Exercise benefits people with Parkinson disease

This review found evidence of beneficial effects on the severity of motor signs, quality of life, and functional mobility and balance for most types of physical exercise for people with Parkinson disease. For severity of motor signs, dance appeared to be most beneficial, and aqua-based training appeared to have the highest benefits for quality of life.

Overall, differences between the exercise types were not large. This highlights the importance of physical exercise for people with Parkinson disease in general, while the exact exercise type might be secondary with respect to the outcome measures of severity of motor signs and quality of life. Therefore, personal preferences should be given special consideration.

No major safety concerns were raised for the interventions included in this review. Therefore, several exercise programmes may be selected from when establishing a training routine, provided there are no individual safety concerns. Importantly, as the disease progresses, safety concerns may increase and the availability of safe exercise options may decrease.