Parkinson's Disease and Exercise

Dad was recently diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease - something that, if I think about in hindsight - has been there for almost 5 years. I compared pictures from the summer of 2004 and the spring of 2005, and I can see the difference. He's a healthy middle aged man with a tall standing posture and head held high in 2004. In 2005 there are the first signs of a hunch, holding his hands a little awkwardly in front of his abdomen, and his facial expression a little more goggley than the year before. The transition between being healthy and being sick must've happened that winter - 2004/2005 but nobody noticed, labeling his signs and behavior generally as "getting older". Today, in the winter of 2009, my Dad is an old man at the age of 60. I've been reading a lot of articles about PD and this one strikes me as one that everyone can benefit from. It explains how the regular practicing of sports slows down the process of the disease and can even prevent it before the disease picks up speed. It is yet another proof how important movement and regular exercise is. Of course my dad hasn't exercised much (if at all) throughout his life so I embraced this research thinking "This is it! This is it!" Of course this is not the only "it"; there are many other factors, about which I'll write some other time, but regardless, now when someone tells me "I haven't exercised in 40 years and I feel the same" I'd tell them to take a good and honest look at themselves, and then decide whether the above statement is a sincere reason to brag.