Exercise may slow Parkinson's downward spiral

updated 4:54 p.m. ET March 6, 2006

WASHINGTON - Heather MacTavish leaped around the circle of drums, singing and waving her arms to urge the drummers louder, faster.

Only a slight tremor in one hand revealed her Parkinson's disease. That and the name-tags on her drummers -- a mix of Parkinson's patients and brain researchers, watching MacTavish kick up her orange-socked heels in the name of science.

Growing evidence suggests that exercise -- whether it's sweating on a treadmill or on a dance floor -- can help Parkinson's patients move better and may even slow the inevitable march of this degenerative brain disease.

"Even if we can't reverse things, I think we still hope that we can slow down or even stop the progression," says Michael Zigmond, a neurobiologist at the University of Pittsburgh who, with colleagues in Texas, has come up with some of the most tantalizing research.

If nothing else, "we have to keep our bodies in shape for the next therapy" to be discovered, adds Dr. David Heydrick, a Maryland neurologist who also has Parkinson's disease and puts in an hour on the treadmill every day.

The notion is gaining such ground that when the National Institutes of Health organized an international meeting of Parkinson's researchers last month, patients, dance instructors and personal trainers were invited to tell -- and demonstrate -- the benefits they believe come from physical activity of all kinds.

MacTavish will sometimes dance for hours at a stretch, activity she credits with allowing her to cut in half the daily medication she had needed when she was first diagnosed a decade ago. It isn't always easy: Her leg sometimes freezes, until she stops trying consciously to move it.

"If I had music, I didn't have to tell my left leg to move, my entire body starts moving," explains MacTavish, 57, of Tiburon, Calif. "As the small motor movements get more difficult, the larger, more expansive movements of dance take over."

Parkinson's disease gradually destroys brain cells called neurons that produce dopamine, a chemical crucial for the cellular signaling that controls muscle movement. As dopamine levels drop, symptoms increase: tremors in the arms, legs and face; periodically stiff or frozen limbs; slow movement; impaired balance and coordination.

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