Metronome may help you walk

[Joan Dykstra <JoanD1234@xxxxxxx>]

   Ran across this news article.  Thought you might like to see it.  Have any
of you tried a metronome?  How did it work?
I love reading your letters on the list!  It means a lot to me  to be a part
of this community!
JoanD1234@xxxxxxx (Joan Dykstra, PD for 7 years, 55, Eldepryl)

"    LONDON, May 10 (Reuter) - Metronomes can help people with Parkinson's
disease walk better, German researchers reported on Friday.

    Wolfgang Enzensberger and Peter Fischer of the Goethe University Hospital
in Frankfurt studied 22 patients with Parkinson's, which causes shaky
muscles.

    It affects about one percent of all people over 60 and can make it hard
for them to walk.

    ``Patients were tested under conditions of free walk; metronome
stimulation (rate 96 beats per minute); traditional march music; modern march
music (Prokofiev); and tactile stimulation (tapping rhythmically on the
patient's shoulder),'' the researchers wrote in a letter to the Lancet
medical journal.

    The metronome helped patients take longer, less faltering steps. Musical
stimulation was less helpful and tapping the patients on the shoulder made
them worse.

    The researchers said the patients liked the metronome. ``Several said
that they would like to use a portable electronic metronome in their daily
life for critical situations, such as crossing a road,'' they concluded. "