Delmarva Today 12-10-21
Harold Wilson’s guest is Lyn Sutton, a fitness professional, coach and organizer of a Rock Steady Boxing program here on the Eastern Shore.
Most of you have probably become aware of Parkinson’s Disease through the diagnosis of Mohammed Ali and Michael J. Fox. Other notables diagnosed with the disease, however, are Alan Alda, George H.W Bush, Jesse Jackson, Pope John Paul II, Janet Reno, Linda Ronstadt, and Robin Williams, to name a few.
This nervous system disease affects one’s ability to control movement and results in noticeable symptoms such as tremors, slowness of movement, stiff limbs; unsteady walk, balance, and coordination problems, and stooped posture. Other less pronounced symptoms might include speech and vocal changes, chewing and swallowing problems, mental and thinking issues including difficulties with memory, and hallucinations and delusions. Each person experiences symptoms in their own unique way.
While the major treatment for Parkinson’s is chemical intervention, the largest clinical study of Parkinson’s – The Parkinson’s Outcomes Project - found that people diagnosed with the disease who engaged in at least 2.5 hours of exercise a week had a better quality of life than those who didn’t or who started exercising later. Other studies confirm that exercise plays an essential role in managing the disease.
Listen in as Lyn dIscusses the direct correlation between the training exercises of boxers and their capacity to address the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.
More than one million people in the US are currently diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease and 60,000 new cases are diagnosed each year.