Exercise may lead to improvement in patients with Parkinson'sMay
16th, 2007 in Medicine & Health / Diseases, Conditions,
Syndromes A new study from researchers at the Keck School of
Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC) shows
that treadmill exercises may benefit patients with Parkinson's
Disease and those with similar movement disorders. The study is
led by USC neuroscientist Michael Jakowec, Ph.D., assistant
professor of neurology and appears in the May 16 issue of the
Journal of Neuroscience. Recent studies have shown that exercise
can have beneficial effects in patients with Parkinson's Disease
but the underlying reasons haven't been fully explored. This new
study using treadmill exercise in animal models looked at the
effects of dopamine in motor learning and execution. Parkinson's
Disease is a chronic and degenerative disease that leads to
slowness, balance disorders, tremors and difficulty in walking.
The disease results from the loss of dopamine-producing nerve
cells in the brain. It