Parkinson’s disease can take different forms: tremors, depression, sluggishness, anxiety, obstruction, etc. To reduce or slow down these symptoms, sports and culture are used as a means of treatment in Haute-Vienne.
Since September, every Thursday, Villa Sport in Saint-Yrieix-la-Perche, in Haute-Vienne, welcomes around a dozen elite table tennis players. These are people with Parkinson’s disease. Thanks to this activity, for the duration of the session, they forget about the illness a little: “I have never played table tennis before. But it is fun and when we go out we feel at peace.”“, explains one of these players.
I’m shaking a lot. But when we play ping pong, I don’t shake. In general, when we have an activity, we vibrate less.
Jean-Pierre Theron suffers from Parkinson’s disease
These table tennis sessions are being offered for the second year everLocal branch of France Parkinson 87. They are led by a former athlete who helps these patients by working on reflexes, coordination and balance:
We also include a certain number of exercises to try to stretch Parkinson’s patients who tend to be a little withdrawn.
Gerard Gorsat, table tennis coach in Parkinson’s France
In Saint Junian, the France Parkinson 87 Foundation offers another therapeutic activity for people with the disease: drawing. Sébastien Frugier, a 52-year-old former musician, has found that this activity really helps him cope with the disease. “It’s about being together in a quiet moment. We are here among ourselves and it calms.”.
Many studies show that physical activity can reduce symptoms and improve treatment of this degenerative disease. But these effects are not yet quantifiable.
