Physical Activity and Neurological Conditions

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Original Editor - Mariam Mohana

Top Contributors - Wendy Walker, Kim Jackson, Mariam Hashem, Tarina van der Stockt, Vidya Acharya, Lucinda hampton, Simisola Ajeyalemi, Rucha Gadgil and Michelle Lee  

Introduction:

-According to the WHO (World Health Organization) Neurological disorders are diseases of the central and peripheral nervous system. In other words, the brain, spinal cord, cranial nerves, peripheral nerves, nerve roots, autonomic nervous system, neuromuscular junction, and muscles. These disorders include epilepsy, Alzheimer disease and other dementias, cerebrovascular diseases including stroke, migraine and other headache disorders, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, neuroinfections, brain tumors, traumatic disorders of the nervous system due to head trauma, and neurological disorders as a result of malnutrition

- Long-term neurological conditions (LTNCs) could be classified into:

■ Sudden onset conditions (eg acquired brain injury of any cause (including stroke), spinal cord injury)

■ intermittent conditions (eg epilepsy)

■ progressive conditions (eg multiple sclerosis (MS), motor neuron disease (MND), Parkinson’s disease (PD) and other neurodegenerative disorders)

■ Stable conditions with/without age-related degeneration (eg polio or cerebral palsy) 

- Neurological conditions are the most common cause of serious disability and have a major, but often unrecognized impact on health and social services.

-Physical activity is defined as any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles that result in energy expenditure. Exercise is a subset of physical activity that is planned, structured, and repeated and has as a final or an intermediate objective to the improvement or maintenance of physical fitness. 

Epidemiology:

• Up to 1 billion people, nearly one in six of the world's populations, suffer from neurological disorders.
• The US National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) estimated in a 2006 report that about 50,000 new cases of Parkinson's disease are diagnosed in the US each year, and the total number of cases in the US is at least 500,000.
• There are 10 million people in the UK living with a neurological condition with Over one million people (2% of the UK population) are disabled by their neurological condition.
• 795,000 strokes (new and recurrent) in the US per year.

Implications:

- People with neurological conditions can experience difficulties ranging from living with a condition which may weaken or disable them for periods of time through to needing help for most everyday tasks.

- The implications differ from diagnosis to another and according to the severity of the disease.

-many patients have complex disabilities which include cognitive, behavioral and communication problems as well as physical deficits.

-Stroke survivors often become deconditioned and predisposed to a sedentary lifestyle, and are at increased risk for falls and high risk for recurrent stroke and other CVDs

-Depression is also one of the implications of Parkinson’s disease, stroke and MS with incidence rates between 20–45%, 10–34% ,and 25% respectively

- People with a neurological condition may struggle to express themselves clearly, either, spoken, written or both. They may experience challenges with:

• Severe fatigue and/or weakness
• Impaired hand dexterity
• Tremor of hands or other body parts
• Controlled use of the hands
• Other motor-control impairments such as loss of balance or co-ordination and difficulty walking, visual impairment or seizures
• Psychological and social functioning such as speech difficulties, including slurring and other losses of communication skills, memory deficits and mood disturbance.

Benefits of physical activities in neurological conditions:

- Researchers have recently discovered a strong link between physical exercises and the prevention or delay of neuro-degenerative symptoms, which include a breakdown of motor skills and mental capacity in patients suffering from debilitating neuro-diseases such as MS and Alzheimer’s.

-Exercise seems to improve the physical and emotional well-being of patients who already have Alzheimer's disease. The patients exercised moderately for as little as 60 minutes each week. Doctors noted patients who exercised were less depressed, wandered away less, suffered fewer falls, and were placed in nursing homes later, compared to patients who did not exercise.

-Patients with neurological disorders who exercise experience less stiffness, as well as reduction in, and even reversal of muscle wasting.

- Research also has shown that exercise can improve gait, balance, tremor, flexibility, grip strength and motor coordination in patients with Parkinson’s disease.

Resources

The Motivate2Move website, created by Wales Deanery, has a comprehensive section on physical activity in neurological conditions.

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