Parkinson disease and walkers:
My mother discovered she had essential tremors. As she got older, she was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. [Muhammed Ali had Parkinson’s and Michael J. Fox still struggles with it and has helped make millions if not billions of dollars for Parkinson’s research]
Now in her late eighties, her neurologist has increased her dosage of Parkinson’s pills. I’m not mentioning the drugs name because you should see a specialist to determine what is best for you.
What does this have to do with walkers?
Walkers have at least two main functions. Stability when walking, and a seat if needed.
I remember taking her to get her ears checked. The room was full and many individuals were using walkers. Most of the people with walkers were leaning forward with the walkers far in front of them.
The problem with this is all the stress is on the arms and lower back. This causes the core to disengage and get weaker from lack of use. I encouraged her to walk upright. But that doesn’t work when the tremors get worse and unpredictable.
As her Parkinson’s gets worse along with shaking, it’s important for her to have the walker forward where she is always leaning at least partially forward. This way if she falls its towards the walker. However, if she walks with the walker upright and properly so the core is engaged, and one or both her legs start shaking, she could fall backwards, which would be much worse. Now, if I need her to walk, I have her push the walker towards me. This forces her bodyweight forward.
Adaption is very important. Observe and adjust body position where necessary.
I still get her to stand when she can and stretch up to strengthen her core and her hamstrings. The more she stands on her own or does most of the work if I’m assisting her, the more stable she is because her body is adapting to the change. Her habit now is to bend the knees when standing and walking to increase stability but that weakens the hamstring and can hurt the knees. I try to get her to do assisted squats when she can. If she starts shaking, she stops and focuses on her breathing—CALMING BREATHING. So far that works.
Seated exercises are okay, but try to have the individual sit without back support to strengthen the core. Pulling the elbows back or using some strength band resistance while stretching the torso up can help keep proper posture. So can standing with the hips against a table or counter (with the walker behind in case there’s a loss of balance).
However, if an individual also has heart disease and or lung disease (emphysema, COPD, asthma etc.) problems, or a high stroke concern, exercise stress has to be observed very carefully. Seated and lying leg movement is a lot less stressful on the heart etc. than squats. However, lying exercises won’t be as effective in maintaining or increasing stability.
There are support belts with a number of handles. You can also hold the back of the waistline seam on pants to help with standing and stability. Only do this if you have to or the person could be come dependent on the help and get weaker. Or they might just let you take all the weight. *Make sure you discuss with them what you want them to do and that you’re assisting them—make it a team effort. If you don’t, they might tighten up or purposely drop their butt in protective mode. That means you’re holding all of their unwilling body weight.
Consider Size and Weight Difference:
If you’re helping your patient/client/or family member and their much taller and or heavier than you can manage easily, you need to adapt how you help them.
If you’re helping your grandfather and he’s 6’4” (193 cm) and 220 lbs. (99.79 kg) and you’re 5’3” (160 cm) and 125 lbs. (56.7 kg) you might have to figure out a pulley system or Sit to Stand Lifts.
Uncontrollable Shaking
Some shaking is going to happen. Tell the person with Parkinson’s in a soothing voice their okay and to focus on calming breaths. It might not just be Parkinson’s that’s causing the shaking. The tremors might be exasperated because of emotions, such as hearing upsetting news.
If you have or are dealing with a similar situation, feel free to comment.
DW https://nwhealth.fitness/ September 13, 2024
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