The research initiated by Dr Jan Mehrholz and his colleagues from the Wissenschaftliches Institute in Kreischa, Germany suggests that working out on the treadmill could be used to improve gait hypokinesia in Parkinson’s patients.
Gait hypokinesia is a movement disorder that affects people suffering from Parkinson’s disease and results in slowing the movements.
Leader of the study, Dr Jan Mehrholz, informs, “Treadmill training appears to be a safe and effective way of improving gait in patients with Parkinson's disease.”
“Crucially, we saw very few adverse effects or drop outs in patients given this type of rehabilitation therapy,” she further says.
Details of the Study
The scientists examined data from eight past studies on similar subject that consisted of 203 patients aged 61 or more. Those patients were suffering from the Parkinson’s disease for one year or more.
People practicing treadmill training were compared with patients avoiding the treadmill training. The walking speed, stride length, number of steps per minute (cadence) and walking distance were measured.
On analysis, the researchers found that those Parkinson patients who had exercised on the treadmill showed significant improvement in their walking movements but no positive effect was found in their number of steps.
Seven of the examined studies, consisting of 153 Parkinson’s patients, showed improvement in the walking abilities of the patient. Five studies including 95 participants, talked of benefits of treadmill in improving the stride and two studies on 41 people suggested improvement in the walking distance.
Disadvantages of the study
The researchers found that there were differences in the time given to treadmill exercise by different people and it ranged from a 30 minutes session to eight weeks of training.
Most of the past studies looked into people practicing treadmill exercises from four to eight weeks. And this time difference limits the findings of the study.
Also the type of treadmill training practiced by the patients also varied, as some used body-weight supported treadmill training and most exercised on a speed-dependent machine.
The above limitations have forced the researchers to acknowledge that their study results can be validated only by well designed, large scale research that looks primarily at the risks and benefits of treadmill exercising by Parkinson’s patients.
Findings of the present study that was funded by the Klinik Bavaria in Kreischa, the Technical University in Dresden, SRH Fachhochschule in Gera and the California State University in Long Beach have been published in this month’s issue of the Cochrane Database.
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