Parkinson’s disease and chiropractic care

BY DR. VIKAS PURI

Parkinson’s disease has significant impact for the patients affected, their caregivers as well as society. Ultimately, the root cause of Parkinson’s disease is the lack of dopamine in the brain which plays a vital role in telling your body how to move. Dopamine is also important for smooth muscle control, therefore when the nerve cells break down and cannot make dopamine, patients start to experience the signs and symptoms of Parkinson’s. Parkinsonism refers to the set of signs and symptoms that are characterized by the following motor symptoms: rigidity, tremor, bradykinesia (abnormal slowness of movement) or postural instability.

Over time, with the growing and aging population, the prevalence of Parkinson’s disease amongst Canadians is expected to double by 2031, increasing the incidence rate to 50%. Although there is no cure, there are a few options to help improve the quality of life and one of them is chiropractic care.

Common signs and symptoms of Parkinson’s disease
Parkinson’s disease is a progressive movement disease, meaning that it eventually gets worse over time. There is no simple diagnostic test that can be done to confirm if an individual has Parkinson’s disease, this is usually confirmed through neurological history and the physical onset of signs and symptoms. There are two main categories of common symptoms of Parkinson’s disease which are motor and non-motor symptoms. Motor symptoms include difficulty walking (shuffling gait), balance problems, rigidity, postural difficulties, dysphagia, muscle pain and overall slowness of movement. Common non-motor symptoms that arise are anxiety, depression, dementia, mood swings, constipation, excessive sweating and orthostatic hypotension.

What role does chiropractic play?
Research and chiropractic care with Parkinson’s patients have concluded that there is a high influence of chiropractic on the symptoms of this disease. Ultimately, chiropractic care results in improvements in the function of the nervous system, restores motion and stimulates natural regulation of dopamine.

Improve nerve function
Chiropractic care is neurologically based and focuses on improving nerve function through adjusting spinal misalignments.  Often, these misalignments in the spine can cause an interference which then in turn disrupts communication in the body. Through spinal manipulation, chiropractic care can result in nerve cells functioning at optimal levels so that proper dopamine production can help improve symptoms related to Parkinson’s disease.

Improve muscle control
As discussed briefly, muscle stiffness/rigidity and mobility issues are common complications of Parkinson’s disease. Unfortunately, this can increase the chance of slips and falls that patients may experience. If there are misalignments in the spine this can add to muscle stiffness because if vertebrae in the spine are out of place, this can pull on different muscles resulting in tightness and pain. For a Parkinson’s patient specifically, chiropractic care can help ease muscle stiffness resulting in improvement in muscle control. This can also help avoid the risk of injury such as dangerous slips and falls.

Improve quality of life
Many are not aware that chiropractic care has the ability to slow down the progression of Parkinson’s disease resulting in a better quality of life not just for the patient themselves, but also their family and caretakers. Spinal health is core in many diseases and plays a vital role in everyday health. Yes, there are medications out on the market to help the progression of Parkinson’s disease. However, those medications only target the signs and symptoms and not the root cause itself. In this case, that is directly related to the production of dopamine and death of nerve cells. Spinal adjustments performed by chiropractors improve nerve function resulting in decreased severity of symptoms, increase in health and function and of course overall improves the patient’s quality of life.

Parkinson’s disease is one of many without a definitive cure and can be extremely difficult to live with. Not only does it cause pain and discomfort, but it has a significant impact on one’s quality of life. There have been numerous amounts of research done on chiropractic care and Parkinson’s, and most case studies have shown that patient’s with Parkinson’s have similar misalignments in the neck or cervical subluxations. It is encouraged that patients with Parkinson’s disease should have access to various treatment options that help improve their overall quality of life and comfort, which is exactly what chiropractic care has proven.