The Effect of Physical Exercise on Non-Motor Symptoms of Parkinsons Disease: An Article Review

Parkinson's Disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that cause impairment of the motor system. Although PD is mostly known for its motor symptoms, there are several non-motor symptoms (NMS) that also shown in PD. The non-motor symptoms of PD can develop in the early stage of the disease and often become prominent in the later stage of PD. Oral medication often used to treat PD, but these oral medications can also generate non-motor symptoms for PD in long-term use. Therefore, physicians and researchers these days have turn their interest into the potential of non-pharmacological treatment for PD, such as exercise. Physical exercise is one of therapy method which is less side effect and effective to be done for PD patients. There are many different types of exercise activity, including stretching, walking, Tai Chi, aerobic exercise, dancing, resistance training and multimodal exercise activity that show benefits on non-motor symptoms in PD. Including physical exercise into the treatment plan for PD patients, besides the conventional pharmacologic therapy, can be beneficial for patients' symptoms and their quality of life.