Monday, February 20, 2012

muscles practice and saliva

There are suggestion that Lip muscle,tongue muscle and swallow practice are benefical than the medication taking without sideeffect Kindly elaborted to help the PD patients aware the diseases and encourage to set up support groups to educate the patients and their immediate families 0
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I will post this for you. Michael S. Okun, M.D.National Medical Director NPFUF Center for Movement Disorders & NeurorestorationRead More about Dr. Okun at: mdc.mbi

Thursday, February 16, 2012

tremor

Dear Forum members here are a few facts on Parkinson's tremor:Tremor in Parkinson's disease is usually a resting tremor, that improves when performing tasks.Most PD patients have some intentional tremor (tremor at action), but it is usually minor in severity.A very small number of PD patients have co-existent essential tremor.Treatment for PD tremor is usually sinemet (levodopa), a dopamine agonist, or in rare cases an anticholinergic. Anticholinergics are usually avoided because of side effects, but can be useful in difficult to treat tremor.Once patients have tried maximally tolerated doses of sinemet, a dopamine agonist, and an anticholinergics---in a cocktail--if they still have bothersome tremor, many patients will try clozaril (which requires weekly blood monitoring), or deep brain stimulation as a treatment approach.20-40% of patients with PD have a tremor that responds only partially to medications, and in rare cases some tremors do not respond to medications

Monday, February 13, 2012

Tai Chi

Mild-to-moderate Parkinson's disease patients who practice
Tai Chi were found to experience significant benefits, including better posture,
fewer falls, and improved walking ability, researchers from the Oregon Research
Institute (ORI) reported in NEJM (New England Journal of Medicine). The
authors added that Tai Chi was superior for the Parkinson's patients than
stretching or resistance training regarding several symptoms related to the
disease.An individual with Parkinson's disease whose movements are
impaired, especially when standing balance is undermined, finds it considerably
harder to function in everyday life events and chores; their quality of life is
severely affected. As the disease progresses, balance becomes more of a problem,
and subsequently, so does walking.Experts say that physical activity,
i.e. exercise, helps slow down the deterioration of motor function, and allows
the patient to function for longer independently. The authors added, however,
that studies on the benefits of alternative exercises, such as Tai Chi, which
were thought to improve function, gait and balance in those with PD (Parkinson's
disease), have been very few and limited.Study leader, Fuzhong Li,
Ph.D., said:
"These results are clinically significant because they suggest that
Tai Chi, a low-to-moderate impact exercise, may be used, as an add-on to current
physical therapies, to address some of the key clinical problems in Parkinson's
disease, such as postural and gait instability.Since many training
features in the program are functionally oriented, the improvements in the
balance and gait measures that we demonstrated highlight the potential of Tai
Chi-based movements in rehabilitating patients with these types of problems and,
consequently, easing cardinal symptoms of Parkinson's disease and improving
mobility, flexibility, balance, and range of motion."Dr. Li
and team randomly divided 195 participants, all with Parkinson's, into three
groups:
The Tai Chi Group
The Stretching Group
The Resistance Training Group