Exercise for management and treatment of Parkinson disease.

摘要

We read with great interest the article by Dr. Rao and colleagues on Parkinson disease, especially the section on nonpharma-cologic interventions such as exercise. Historically, physicians did not think that exercise had an effect on Parkinson disease. Rao and colleagues cite a 2001 Cochrane meta-analysis on physical therapy and exercise for Parkinson disease1 that is consistent with this view and conclude that "non-pharmacological interventions do not improve the cardinal symptoms of Parkinson's disease."2 More recent studies suggest that exercise improves some of the cardinal features of this disease that often resist pharmacologic intervention, including gait, posture, and dysarthria.Animal studies on aerobic exercise for Parkinson disease suggest that exercise does provide a protective effect on the Parkinson disease brain.6 These animal studies have been replicated and a large National Institutes of Health human trial on exercise and Parkinson disease is forthcoming.