Parkinson’s: active patients keep memory and movement longer, study finds

People living with Parkinson’s who spend more of their week moving appear to hold on to their memory and motor skills longer than those who do little, the American Academy of Neurology said on Friday. The findings were published on Oct. 7 in Neurology, the academy’s official medical journal.

The clearest contrast showed up in cognition. Among patients who logged over eight hours of activity weekly, memory and thinking scores barely moved on average across the follow-up. The authors caution that the data reveal a link, not evidence that exercise itself slows the illness.

Seven years of follow-up

Researchers tracked 294 adults whose Parkinson’s was classed as mild or moderate, with an average age of 66, over a period lasting as long as seven years. Through questionnaires, each one estimated weekly hours of physical activity in three settings: the job, the household, and leisure or hobbies.

The team sorted these activities by how demanding they were. Walking at a brisk pace, playing tennis in doubles, swimming at an easy pace and chores like vacuuming, mowing grass or cleaning windows were rated moderate. Vigorous effort covered running, cycling fast, team sports, tennis in singles, shovelling and lifting heavy loads.

Activity was assessed three ways: combined hours of moderate or vigorous effort, a volume score weighting harder exercise more heavily, and hours of vigorous exercise on their own. By weekly hours, patients fell into three bands: four hours or fewer, between four and eight, and above eight. Annual testing covered cognition as well as the severity of Parkinson’s symptoms.

Cognitive scores

Cognition was scored out of 30, with lower results signalling weaker function. Patients in the least active band dropped an estimated 0.478 points annually. That fell to 0.090 points among the moderately active. The most active band slipped by just 0.007 points a year, so their results stayed almost flat.

Motor symptoms

Movement problems were rated from zero to 132, higher meaning worse, and the group’s starting average stood at 23. In the least active band, that figure crept up by roughly 0.143 points each year, a mild deterioration. The trend reversed elsewhere: a fall of 0.225 points yearly among moderately active patients and of 0.783 points in the most active band.

Age, sex and disease duration were taken into account. Even then, the most active patients outperformed the least active, with cognition declining more slowly and motor symptoms worsening less. Total hours, overall volume and vigorous exercise time were each tied to gentler decline in both areas.

Cautious reading

Study author Dong-Woo Ryu, MD, PhD, of the University of Cincinnati in Ohio, noted that earlier research had connected activity with movement symptoms.

“Our study found physical activity may have dual benefits, with associations with slower declines in movement and cognition.”

According to Ryu, any gain may hinge on how long people keep exercising and whether they stick with it. The gaps between groups were small, he said, but could matter more as years pass. He added that since most participants started out with sound cognitive skills, the results call for caution and further studies.

Another weakness flagged by the authors is that activity was self-reported, not measured, so some figures may be off. Whether exercise itself can slow symptom progression remains a question that further studies must still answer.

A grant from the Gardner Family Foundation and the Precision Medicine in Neurodegenerative Diseases Fund paid for the research.