Fighting Parkinson's and Old Age with Exercise

Note from Ellen

In my over 25 years as a personal trainer, I have had the opportunity to train and currently train individuals with Parkinson's Disease. I know that most of you do not have Parkinson's BUT may know of someone who does or feel like a Parkinson's patient due to your lack of inactivity (not your age). No matter what your condition is, remember, that without exercise, the condition of your body and mind deteriorates. You have to use it or you will lose it. I don't buy excuses especially when my client with Parkinson's pushes his way to the gym and trudges through his workout! If he can do it, you can too!

Parkinson's Disease and Exercise
Written By Mary Anne Ostrenga, a woman with Parkinson's

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurological movement disorder that effects each person differently. The loss of dopamine in the brain causes slow movement, tremors, shuffling gait, loss of balance, and eventually the inability to care for oneself.  

A person with Parkinson's will probably notice small things at first and wonder what is happening to them.  

• One of the first things I noticed was that it was becoming difficult for me to brush my teeth. An electric toothbrush helps with this problem.
  
• Turning over in bed becomes a challenge. Satin pajama's or sheets help with this disability.
  
• Getting out of a car became a laborious event. Only solution I found so far, was my Lexus SUV, I am able to jump out!
  
• One of the most frustrating effects is having a soft voice. The solution for this is practice yelling! 
  
• Falling down is also a big problem, loss of balance, my knees are quite scarred.
  
• Loss of facial movement and expression. Solution, practice smiling, and using facial muscles.
  

Parkinson medication can only help a person with PD to a certain extent. The movement disorder neurologist that is my physician says "that exercise is the best thing that I can do for myself".

In the spring of this year I felt myself getting week and weary earlier and earlier in the day. Then I started to feel that I was losing my strength in my arms. A bone density test showed that my bones were deteriorating from osteoporosis. I finally decided to get a personal trainer and start to fight against the inevitable changes of getting older, and from having both Parkinson's Disease and Osteoporosis.

Some of the benefits I have noticed.

• I am less easily fatigued, when I am exercising 3 times a week. 
  
• When I have aches and pains my trainer helps teach me different exercises to straighten the areas where I am weak, and then I feel better.
  
• Parkinson's causes stiffness of the muscles, which exercise helps to combat and keep under control. 
  
• When exercising on my own for the past few years, I kept getting injured. With my trainer I have not gotten hurt.
  

In summary, I am grateful that I have been able to take private training lessons.  I recommend a personal trainer to get you started and keep fighting against the disability that may be sneaking up on you, be it Parkinson's or any other neuromuscular related diseases.

Food of the Week - No Sodium!

Salt lurks in bagels, cereal, report finds

Mon Dec 1, 2008 3:16pm
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Harmful amounts of sodium can be found in unsalty foods such as breakfast cereal and bagels, according to Consumer Reports magazine.

The group's analysis of 37 food products found a cup of Kellogg's Raisin Bran contains 350 milligrams of sodium, a half-cup of one brand of low-fat cottage cheese had 360 mg, and a Pepperidge Farm Whole Grain White Bagel carried 440 mg.

U.S. dietary guidelines recommend that healthy adults get no more than 2,300 mg of sodium a day and to control high blood pressure people should aim for 1,500 mg or less.

Most Americans get far more than that, and mostly not in salt sprinkled on food but instead in prepared products.

"Our analysis found that lower-fat products might be higher in sodium. That's in part because when fat is taken out of full-fat foods, sodium is sometimes used to compensate for flavor," Jamie Hirsh, associate health editor at Consumer Reports, said in a statement.

Besides sodium chloride -- better known as table salt -- sodium can be found in food additives such as disodium guanylate, disodium inosinate, sodium caseinate, sodium benzoate, sodium bicarbonate and sodium nitrite.

Prego "Heart Smart Traditional" Italian Sauce contains 430 mg of salt in a half-cup serving, even if it is low in fat. "Heart Healthy" V8 vegetable juice has 480 mg in a serving, according to the report released on Monday.

Re: I'm Frustrated because I am not losing!

Many of us start to exercise for a variety of reasons. As a personal trainer and fitness professional, the #1 reason that I hear is - I WANT TO LOSE WEIGHT! This is especially true to form in January when the New Year's Resolutions pile in.

Here are the questions that I hear over and over from my clients and my answers (some humorous but true):

I have been exercising faithfully for the past 2 weeks and I haven't lose a pound.

It hasn't been long enough. There are 3500 calories in one pound. If you burn 300 calories working out and eat 300 calories less per day (two pieces of bread and a slice of turkey; one cooke), you will save 600 calories per day. If you do this every day, in one week, you will have lost 1 lb! The moral of the story: DON'T OVEREAT! When you do, work it off!

OK. I have been training with you for a month and the scale has not changed.

If you are adding weight training, you are probably gaining muscle and losing fat. The scale will not change but your body fat % will. If your clothes are looser, than you are losing fat and gaining muscle! That is a good thing. Muscle burns more calories than fat!

I have been working out for the past year and my belly has not gone down.

Some people store their fat in their belly - actually many of us do. The only way to reduce your belly fat is to reduce your fats in your diet (your body stores fat more readily as fat), do more cardio (burn calories so that you reduce your fat lbs), and eat less (calories in have to be less than calories out).

My legs still look the same as when I started training with you.

You probably are toned beneath the fat. Your legs are large muscles and it is difficult to see muscle definition if you have fat on top of them. Increase your water and decrease fats! Once you lose body fat %, you will start to see some definition.
When am I going to have arms like yours? I have been working out for 25 years or more. My muscles are old! But I am consistent with my workouts, watch what I eat, and make sure that I get enough protein. I do cross training (different forms of cardio), Boot Camp, and weight training. All of this combined makes my arms defined.

The overall point made in this article is that you have to lose fat in order to make the results that you usually want. Introdue small changes on a weekly or monthly basis.

Here are a very small changes that I have found work for clients:

Increase hydration levels by 5 percent a week.
Cut one high-caloric indulgence a week.
Commit to one aerobic activity where they need to move for five to 10 minutes at least two or three times a week.
Smokers - reduce the overall number of cigarettes they smoke by three to five cigarettes a week.
Drinkers - Match each drink with the same amount of water or sparkling water.

Most people won't feel deprived or think they're sacrificing too much by making small changes. Yet, by slowly chipping away at negative behaviors, you will experience surprisingly rapid progress and feel a nice sense of accomplishment.