on your back, bend your knees and lift your hips, hold for 3 seconds, and do the bridge exercise;

• Standing, take a step to the right with your right lower limb, then slowly retract it to perform abduction exercises;

  Bend your knees and squat, then stand up with your hands on your knees to practice squatting;

• Alternately raise your knees, swing your arms left and right in coordination, and do marching in place;

• Practice drawing lines on the ground or sticking cross-shaped stickers on it to guide the patient to move in eight directions.

Note that although rehabilitation training and self-exercise are helpful in alleviating disease symptoms, it is recommended to be carried out under the guidance of rehabilitation professionals or under the care of family members, and be careful to prevent sports injuries and accidents. You can rest for two minutes after completing each set of movements, and exercise 1-2 times a day. The number of each movement can be adjusted according to the patient's ability so as not to feel overly tired.

Physical factor therapy is also beneficial to patient recovery, such as:

• Hydrotherapy: Patients who have the conditions can use warm water baths, whirlpool baths and other facilities to improve and relieve muscle stiffness.
• Heat therapy: infrared, wax therapy, magnetic heat, etc. can also relieve muscle stiffness.
• Neuromuscular electrical stimulation and biofeedback electrical stimulation: By electrically stimulating the relevant agonist and antagonist muscles, the control ability of the target muscles is enhanced, which is beneficial to improve muscle control and reduce muscle tension.

Parkinson's disease is a chronic progressive disease, and drug treatment and rehabilitation treatment must be adhered to for a long time. Rehabilitation treatment can improve the various functional disorders of Parkinson's patients, improve their ability to take care of themselves, and delay the progression of the disease.

In order to maintain and improve the quality of life to the greatest extent, it is best for patients to perform regular rehabilitation training every day to combat limb freezing and stiffness. This requires long-term efforts and cooperation from medical staff, patients, and family members.

The popular science content of this platform has been funded by the China Association for Science and Technology's Science Popularization Department's 2022 National Science Literacy Action Project "National Society Science Popularization Capacity Improvement Project-Rehabilitation Science Popularization Service Capacity Improvement Action Plan"