a quote from Michael J Fox medical
science has proven time and again when
recent resources are provided great
progress in the areas of treatment cure
and prevention of disease can occur to
people by the end of my talk and 164 by
the end of today will have been
diagnosed with Parkinson’s in the US
alone many of us have friends family
members or loved ones who have been
diagnosed I personally have several
people in my family who have been
diagnosed with Parkinson’s and they are
the inspiration behind what I do my
grandmother my early memories of my
grandmother
are of her and her pink ruffled chiffon
blouse neatly pressed slacks and
perfectly quaffed crimson hair she was a
tiny woman with a love of cleaning more
like a sanitizing of her home if you
dropped a creme on the floor she would
follow it with the scouring scrubbing
cleaning ritual and my dad would go oh
she’s just fussy but come to think of it
she’s probably the reason I bought a
Roomba her gardens were amazing she had
the most beautiful pink flowers it was
her favorite color and in the backyard
she would grow mint along the fence and
allow us to pick it to brew tea these
were happy times my later memories of
her are not so happy I watched as her
body was taken over by Parkinson’s
disease she was diagnosed in her early
40s so about the age I am now she always
followed the doctor’s advice the worst
of which was to not exert herself
because it could make the condition
worse she always took her medication
diligently and even though it worked
well for the first few years eventually
the trauma that started in her hand
took over her entire body she became
stiff and rigid she would take tiny
steps and shuffle and freeze this
eventually led to a fall where she
fractured her hip she had to turn in her
wheelchair or turn into her Walker for a
wheelchair and give up a lot of her
independence and doing the things she
loved she relied greatly on in-home care
givers and my grandfather for even her
most basic needs and I remember she was
having trouble swallowing her voice
became soft and her inability to
communicate frustrated her greatly from
what I remember she wasted away to what
was about 80 pounds contracted
aspiration pneumonia and passed away her
story is not that unusual for people
suffering with PD and unfortunately
that’s very similar to how most people
depression of the Greek disease will go
for most people according to the
National Parkinson’s foundation 1
million people in the US and 10 million
people worldwide will be diagnosed with
Parkinson’s by the year 2020 and
according to a study done in 2010 by
Washington University’s School of
Medicine the prevalence of Parkinson’s
in the Midwest and Northeast United
States is significantly higher than in
other areas of the country and even the
world this means just living in these
areas puts you at a greater risk of
developing the disease and medical
science has no conclusive evidence as to
why this is the case currently the best
treatment available for Parkinson’s is
levodopa carbidopa a drug that was
developed in the 1960s it’s converted
into dopamine in the brain and although
it can help ease the symptoms of the
disease
it does not slow down or stop the
progression of the disease and
unfortunately medical science hasn’t
made any major breakthroughs and
medication since then but now there’s
this amazing new protocol a breakthrough
advanced
that’s changing the lives of people with
Parkinson’s it is slowing down the
progression of the disease it’s reducing
symptoms like stiffness rigidity balance
problems digestive issues it’s improving
gait fine motor skills voice even
cognitive function cardiovascular health
and bone density so what is this amazing
new protocol well it’s not marijuana nor
is it a prescription drug it’s exercise
exercise works not only is exercise
neuroprotective which means it protects
the brain from future damage it also
creates neuroplasticity which is sort of
like a rewiring of the brain if you have
an old connection that’s damaged we can
help you rebuild a new one using
exercise although the science behind
this concept is fairly new research is
showing that it works for people with
Parkinson’s and it’s also showing
promising studies in the areas of other
neurological conditions including
Alzheimer’s so high repetition movements
done with balanced exercise work best
and the perfect sport for this is boxing
no people with Parkinson’s aren’t
fighting each other but they are
training like fighters all over the
country people are boxing their way to
better mobility and daily function
taking classes one to two days a week
how do I know this works for people with
Parkinson’s I’m an ace-certified
personal trainer Parkinson’s wellness
recovery certified instructor to lay the
disease certified instructor rock steady
boxing coach and yoga instructor but
we’re taking we’re taking this program
and we’re making it so much bigger so
what we’ve been doing over the past
three years is working with people with
Parkinson’s to create customized
workouts so I have a business called
Neurosci Fit and we have two Rocksteady
boxing locations we use the boxing not
only as
sort of therapy for Parkinson’s but we
also do things like high-intensity
interval training we use yoga tai chi
balance training agility training
strength training and so much more
to create the best results for our
clients we are having particularly rapid
results and great success with the
programs were using and I’ll just give
some examples I have a client Steve who
when he came to me said he hadn’t felt
normal in years now he says after taking
just a few classes he gets three hours
of normal a day and to him that’s
priceless
I don’t think Steve’s ever missed a
class and then there’s our client bill
when bill came to us he was struggling
to walk just to the end of his driveway
after just a few months of training
targeted on his gait bill was able to
walk five miles on a sandy beach in the
Cayman Islands haha and then there’s Jim
Jim couldn’t even get off the floor when
he came to us Jim recently hiked 12
miles on the Appalachian Trail after
three months of exercise targeting the
areas that he wanted to work on I know
this sounds extreme but these are the
results we’re seeing every day and I
know it sounds like a lot to cram into
one workout and how in the world would
you ever create a program for somebody’s
own unique symptoms of the 200-plus
possible symptoms of Parkinson’s
the answer is it’s challenging but it’s
so worth it the results are amazing
when we see an individual client the
first thing we ask them is what bothers
you the most about having PT where are
you struggling and based on that we
create a customized workout based on
their current abilities and what their
goals are now in a group class setting
it’s a little bit different so every
week we’ll just ask a couple of people
what’s your biggest challenge lately or
what would you like to improve sometimes
I just sit back and simply observe based
on what we see and hear we create
specialized workout programs and our
clients are yielding amazing results
their families are noticing – so to be
clear exercise isn’t a cure for
Parkinson’s but it’s simply a tool to
put off the progression of the disease
or improve quality of life for the
people living with it so what if you
have Parkinson’s or you know somebody
who does and you want to start this new
protocol first contact your physician
make sure you’re healthy enough for
exercise second act quickly the sooner
you start your exercise program the
better your results are gonna be
third find a parkinson’s specific
exercise program in your area and fourth
start fighting back while we don’t know
what the future holds in the areas of
medication stem cell research or even a
cure for Parkinson’s we’re keeping our
clients healthy enough that when that
next breakthrough comes they’ll be ready
to embrace it all of this makes that
quote from Michael J Fox even more
relevant medical science has proven time
and again when research or when
resources are provided great progress in
the treatment cure and prevention of
disease can occur we’re keeping our
clients with PD healthy and keeping
Parkinson’s on the rope
[Applause] [Music]
science has proven time and again when
recent resources are provided great
progress in the areas of treatment cure
and prevention of disease can occur to
people by the end of my talk and 164 by
the end of today will have been
diagnosed with Parkinson’s in the US
alone many of us have friends family
members or loved ones who have been
diagnosed I personally have several
people in my family who have been
diagnosed with Parkinson’s and they are
the inspiration behind what I do my
grandmother my early memories of my
grandmother
are of her and her pink ruffled chiffon
blouse neatly pressed slacks and
perfectly quaffed crimson hair she was a
tiny woman with a love of cleaning more
like a sanitizing of her home if you
dropped a creme on the floor she would
follow it with the scouring scrubbing
cleaning ritual and my dad would go oh
she’s just fussy but come to think of it
she’s probably the reason I bought a
Roomba her gardens were amazing she had
the most beautiful pink flowers it was
her favorite color and in the backyard
she would grow mint along the fence and
allow us to pick it to brew tea these
were happy times my later memories of
her are not so happy I watched as her
body was taken over by Parkinson’s
disease she was diagnosed in her early
40s so about the age I am now she always
followed the doctor’s advice the worst
of which was to not exert herself
because it could make the condition
worse she always took her medication
diligently and even though it worked
well for the first few years eventually
the trauma that started in her hand
took over her entire body she became
stiff and rigid she would take tiny
steps and shuffle and freeze this
eventually led to a fall where she
fractured her hip she had to turn in her
wheelchair or turn into her Walker for a
wheelchair and give up a lot of her
independence and doing the things she
loved she relied greatly on in-home care
givers and my grandfather for even her
most basic needs and I remember she was
having trouble swallowing her voice
became soft and her inability to
communicate frustrated her greatly from
what I remember she wasted away to what
was about 80 pounds contracted
aspiration pneumonia and passed away her
story is not that unusual for people
suffering with PD and unfortunately
that’s very similar to how most people
depression of the Greek disease will go
for most people according to the
National Parkinson’s foundation 1
million people in the US and 10 million
people worldwide will be diagnosed with
Parkinson’s by the year 2020 and
according to a study done in 2010 by
Washington University’s School of
Medicine the prevalence of Parkinson’s
in the Midwest and Northeast United
States is significantly higher than in
other areas of the country and even the
world this means just living in these
areas puts you at a greater risk of
developing the disease and medical
science has no conclusive evidence as to
why this is the case currently the best
treatment available for Parkinson’s is
levodopa carbidopa a drug that was
developed in the 1960s it’s converted
into dopamine in the brain and although
it can help ease the symptoms of the
disease
it does not slow down or stop the
progression of the disease and
unfortunately medical science hasn’t
made any major breakthroughs and
medication since then but now there’s
this amazing new protocol a breakthrough
advanced
that’s changing the lives of people with
Parkinson’s it is slowing down the
progression of the disease it’s reducing
symptoms like stiffness rigidity balance
problems digestive issues it’s improving
gait fine motor skills voice even
cognitive function cardiovascular health
and bone density so what is this amazing
new protocol well it’s not marijuana nor
is it a prescription drug it’s exercise
exercise works not only is exercise
neuroprotective which means it protects
the brain from future damage it also
creates neuroplasticity which is sort of
like a rewiring of the brain if you have
an old connection that’s damaged we can
help you rebuild a new one using
exercise although the science behind
this concept is fairly new research is
showing that it works for people with
Parkinson’s and it’s also showing
promising studies in the areas of other
neurological conditions including
Alzheimer’s so high repetition movements
done with balanced exercise work best
and the perfect sport for this is boxing
no people with Parkinson’s aren’t
fighting each other but they are
training like fighters all over the
country people are boxing their way to
better mobility and daily function
taking classes one to two days a week
how do I know this works for people with
Parkinson’s I’m an ace-certified
personal trainer Parkinson’s wellness
recovery certified instructor to lay the
disease certified instructor rock steady
boxing coach and yoga instructor but
we’re taking we’re taking this program
and we’re making it so much bigger so
what we’ve been doing over the past
three years is working with people with
Parkinson’s to create customized
workouts so I have a business called
Neurosci Fit and we have two Rocksteady
boxing locations we use the boxing not
only as
sort of therapy for Parkinson’s but we
also do things like high-intensity
interval training we use yoga tai chi
balance training agility training
strength training and so much more
to create the best results for our
clients we are having particularly rapid
results and great success with the
programs were using and I’ll just give
some examples I have a client Steve who
when he came to me said he hadn’t felt
normal in years now he says after taking
just a few classes he gets three hours
of normal a day and to him that’s
priceless
I don’t think Steve’s ever missed a
class and then there’s our client bill
when bill came to us he was struggling
to walk just to the end of his driveway
after just a few months of training
targeted on his gait bill was able to
walk five miles on a sandy beach in the
Cayman Islands haha and then there’s Jim
Jim couldn’t even get off the floor when
he came to us Jim recently hiked 12
miles on the Appalachian Trail after
three months of exercise targeting the
areas that he wanted to work on I know
this sounds extreme but these are the
results we’re seeing every day and I
know it sounds like a lot to cram into
one workout and how in the world would
you ever create a program for somebody’s
own unique symptoms of the 200-plus
possible symptoms of Parkinson’s
the answer is it’s challenging but it’s
so worth it the results are amazing
when we see an individual client the
first thing we ask them is what bothers
you the most about having PT where are
you struggling and based on that we
create a customized workout based on
their current abilities and what their
goals are now in a group class setting
it’s a little bit different so every
week we’ll just ask a couple of people
what’s your biggest challenge lately or
what would you like to improve sometimes
I just sit back and simply observe based
on what we see and hear we create
specialized workout programs and our
clients are yielding amazing results
their families are noticing – so to be
clear exercise isn’t a cure for
Parkinson’s but it’s simply a tool to
put off the progression of the disease
or improve quality of life for the
people living with it so what if you
have Parkinson’s or you know somebody
who does and you want to start this new
protocol first contact your physician
make sure you’re healthy enough for
exercise second act quickly the sooner
you start your exercise program the
better your results are gonna be
third find a parkinson’s specific
exercise program in your area and fourth
start fighting back while we don’t know
what the future holds in the areas of
medication stem cell research or even a
cure for Parkinson’s we’re keeping our
clients healthy enough that when that
next breakthrough comes they’ll be ready
to embrace it all of this makes that
quote from Michael J Fox even more
relevant medical science has proven time
and again when research or when
resources are provided great progress in
the treatment cure and prevention of
disease can occur we’re keeping our
clients with PD healthy and keeping
Parkinson’s on the rope
[Applause] [Music]
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