Parkinson’s: A Great Blob Post All About Dance

 

A Journey Into Parkinson's with Nancy Mellon

Coordinated by Corrine Bayraktaroglu

A Great BLOB Post

Image Courtesy of Clay Banks at Unsplash 

It seems that at the moment, I am scatterbrained.  I have books strewn everywhere.  Most lie open, in piles, to pages that I had read and marked with a tiny bit of paper.  Some have underlined key sentences.  At some point, I thought “ooo that would make a great blog post. “ (What I wrote first was “a great blob post” it made me smile, so it became today's title)

But then I come to today, when I really- must- write- my blog and I don't know where to begin.

How about with an article called “Future Perspectives on neural mechanisms underlying rhythm and music based neurorehabilitation in Parkinson's disease. Written by Yuko Koshimori and Michael H. Thaut

(Whew- that is a  mouthful!  I don't normally scour scientific journals for information,  I'm pretty sure that this one popped up with a link, through the newsletter I get from the PD choir I am in.)

Basically it is very good news-it says that studies have shown that rhythm and music have therapeutic effects on motor and non motor symptoms in people  with Parkinson's.

The article talks about how:

•      Conventional therapeutic interventions like dopamine replacement and deep brain stimulation can show limited helpfulness in gait disturbances and freezing of gait (FOG)- (there is that FOG reference Tracy!) ) and in non-motor symptoms. They can also impair some cognitive function as well as develop impulse control disorders and motor complications such as involuntary dyskinesia.

Then it goes on to say;

•      Rhythmic auditory stimulation (RAS) has proven it can improve gait and upper limb disturbances. For example, rhythmic auditory cues such as metronome tones or a beat embedded in music, can help regulate timing and pace in walking.

•      The interactions between the auditory and motor systems are immediate and stable even below the conscious perception

In these studies they used a specific kind of auditory-cueing motor training that helped with PD motor symptoms but after the interventions were over the improvements only lasted from 4-8 weeks. That is the not so good news.

The Article also talked about how the use of rhythmic timing has been extended to dance intervention, the Tango, Irish setting dances (I have no idea what these are, do you?) , and music based movement therapy alleviated disease severity as well as improved balance, gait, FOG, cognitive function and quality of life. (Yeah Jill! Thank you for your PD Dance class! You Rock!

Then it goes into highly technical information about how rhythmic auditory stimuli influences the motor regions in our brains.  I am going to skip this part. Just believe that it does.

More studies are needed. So the article says.

THEN it goes on to talk about how music, the production of music, singing and dancing improved frontal lobe function as well as memory function.

A randomized, controlled study of stroke victims, showed that daily listening of favorite music resulted in a significant increase in gray matter volume in wide areas of the brain.  These results suggest that music based interventions may be able to counteract the cortical thinning and cognitive impairment of PD.

•      Increased gray matter volume was associated with reduced  negative mood including depression, tension, fatigue,forgetfulness and irritability.

•      Rhythm and music can also alleviate some of the impairment associated with  with speech in PD.

 

The take a way for me is we all need to add more music to our daily lives. So sing in the shower or belt out a tune while walking down the street, turn on music to flip pancakes to and dance around your living room to your favorite tunes.

 

May the New Year, bring more music and rhythm into our lives!

Nancy and the Snark