Just saw a really interesting article on the network news about the link between cycling and an improvement in fine motor skills for suffers of Parkinsons disease.

The research comes from Anke H. Snijders, M.D. & Bastiaan R. Bloem, M.D in a published paper in the New England Journal of Medicine that has been picked up by global news media as there is video attached to their paper. See the paper by copying and pasting the following link  http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/362/13/e46 .

The story involves the research around a 58 year old man's 10 year old battle with Parkinsons Disease. He was unable to walk properly if at all due to a condition known as "freezing gait", but interestingly was able to ride a bicycle quite normally - for up to 10 kilometers a day!

Since this paper has attracted worldwide media attention more of these such stories have come out. A triumph of the human spirit over trying conditions!!!!!

Remarkably though he told the good doctor that he regularily rode around 10km's a day as a part of his exercise routine.

This all seemed abit far fetched from a man that could barely take a couple of steps so a few minutes later they were all outside taking a spin on a nurses bike in the carpark. After abit of help getting on the bike and getting a push start the patient showed total control, even managing to execute a perfect U-Turn at the end of the carpark, to everyone's amazement. However the moment the man stepped off the bicycle his Parkinson's returned.
Dr Bloem made a video and posted this and photos on the NEMJ website along with his paper.

After seeing this occur right in front of his own eyes, Dr Bloem asked around 20 of his other advanced stage Parkinson's patients if they too could also ride a bicycle, and it turns out that they all could too.
This created more questions than answers.

This is an great example of the power of the media, and also the benefit of giving them all of the necessary tools to do their job easily and effectively. Perhaps because there is emotive video attached to this paper it is easy to convert this into a feel good media story. Don't get me wrong, I am not at all detracting from this great story or suggesting that it is a puff piece for a network to use at the close of their segment, but what it does illustrate is how a story can be gobbled up by the worlds media now due to the internet. I tracked this story on alot of the major newspaper and television network websites in order to gather my data.

A little further digging and it seems that this kind of research is not really that new or ground breaking. A referenence on the Michael J. Fox Foundation website discusses cycling therapy also, but this was published in July 2008. Copy and paste : http://www.michaeljfox.org/newsEvents_parkinsonsInTheNews_article.cfm?ID=375

There is also alot of great articles describing the effectiveness of dance, singing, music and activities like yoga and Tai Chi (the western version) to reactivate the patients ability to gain motor control.
I have just learnt something new about something I knew nothing of. That is another great day!