Parkinson's and walking

 

Well, here we are at another Friday so here is a bit more about Parkinson’s Disease, this week we are looking a bit more at walking with Parkinson’s.

There are a number of very specific and somewhat strange symptoms that can affect one’s walking.  The most common would be what is called start hesitancy, this is when someone with Parkinson’s goes to take a step and can’t, this is because the automatic movement of lifting one foot off the ground doesn’t happen.  The reason for this seems to be that the disease makes it difficult to induce the reflex reaction to shift the centre of gravity on to one foot so the other can be lifted and moved forward.

This doesn’t happen all the time but when it does it becomes near impossible to walk, because it comes and goes some family, or friends may think the person isn’t trying but the fact is the more we try to move the more difficult it is to do so.

Oddly many will find using stairs not as difficult as walking on flat ground.

Sometimes if the sufferer is given a little push to try and get them moving, they will stumble then start to walk with small steps often becoming faster an unable to stop till they either fall or run into a wall or other obstruction. Trust me this is frightening and embarrassing and so hard for people to understand. It is called retropulsion or propulsion and in a crowded place can be dangerous.

If someone has this problem often, they should always at least have a walking stick with them which brings attention to the fact they have walking issues, making it less likely that other people will bump into them, as well as the fact having a stick will go a long way in preventing this symptom from raising its damn head.