It's really funny that, after years of seeing significant on-the-spot improvments for Parkinson's ambulatory difficulties, I only now found a journal article demonstrating that someone else figured out how to do the same thing long before I ever did. This is both humbling and reassuring.
Standard osteopathic manipulative treatment acutely improves gait performance in patients with Parkinson's disease
MR Wells, S Giantinoto, D D'Agate, RD Areman, EA Fazzini, D Dowling, and A Bosak
Patients with Parkinson's disease exhibit a variety of motor deficits which can ultimately result in complete disability. The primary objective of this study was to quantitatively evaluate the effect of osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) on the gait of patients with Parkinson's disease. Ten patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease and a group of eight age-matched normal control subjects were subjected to an analysis of gait before and after a single session of an OMT protocol. A separate group of 10 patients with Parkinson's disease was given a sham-control procedure and tested in the same manner. In the treated group of patients with Parkinson's disease, statistically significant increases were observed in stride length, cadence, and the maximum velocities of upper and lower extremities after treatment. There were no significant differences observed in the control groups. The data demonstrate that a single session of an OMT protocol has an immediate impact on Parkinsonian gait. Osteopathic manipulation may be an effective physical treatment method in the management of movement deficits in patients with Parkinson's disease.
from the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association, Vol 99, Issue 2, 92-92; Copyright © 1999 by American Osteopathic Association
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
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