It sometimes happens that while walking, one of my feet takes on a life of its own and starts to twist. My muscles get stiff, my toes curl up and I can't move with the best will in the world. There is no good coaxing, no stretching, no nothing, except standing still, breathing consciously and relaxing. When my foot has calmed down again, I can continue running. This time, to make sure the cramp doesn't start again right away, I turn and walk backwards. Aaah, what a treat! The foot thanks me and I get questioning looks from the school children and mothers with prams on the sidewalk. I give them a friendly smile like it's the most normal thing in the world.

All Parkinson's patients have to deal with gait difficulties over time. And I would argue that sooner or later everyone finds out which tricks best get them out of trouble. According to a survey, however, most of them are alone.

The survey comes from a group of Dutch doctors who have collected and recently published a collection of tricks and tricks for a better gait pattern in patients with Parkinson's. Many of the 4.300 respondents were not familiar with the support methods presented, even the well-informed among them.

Well, then it's time to change that!

In total, thousands of videos of people with Parkinson's were evaluated for the report. Here are some examples:

Cycling is a good alternative to running. It's easier to walk in heavy shoes. When climbing stairs, grab your belt with both hands. Draw steps or stripes on the floor as an incentive to run. Consciously pull your knees up when walking. Throw a tennis ball on the floor in front of you and catch it again.

The scientists filtered out 95 methods from the submissions and assigned them to seven categories.

1. Outside Clocks: For example, metronome or rhythmic music help to make the gait smoother.
2. Inner Clocks: Give impulses by counting or touching, for example pressing your fingers to your temples. This is especially helpful when starting out.
3. Shift body weightto relieve the swinging leg.
4. Other people walking imitate or become aware of the sequence of movements before you start.
5. motivate yourself or into a state of heightened awareness.
6. Choose a different pace such as walking sideways or backwards. 
7. A combination from several of the methods described.

Doctors wouldn't be scientists if they didn't dig deeper. In this case, they wanted to know which method is most helpful in which situation and whether it can also have negative effects. Fortunately, 62 to 76 percent of the participants stated that the various non-drug methods are useful.

Shifting body weight was the most successful, while external clocks were the least successful. However, the individual methods did not lose their effectiveness over time. And as is often the case with Parkinson's, each person must find the method that works best for them, as not all have worked equally well for everyone. However, about one in ten respondents had to change the method over time as the disease progressed. 

Why do these methods work so well? The research team suspects that when the methods are practiced, other regions in the brain are activated than those usually damaged in Parkinson's disease.

I don't know about you, but I've come across some of the above methods sporadically over the course of my illness. In conversations in the self-help group, on YouTube and also with therapists and clinics and of course through my own experiences. I am pleased that the experiences of the patients have now been bundled, analyzed and hopefully made accessible with this rather large survey.

keep moving

Until next time!

Source: Journal «Neurology»