Beating back advancing Parkinson's symptoms through daily exercise

There is a perverse irony in my having a disease that necessitates regular exercise – something I successfully avoided throughout my pre-Parkinson’s life. In high school, it took three friends to help me complete a forward roll in gym class. When applying to colleges, I eliminated those that had physical education requirements. I thought I had beaten the system, but, as the saying goes, “You can run, but you can’t hide.”

A year after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s, I noticed it was a struggle just to lift a gallon of milk from the trunk of my car with my left arm. The realization that my muscles (such as they were) could weaken so quickly spurred me to action. Hoping for a quick fix, I scoured the Internet to find a magic pill that could halt or at least slow the onslaught of Parkinson’s symptoms that negatively impact almost every aspect of daily life. No such luck.

Everything I read told me I was going to have to “hit the gym” and “work out.” These are not words I like to hear. First of all, I do not do spandex (for obvious reasons)… and I enjoy seeing most other people wearing it even less. Second of all, if the truth be known, I do not like any activity that makes me sweat. I decided to start slowly with an exercise program developed at Duke University specifically to improve the flexibility of people with Parkinson’s. This became the first chapter of my ever-expanding exercise plan to keep advancing Parkinson's symptoms at bay.

My strategy seems to be working. Participating in the APDA Midwest Chapter’s 2008 Walk-A-Thon, I doubled the distance I covered on the same route in 2007, walking 1-1/2 miles at a pretty good clip. Although I didn’t set a new Olympic record, family members who walked with me made me feel like I had brought home the gold, and it was written all over my face.

Friends say I’m probably in the best shape of my life except for the fact that I have Parkinson’s disease. That’s no small exception, but daily exercise has helped me hold the line, and that’s big when you’re talking about a progressive, debilitating disease."

Do I enjoy exercise more now that I’ve experienced some success with it? No, but knowing it is the only thing standing between disability, and me, I keep up my routine.

Do the endorphins released by exercise improve my mood? Who are we kidding… not nearly as much as those released by eating a Cherry Garcia bar.

Friends say I'm probably in the best shape of my life except for the fact that I have Parkinson's disease.

Family members who participated with me in the 2008 Midwest
Chapter Walk-A-Thon made me feel like I had brought home the gold.