Good Morning,bio photo

Today I wanted to talk about Parkinson’s Disease. Parkinson’s affects up to 1 million people in the U.S. Doctors diagnose as many as 60,000 new cases each year. Parkinson’s strikes 50 percent more men than women. The average age of onset is 60.

Statistics on Parkinson’s

Who Has Parkinson’s?lady with elder

  • As many as one million Americans live with Parkinson’s disease, which is more than the combined number of people diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy and Lou Gehrig’s disease.
  • Approximately 60,000 Americans are diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease each year, and this number does not reflect the thousands of cases that go undetected.
  • More than 10 million people worldwide are living with Parkinson’s disease.
  • Incidence of Parkinson’s increases with age, but an estimated four percent of people with PD are diagnosed before the age of 50.
  • Men are one and a half times more likely to have Parkinson’s than women.

What Does Parkinson’s Cost?

  • The combined direct and indirect cost of Parkinson’s, including treatment, social security payments and lost income from inability to work, is estimated to be nearly $25 billion per year in the United States alone.
  • Medication costs for an individual person with PD average $2,500 a year, and therapeutic surgery can cost up to $100,000 dollars per patient.
  • http://www.pdf.org/en/parkinson_statistics

Does Physical Therapy help patients with Parkinson’s remain Engaged in Life and Engaged in Wellness?  Of course and here’s why and how:

Exercise and Physical Therapy

Research has shown that regular exercise benefits people with Parkinson’s disease.

Exercise:

  • reduces stiffness
  • improves mobility, posture, balance and gait

Aerobic exercise increases oxygen delivery and neurotransmitters to keep our heart, lungs, and nervous system healthy. General exercise may also reduce depression. Learning-based memory exercises can also help keep our memory sharp (PositscienceLumosity).

There is so much more to address on this topic.  When I was working at Barrows Institute I was privileged to work with many patients with Parkinson’s disease.

I am accepting new home care patients in the Phoenix area.

Happy Thanksgiving,logo-transparent-bg

Kim Jacob

http://www.azhomecare.org/

http://aptaaz.org/?

https://integrativetherapywellness.com/

 


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