Aerobic exercise helps in the progression of Parkinson’s disease patients

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Worldwide, Parkinson’s disease presents 0.3% of the population, while in people over 80 years of age it is greater than 3%.

Parkinson’s disease is a progressive disorder, characterized clinically by the presence of bradykinesia (slowness of movement) and at least one cardinal motor feature, stiffness, or tremor at rest. The disease has an important impact on quality of life, as it is accompanied by non-motor symptoms such as sleep disorders, dementia, hallucinations, mood conditions, constipation, urogenital dysfunction, and loss or decrease of the sense of taste and pain, among others.

The treatment of the disease is based on dopamine substitution, as well as other non-dopaminergic ones, however, none is curative and the disease continues to be progressive, causing disability. Therefore, effective treatments for the management of the disease continue to be sought.

Recently, the prestigious scientific journal Annals of Neurology published promising results of a clinical trial of 130 patients diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, in which they were assigned treatment with aerobic exercise with a stationary bicycle reaching 50 to 80% of their heart rate, or active control of stretching, flexibility and relaxation exercises. Subjects followed this program three times per week for 30 to 45 minutes per session, for 6 months. After the intervention, magnetic resonance imaging tests were performed.

Interestingly, the results showed that the group of patients who performed aerobic exercise, but not the one who performed active control exercises, showed an increase in sensorimotor functional connectivity, improving cognitive control, accompanied by improvements in physical fitness and a reduction in global brain atrophy.

These findings are extremely important in the community that suffers from the disease since, in addition to the benefits associated with exercise, it could be considered an adjuvant treatment that will result in a better quality of life and a slower progression of the disease.

Writing by Carmen de la Rocha, PhD

Director of Research and Development at Drox Health Science. PhD in Biotechnology, Master in Biochemical Engineering. More than eleven years of experience in clinical research and basic science. Member of the National System of Researchers, level I.

Sources:

Poewe, W., Seppi, K., Tanner, C. et al. Parkinson disease. NatRevDisPrimers 3, 17013 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrdp.2017.13

Johansson ME, et al. Aerobic Exercise Alters Brain Function and Structure in Parkinson’s Disease: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Ann Neurol 91(2):203-216 (2022). doi: 10.1002/ana.26291.