Leslie Wise

Parkinson’s does not have to define who you are!

 

I most often hear, “But Parkinson’s is progressive, so I am only going downhill from here.” That is furthest from the truth. That is why I started THRIVE to work with individuals with Parkinson’s, to let you know there is hope to fight this disease and improve your body! Parkinson’s does not mean your life is over. You can do something about it! So let’s get started today no matter where you are in your journey.

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Here at Thrive, we work on the mind/body connection as this is the disconnect with Parkinson’s. The mind and body don’t communicate well with each other. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that your body makes, and your nervous system uses it to send messages between nerve cells. Dopamine plays a role in how we feel pleasure, coordinate our body, our ability to think and plan as well as strive and focus. When you have Parkinson’s disease, you make less dopamine for your body to communicate these messages. Hence making coordination, focus/attention, motivation, and fluidity of movement difficult. A natural way to improve your mood and boost endorphins is to exercise. Exercise is being researched to show that it can improve motor control of the body in those with Parkinson’s. Exercise can also create new connections/pathways for our brain and body to communicate, called Neuroplasticity. This is why repetition and consistency are essential. If you exercise correctly, you can retrain your brain to move your body more efficiently with walking, balance, and coordination to improve your overall fluency of movement. It is essential to attempt daily to include coordination, balance, dual tasking, strength, agility, speech, and cognition. It is important to note that each person with Parkinson’s presents differently. This is why I believe it is essential to let someone who is specialized in Parkinson's monitor you to constantly challenge your body to improve and personalize your workout for you and your needs. But also, there is so much more to working out than just lifting weights and doing some form of cardio (although these are essential but not solely what you need.) So let Thrive help take the worry off of “what do I do, how many times do I do it, am I doing this correctly” and come work out with us. Think of exercise as one of your medications! It has been shown to decrease your symptoms, improve your mood and possibly slow the progression of Parkinson’s. I often hear, “I didn’t want to come today due to …..” but it never fails that those same clients feel better after the workout and state their mood and movement have improved.

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My approach is to be more proactive at diagnosis instead of waiting until you are symptomatic or have difficulty with specific functions. If you are newly diagnosed, starting to work on your body right away with the proper exercise, improving sleep, looking at nutrition are all ways you can immediately begin to improve your symptoms. If you are not newly diagnosed, this does not mean you can’t start wherever you are in your journey. You can decrease symptoms if you focus on the above, no matter where you are in your journey. Start with finding a PT/OT/ST in your area to get an assessment/baseline of how you are moving and your areas needed for improvement. Then find an exercise program with highly trained instructors to help you improve your movement in between therapy. Because this is a group exercise and personal training, insurance does not cover these programs.