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Exercise is pulling double duty for Parkinson's patients. A 7-year longitudinal study found that at least 4 hours of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per week was linked to slower cognitive and motor decline in mild-to-moderate Parkinson's disease. The more active patients were, the slower their progression — and the benefits held regardless of exercise intensity.
Exercise is pulling double duty for Parkinson's patients. A new longitudinal study published in Neurology followed 294 patients with mild-to-moderate Parkinson's disease (PD) for up to 7 years and found that higher levels of physical activity were associated with slower cognitive and motor decline. Even modest activity — just 4 hours of moderate-to-vigorous exercise per week — showed meaningful benefits compared to being less active.
Crucially, the benefits appeared to be more about duration than intensity. Vigorous exercise didn't add extra protection beyond total activity time, though experts caution against abandoning high-intensity workouts, noting that decades of evidence still support their value.
By the Numbers:
Why it matters: No drug has yet been proven to modify PD's course, making lifestyle interventions like exercise especially important. These findings offer the longest observational evidence to date that staying active may protect both movement and cognition — though researchers stress that randomized trials are still needed to confirm causation.
