A game for parkinsonists
Ping pong classes helped stop the development of Parkinson's disease symptoms
Maria Azarova, Naked Science
Table tennis classes can be an excellent therapy for patients with Parkinson's disease, a chronic neurological disease that affects about six million people worldwide. Japanese scientists have reported on the benefits of ping-pong in old age. They will present their research this April, at the 72nd Annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology in Toronto, the press release of Study finds picking up a pingpong paddle may benefit people with Parkinson's can be found on the academy's official website.
Parkinson's disease, the second (after Alzheimer's disease) neurodegenerative disease in which the hypothalamus gradually reduces the production of a neurotransmitter called dopamine. This process leads to the gradual appearance and deterioration of symptoms, such as tremor, muscle rigidity, slow movements, general stiffness, posture disorders, walking problems, instability, changes in speech and handwriting (it is getting smaller and smaller) and others.
The study of Japanese scientists involved 12 people, their age was 73 years on average. Each of the subjects had Parkinson's disease, and it was diagnosed seven years earlier. All participants were checked before the start of the tests, having analyzed and recorded their symptoms.
"Ping pong, which is also called table tennis, is a form of aerobic exercise that, as it has been shown before, improves hand-eye coordination in the general population, sharpens reflexes and stimulates the brain," said Ken–Ichi Inoue, MD from Fukuoka University, participating in the study. "We wanted to see if there would be similar effects in people with Parkinson's disease and if they could alleviate some of the symptoms."
The essence of the study was simple: participants played ping-pong once a week for six months. At the same time, before the start of each of these five-hour classes, they did stretching. All exercises, the program of which was developed specifically for people with Parkinson's disease, were performed under the guidance of an experienced table tennis player. Symptoms were also recorded and analyzed three months after the start of the tests and at the very end.
According to the findings of the work, the patients felt the weakening and slowing down of the signs of the disease after three months. In particular, they had significant improvements in speech, handwriting, in the process of putting on clothes, getting out of bed and walking: for example, if at the beginning of the study the participants could get out of bed at least on the second attempt, then after ping-pong they got up almost immediately. In addition, positive changes were noted in facial expression, posture, movements were not so inhibited, tremor also weakened.
As for muscle rigidity, the authors of the work assessed this symptom on a scale from zero to four points (one – minimal muscle hardness, two – moderate, three – medium, four – strong). If before the study the average score for all participants was three, then after the ping-pong course this indicator dropped to two.
"Although this is a small study, the results are encouraging because they show that ping pong, a relatively inexpensive therapy option, can alleviate some of the symptoms of Parkinson's disease," Inoue adds. "We plan to conduct a larger study to confirm these findings."
In addition, the researchers note, the limitation of the work was the absence of a control group and the fact that only one specialist evaluated the results.
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