Think Neuro Podcast: Taking On Parkinson’s Disease With Boxing Gloves

by Anthony Effinger

The Think Neuro podcast from Pacific Neuroscience Institute takes you into the clinic, operating room and laboratory with doctors and surgeons who are tackling the most challenging brain diseases and disorders. Host: Anthony Effinger

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Episode 2: Show Notes

A diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease today doesn’t mean the same as it did even just a few years ago. There have been nine new medications for Parkinson’s disease and its related symptoms in the past five years, and we are understanding the importance of lifestyle now more than ever.

People with Parkinson’s disease can make lifestyle changes that can slow the disease, and even improve their condition. Chief among them is exercise. Not just hitting the treadmill but doing new things that challenge both the brain and body at the same time.

Movement disorders specialist Dr. Melita Petrossian is a big fan of boxing. Not getting in the ring, but working out with gloves and a bag, or with a partner wearing mitts. It’s an energizing dynamic activity that requires work with both the hands and the feet.

Don’t care to box? Try to dance. It, too, might form new neural connections in the brain and help keep Parkinson’s progression at bay.

About Dr. Petrossian

Melita Petrossian, MD, is Director of Pacific Movement Disorders Center and is a fellowship-trained neurologist with clinical interests and expertise in movement disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, essential tremor, dystonia, gait disorders, ataxia, myoclonus, blepharospasm, hemifacial spasm, Meige syndrome, spasticity, tics, and Tourette’s syndrome.

She also specializes in Parkinson’s-related conditions such as Dementia with Lewy Bodies, progressive supranuclear palsy, multiple system atrophy, corticobasal degeneration, primary freezing of gait, and Parkinson’s disease dementia.

More Information

Call 310-582-7433 or visit the Pacific Movement Disorder Center

Related Links:

A PNI Minute Video: Parkinson’s disease and neuroplasticity

American Parkinson Disease Association

Anthony Effinger

Think Neuro's host is Anthony Effinger, an award-winning journalist who is fascinated with neuroscience and the workings of the brain. Anthony spent 24 years at Bloomberg News, where he covered all aspects of finance, with forays into science and health. In 2006, the Association of Health Care Journalists awarded him first prize for Playing the Odds, an in-depth piece on the changing strategies used to treat prostate cancer. These days, he is a staff writer at Willamette Week, a Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper in Portland, Oregon, where he lives with his wife and two children.

Last updated: June 26th, 2020