{"id":273313,"date":"2025-07-18T23:53:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T23:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/273313\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T23:53:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T23:53:10","slug":"parkinsons-cycling-how-it-gave-me-my-independence-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/273313\/","title":{"rendered":"Parkinson&#8217;s cycling: How it gave me my independence back"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Parkinson&#8217;s symptoms arise after substantial loss of the dopamine-producing cells in an area of the brain known as the substantia nigra.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Amanda Mckay, from Parkinson&#8217;s UK, said that there are over 40 different types of symptoms and &#8220;no two people are the same.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">As people live longer with the condition, symptoms can become more aggressive and debilitating \u2013 which can impact mobility and stability significantly.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Ms McKay says: &#8220;I think the key is to encourage people with Parkinson&#8217;s to be active, that&#8217;s a prescription in itself.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">She says it is important for people to find something they enjoy doing because then they are likely to do it more often.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Physiotherapist lecturer David Hegarty says exercise has similar benefits to medicine for Parkinson&#8217;s patients without the side effects.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">People build stronger muscles and better cardiovascular fitness, which in turn reduces symptoms, he says.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">And Teresa Deeney agrees.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;The independence, joy and fitness it gives my husband is a tonic to his health and mental wellbeing,&#8221; she says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Parkinson&#8217;s symptoms arise after substantial loss of the dopamine-producing cells in an area of the brain known as&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273314,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4104],"tags":[4230,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-273313","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114876933966231330","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}