Value

AMARILLO -- Being able to move or even communicate clearly can be close to impossible for many Parkinson's Disease patients. An Amarillo man has made a huge improvement on both fronts thanks to a fairly new treatment.

"Parkinson's is predominately a disease of movement. What it does is it makes people lose the ability to do certain movements such as your regular walking, talking, to a degree, as well as tremors and balance," Dr. Douglas Lewis, a local neurologist said.

Lewis prescribes a program that helps patients regain those motor skills.  It's called Big and Loud.

Ron Smith, 74, is one of Lewis' patients who participates.

"I think it help. It's helped me," Smith said.

He's graduated from the 'big' portion, but still does the exercises everyday. They're a series of exaggerated movements designed to target the muscles people affected by Parkinson's usually lose.

"He had been shuffling, which is common symptoms of Parkinson's, just a shuffling gait and kind of stooping over and just not well balanced at all. I was just constantly worried about him falling and just after a few session with the physical therapist thing improved tremendously," Smith's wife, Judi, said.

"Ron has done very well. It was remarkable even by three months that he go so much better," Dr. Lewis said.

Speech pathologist Kimberly Miller, MSCCC, helps smith with the 'loud' side.

"A lot of times with Parkinson's... they tend to feel like their using the same effort that they've always used to speak. They lack the perception of understanding how I sound is different because I feel like I'm doing the same thing, so I probably sound the same," Miller said.

Speech exercises focus on building lung capacity and practicing long phrases.

"The great thing about this program is that they've used lots and lots of research to make sure that they are being as efficient as possible with each of these exercises," said Miller.

"When you hear from your wife, 'hey you're walking or you're talking better now,' that really gives me the inspiration to go further," Smith said.   

View post:
Value