Tai Chi as a rehabilitation method for patients with Parkinson's disease

Dziarkowski Dariusz, Białkowska Aleksandra, Budziejko Blanka, Cywińska Oliwia, Gawrych Szymon, Kurtyka Daria, Różański Gracjan, Dobosiewicz Anna Maria, Badiuk Nataliia. Tai Chi as a rehabilitation method for patients with Parkinson’s disease. Journal of Education, Health and Sport. 2018;8(10):493-500. eISNN 2391-8306. DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3234876 http://ojs.ukw.edu.pl/index.php/johs/article/view/6968 The journal has had 7 points in Ministry of Science and Higher Education parametric evaluation. Part b item 1223 (26/01/2017). 1223 Journal of Education, Health and Sport eISSN 2391-8306 7 © The Author(s) 2018; This article is published with open access at Licensee Open Journal Systems of Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz, Poland Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author (s) and source are credited. This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non commercial license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted, non commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited. This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted, non commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited. The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this paper. Received: 02.10.2018. Revised: 19.10.2018. Accepted: 31.10.2018. Tai Chi as a rehabilitation method for patients with Parkinson’s disease Dariusz Dziarkowski1, Aleksandra Białkowska1, Blanka Budziejko1, Oliwia Cywińska1, Szymon Gawrych1, Daria Kurtyka1, Gracjan Różański1, Anna Maria Dobosiewicz1, Nataliia Badiuk2 1Scientific Circle of Exercise Physiology at Department of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Ergonomics. Division of Ergonomics and Exercise Physiology, Nicolaus Copernicus Univeristy in Toruń, Collegium Medicum in Bydgoszcz, Poland 2State Enterprise Ukrainian Research Institute for Medicine of Transport, Ministry of Health of Ukraine, Odesa, Ukraine Corresponding author: Anna Maria Dobosiewicz, annamdobo@gmail.com Abstract Parkinson's disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disease. It belongs to the group of extrapyramidal system diseases. Nowadays it is an incurable disease, not yet examined in its entirety. With the current state of knowledge it is not possible to fully cure this disease, but it is possible to reduce the severity of the symptoms of this disease. Pharmacological treatment, surgical treatment and broadly understood physiotherapy, including Tai Chi, are the methods of treatment used in the fight against Parkinson's disease. Thanks to these methods, there is a chance to significantly reduce the severity of the symptoms characteristic of this disease, i.e. muscle tension, balance and coordination disorders. The incidence of this disease increases with age, and it is most common for people over the age of sixty. It affects men twice as often. The essence of the disease is a disorder in the number of neurons in which dopamine is produced, more precisely in the compact part of the black creature. This causes disturbances in the transmission of information in the central nervous system, which results in three basic symptoms: hypertonia, akinesis and tremor. In the treatment of these symptoms an important role is played by rehabilitation, one of the elements of which is Tai Chi. In the latest scientific reports there are many studies evaluating the influence of Tai Chi on the reduction of symptoms in Parkinson's patients. Keywords: Parkinson’s disease, Tai Chi, therapy, treatmen