For Parkinson’s patients, dancing is medicine

Parkinson’s has no cure, but in recent years, an unusual new treatment for managing the disease has emerged: dancing. A number of studies over the past few years have suggested that rhythmic movements taught in dance classes can help alleviate not only some of the motor control impairments of the disease, but also the sense of social isolation patients often face.

In 2010, Italian researcher (and musician) Daniele Volpe was playing with a band in a pub in Ireland when he noticed a man with the clear shuffling gait indicative of Parkinson’s disease. Then the man began to dance.

“He danced very fluently in front of me,” Volpe, a medical director at NYU’s Fresco Institute for Parkinson’s and Movement Disorders, told Mental Floss. Since then, Volpe has been studying the effects of Irish step dancing as a way to improve balance, mobility, and general well-being for people with Parkinson’s.

Rhythm and moves
“All dance is useful for patients with Parkinson’s disease,” Volpe says, but the Irish reel step in particular seems to be an effective therapy for developing more fluid movement. It has a distinct pattern that requires dancers to change direction frequently. This, in addition to the consistent length of the steps, requires dancers to constantly focus their motor control on transferring their weight from one leg to another.  

The strong rhythm of traditional Irish music may play a role, too. The regularity of a jig or reel may provide consistent acoustic cues that drive automated motor activity, bypassing the movement-related brain networks that Parkinson’s impairs. However, Irish jigs aren’t the only dances that can help Parkinson’s patients.

Dance for PD, a New York-based organisation that began as a collaboration between the Brooklyn Parkinson Group and the Mark Morris Dance Group, has six locations in the New York City area and has programs in an estimated 120 communities and 13 countries. The organisation teaches a variety of different dance styles to Parkinson’s patients, including ballet, jazz, and salsa. The group also incorporates modern dance choreography developed for the Mark Morris Dance Group’s performers.  

Eases daily life
Dance classes don’t provide instant relief from some of the movement issues associated with the disease, but over time, the training can help make daily life easier. One of Volpe’s studies found improvements after six months of training for two hours a week. Leventhal says around 65 per cent of patients in the Dance for PD program report improvement in at least one aspect of their daily lives, whether it’s more ease getting out of bed or simply being able to reach for a jar in the cupboard.

And while exercise is particularly important for Parkinson’s patients, dancing provides benefits outside of motor control benefits. “They feel a sense of social inclusion and sense of shared confidence,” Leventhal says of his students. “Their mood changes within minutes of being there-they’re no longer patients, but dance students.”

Source: www.mentalfloss.com