Parkinson s Disease The Second Most Common...

Parkinson’s Disease is considered the second most common neurodegenerative disorder. The only disorder that is currently more common is Alzheimer’s disease, which barely trumps Parkinson’s by a small margin. The first article studied the effectiveness of two different exercise programs against a home-based control group with people in the early to mid stages of Parkinson’s. The study was a randomized control trial and lasted for 16 months and compared: flexibility/balance/function exercises (FBF), supervised aerobic exercises (AE), and home-based exercises (control). The primary outcomes focused on physical function, balance, and walking economy. A few secondary outcomes included: ADLs, motor subscales, and quality of life. The†¦show more content†¦However, the control group was only required to be supervised on the initial session and then once a month for the entire 16 months. Everyone was encouraged to perform his or her exercise program s 5 to 7 days a week throughout the study. The FBF group included 2 months of flexibility training, followed by 2 months of small group exercises that included: flexibility, balance, and functional exercises. The AE group included 5 to 10 minutes of warm-ups, 30 minutes of exercises at 65 to 80% of their max heart rate, and 5 to 10 minutes of cool downs. The participants were allowed to use either a treadmill, stationary bike or elliptical for their aerobic exercise. The control group included exercises in the home setting using Fitness Counts. At 4 months the FBF group improved greater than the control group with a mean difference of 4.3 on the Physical Functional Performance Test. The FBF group also performed better than the AE group with a mean difference of 3.1 on the same test. Conflicting to their hypotheses the AE group did not show more improved results compared to the control group in the Physical Functional Performance Test. The results showed no difference in improvement on the Functional Reach Test for any of the groups at any point in the study. The AE group showed the greatest improvement of all the groups for walking economy, which means the participants had a reduced energy cost when walking. Surprisingly only the FBF