By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — LSVT BIG, a therapy used at Hutchinson Regional Medical Center, trains people with Parkinson disease (PD) to use their body more normally.
"Parkinson's usually kind of draws someone in into a small movement," said Physical Therapist Karissa Ward. "Small, shuffling steps. Difficulty making it through doorways, falls and things like that. So, when we're in LSVT BIG, we focus on moving big, big steps, moving our arms big, standing up nice and big and that all kind of gets things moving a little bit easier."
Sessions are based on reteaching the brain what it's like to move big.
"Their brain does not send a big signal," Ward said. "It sends a small signal to their muscles, whenever they tell themselves to walk, or other movements. When we give them a simple command, like do it big, they can put that into practice and give us really normal, nice steps."
This is an extension of a therapy called LSVT LOUD. The goal of that therapy is to make it so caregivers can hear and understand those with Parkinson's. Speech therapists also work with those patients to help them be able to swallow.
"With swallowing, we first have to assess the swallow and figure out what's going wrong," said speech language pathologist Lori Hartnett. "We do trials. We feel the mechanism as the person swallows to see what their muscles are doing. We listen. We use our ears a lot to listen for signs that the liquids or whatever may not be going the right way. It might be a throat clear, it might be a cough and then we start working and analyzing and trying different things to make everything go better. There's strengthening exercises, believe it or not, that you can do for your tongue and for the muscles in your throat that can help regain strength."
Below is the full interview with Ward, Hartnett and Occupational Therapist Jeff Kaufman.