Home Physical Therapy and Balance Training Guide for Parkinson's Disease

Parkinson's disease is a progressive neurological disorder that occurs due to the gradual decrease and damage of "dopamine"-producing cells in the brain, slowing down movements, impairing balance, and causing muscle stiffness. Just as the medication (dopamine supplement) prescribed by a neurologist is important in Parkinson's treatment, neurological physical therapy and clinical exercise are equally vital. Physiotherapy is the strongest shield that slows the progression of the disease, restores the patient's restricted mobility, and most importantly, eliminates the life-threatening "risk of falling."

What Difficulties Do Parkinson's Patients Face in Daily Life?

In society, Parkinson's disease is thought to consist only of tremors in the hands, but the real major danger and functional factors that drag the quality of life down are the following:

• Bradykinesia (Slowness of Movement): The feeling of extreme slowness and difficulty a patient experiences when getting up from a deep chair, turning to the other side in bed, or reaching for something.
• Rigidity (Muscle Stiffness and Rigidity): A constant resistance (tension) felt in the joints and muscles. This condition generally leads to the neck and trunk bending forward (a hunched, forward-leaning posture).
• Freezing of Gait: A situation where, while walking, the feet suddenly feel as if they are glued/magnetized to the floor, and the patient cannot take the next step (inability to initiate movement). It is generally triggered when passing through narrow doorways, walking through crowds, or trying to change direction suddenly.
• Balance Loss and Falls: As a result of the deterioration of the body's postural reflexes that maintain posture in the later stages of the disease, severe backward or forward falls frequently occur.

What Methods Do We Apply in Parkinson's Treatment in Marmaris?

The foundation of the exercises we apply to Parkinson's patients relies on "Large, Rhythmic, and Vocal" movements aimed at opening up the shrunken body:

1. Visual and Auditory Cues (Cueing Techniques): To overcome those panic-filled "freezing" crises experienced during walking, "new walking paths" are opened to bypass the blockage in the brain by sticking colored tapes on the floor at certain intervals (visual cue) or using a metronome/rhythmic vocal counting (auditory cue) techniques.
2. Large Amplitude (Exaggerated) Movements: Against the muscle shrinkage, shortening of steps, and tendency to curl inward brought on by the disease, intentionally very exaggerated, wide, and large arm-leg movements (LSVT-BIG principles) are practiced.
3. Posture and Fascial Flexibility: To prevent the trunk from hunching forward and stiffening, fascial stretches opening the chest muscles and strengthening exercises keeping the back/neck muscles upright are performed.
4. Balance and Fall Prevention Training: To prevent falls, weight shifting, standing on different surfaces, and safe direction changing (turning with a wide arc instead of a U-turn) exercises are practiced.