Whole Body Vibration Therapy, a Revolutionary Technique that Efficiently Treats Parkinson’s Disease

A novel non-traditional physical therapy method is available for advanced Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients that do not respond well to medications such as L-dopamine. Scientists from the Sun Life Financial Movement Disorders Research and Rehabilitation Centre from Ontario, Canada have shown that short term whole body vibration therapy significantly improves the clinical symptoms (loss of gait, tremors and akinesia) of PD patients.  In this clinical study, a sample population of 40 PD patients were subject to intensive therapy for a few weeks using a Physioacoustic Chair, an sophisticated device containing speakers that are strategically placed throughout the chair in order to deliver programmed low frequency sound waves throughout  the body of the patient.

This study is remarkable in the sense that acoustic therapy had a significant impact on the well being and quality of life of PD patients.  In brief,  the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS), gait assessments and upper limb control tests showed significant improvements on gait stability and posture, increased stepping time and speed on the peg-board task,  a significant decrease in tremors and less rigidity in PD patients receiving whole body vibration therapy compared to a control group that received no therapy. More importantly, this study showed  that whole body vibration therapy may also be applied to PD patients that do not respond well to L-dopamine medication or deep brain stimulation, a complicated risky surgery that involves delivering mild electrical shocks to the brain via implanted electrodes. The latter technique is used as  a last resort to stabilize tremors and rigidity in PD patients.

Whole body acoustic stimulation vs. conventional physical therapy for treating PD

Before this study, another previous study conducted about a year ago showed that whole vibration therapy is even more effective in reversing many of the clinical symptoms of PD patients compared to conventional physical therapy. Specifically, this particular study showed that whole body vibration therapy improved equilibrium and gait four weeks after undergoing an intensive three week regimen consisting of 15 minutes a day for five days a week.

Remarkably, this study quantitatively also suggests that whole body vibration therapy is more efficient (25% more efficient) than conventional physical therapy for partially reversing clinical symptoms in PD patients that do not respond well to L-dopamine.  It will be interesting to know whether a combined therapy that uses both whole body and conventional intervention techniques has an additive/ synergistic positive effect in reversing clinical PD symptoms compared to single treatment intervention.

Whole body vibration therapy has also been used in the past to treat patients affected by neuromuscular debilitating and neurodegenerative disorders such as multiple sclerosis, stroke, cerebral palsy, Huntington’s chorea, and other movement disorders. It is not known how whole body acoustic therapy works in Parkinson’s disease patients but it is believed that high vibrational frequencies help to partially restore some of the sensory perception  (proprioception) that is lost during the progression of the disease and is also used to enhance muscle coordination, a physical trait that is lost during the progression of PD. Finally, high frequency sound waves delivered via physicoacoustic devices has been shown to improve blood flow, electrical conductivity and metabolism of muscle tissue.

What is Parkinson’s disease?

PD is an age-related, relentless, chronic and incurable neurodegenerative disease that affects different regions in the brain (the midbrain)  that are enriched with dopaminergic neurons, neurons that produce dopamine. A 90%  loss of dopaminergic neurons in the brain results in motor impairment and muscle coordination in the affected patient.  These symptoms include but are not limited to postural tremors, instability and loss of gait, slow movement (bradykinesia) or complete loss of movement (akinesia). Many of you are familiar the PD related tremors exhibited by the actor Michael J. Fox, a successful actor famous who starred in the Back to the Future movie sequels and who founded the Michael J. Fox Foundation.

To this date, there is no cure for this devastating disease that affects a little more than 1% of the total U.S. population. Over more than 90% of cases of PD have no known cause (sporadic cases). The only effective treatment so far is the administration of Levodopa, a synthetic analog of dopamine, and/or dopamine receptor agonists (bromocriptine) which efficiently alleviates tremors and bradykinesia in PD. Adjunct pharmacological therapy include administration of monoamine oxidase inhibitors (selegiline and rasagaline) and Carvidopa (an aromatic decarboxylase inhibitor) with the goal of increasing the levels of dopamine in the brain by inhibiting the enzymes involved in the breakdown of dopamine. Other more sophisticated and extremely expensive treatments include deep brain stimulation, a very complicated procedure that involves electrically inactivating small inhibitory regions of the brain in order to increase excitatory dopaminergic stimuli through electrical stimulations.

What causes Parkinson’s disease?

PD is a multi-factorial disease in which environmental and genetics play a role. One theory that has gained widespread attention in the medical and scientific community is that exposure to environmental factors, such as pesticides and oxidative stress (free radicals), lead to a rapid decline in the function of mitochondria, the energy generators and powerhouses of the cell, in dopaminergic neurons over time. Moreover, certain genes (PINK1, Parkin, DJ-1, alpha-synuclein, and Parkin) which are found to be mutated in PD patients, have been shown to lead to mitochondrial dysfunction, decrease energy production along with an increase in free radicals in animal models of PD.

Jan. 3, 11:45 am.  Pittsburgh Medical Technology Examiner  Ruben Dagda

• Published by connie on January 25th, 2010 in Health & Wellness, News & Research, Whole Body Vibration.
• 7 Comments
• equilibrium, muscle coordination, muscles, neurodegenerative, neuromuscular, parkinson's disease, rehabilitation, whole body vibration