More intense exercise appears to have greater benefits.

That the conclusion from this study at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

First, the details.

• 30 people with Parkinson’s disease diagnosed in the past 3 years participated.
• They had symptoms on one or both sides of the body and no difficulty walking.
• They were randomly assigned to 3 treatment groups.
• High-intensity exercise using body weight-supported treadmill training
• Low-intensity exercise
• A zero-intensity education group
• The 2 exercise groups completed 24 exercise sessions over 8 weeks.
• The zero-intensity group completed 6 education classes over 8 weeks.

And, the results.

• All groups experienced small improvement in the total score of the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale and in the motor section of that scale.
• Following high-intensity exercise there were increases in gait speed, step and stride length, and hip and ankle joint excursion.
• Improvements in fast gait and weight distribution during sit-to-stand tasks were also recorded.
• Improvements were not consistently observed in the low- and zero-intensity groups.
• The high-intensity group showed lengthening in the cortical silent period — a transient suppression of voluntary muscle activity — after depolarization of nerves following transcranial magnetic stimulation.

The bottom line?
The findings suggest dose-dependent benefits of exercise, and that high-intensity exercise can normalize corticomotor [the brain nervous system connection] excitability in early Parkinson’s disease.

Physical therapist, Heather Cianci from Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia is the author of Parkinson Disease: Fitness Counts. It’s published by The National Parkinson Foundation. I list it here, not because it’s comparable to the exercises used in this study, but as a resource for increasing a patient’s fitness, and improving their ability to do everyday activities.

It’s a start.

8/31/08 21:30 JR