Aerobic Exercise in Parkinson's Disease

Summary

Parkinson's disease (PD) is an incurable brain illness that afflicts more than one million Americans, including many aging Veterans. PD places an unbearable burden on the individual due to progressive impairment of movement and mental function. As a result, patients lose critical abilities such as driving and can become isolated. Although drugs and surgery help movement problems, their benefits are temporary and may cause side effects. Drugs provide limited and temporary benefit for cognition and do not prevent dementia. Animal and preliminary human studies on aerobic exercise show promising results in helping a broad spectrum of symptoms. However, due to limited and inconsistent research results, the long term effects of aerobic exercise on brain health and clinical features in PD is unknown. The investigators will conduct a clinical trial to test the long term effects of aerobic exercise on the brain tissue, movement, mental functions, and driving in PD. If effective, aerobic exercise can be implemented immediately as a low cost, easily accessible treatment in PD.

Conditions

• Parkinson's Disease

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Aerobic walking

The investigators will use self-administered continuous walking exercise at a moderate intensity level, defined as 40-59% of heart rate reserve or 64-77% of heart rate at gas exchange threshold (HRGET) by ACSM as in the investigators' preliminary study (PMID: 24991037 PMCID: PMC4132568). The HRGET will be determined as the heart rate at VO2max during graded cycle ergometry. The total duration of the exercises will be 150 min/week per 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans and American Heart Association recommendations, conducted in three 50 min sessions. The aerobic walking intervention will take place outdoors (e.g., trails, sidewalks, parks) or indoors (e.g., track in a local gym or a mall) depending on the preferences of the subject and weather. Session duration will be 20 min the first week and will be advanced by 5 min per week over 6 weeks.

BEHAVIORAL

Usual care with PD specific health education

In this study, patients will receive their usual medical treatment for motor and non-motor symptoms from their primary neurologist. The investigators will use a streamlined form of PD specific health education prepared by the VA: My Parkinson's Story, which consists of a series of short videos prepared by the VA PADRECCs addressing various aspects of PD. These 6-12 minutes long videos are freely available on YouTube. The investigators can also provide them on a CD if subjects desire. They start with a patient testimony about the topic of the episode, followed by comments of experts in the field. The title of the episodes are: Early Parkinson's, Medications, Exercise, Memory, Visual Disturbances, Depression, Sleep, Speech and Swallowing, Impulsive Behaviors, Driving, Pain, Dyskinesias, Deep Brain Stimulation, Advanced Parkinson's Disease, Falls, The Caregiver, Hospitalization, Genetics, Environmental Exposure, Atypical Parkinsonism

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Iowa

  collaborator OTHER

• VA Office of Research and Development

  lead FED

Principal Investigators

• Ergun Y. Uc, MD · Iowa City VA Health Care System, Iowa City, IA

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

40 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2019-07-01

Primary Completion

2024-09-30

Completion

2024-09-30

Countries

• United States

Study Locations