為什么帕金森氏癥患者可以毫不費(fèi)力地跳愛爾蘭舞

為什么帕金森氏癥患者可以毫不費(fèi)力地跳愛爾蘭舞

Could Irish dancing be the next medical frontier in the fight against Parkinson's disease?

愛爾蘭舞蹈會成為對抗帕金森氏癥的下一個醫(yī)學(xué)前沿嗎?

Daniel Volpe thinks so.

丹尼爾·?？怂惯@么想。

And he knows a thing or two about both. He's head of the Parkinson's rehabilitation unit at St. John of God Hospital in Venice, as well as an accomplished musician.

他對這兩件事都略知一二。他是威尼斯圣約翰神醫(yī)院帕金森氏癥康復(fù)中心的主任，同時也是一位頗有成就的音樂家。

Irish dancing requires strict control of the upper body, while the legs and feet go to town. (Photo: Caracatitsa/Shutterstock)

According to the Irish Post, Volpe had a revelation while he was performing at an Irish dance hub back in 2010. A man who was obviously living with Parkinson's got on the dance floor. And, as the newspaper recounts, "the man who walked so unsteadily required no assistance to dance. Indeed, the man went through the moves effortlessly, as if he were a different person."

據(jù)《愛爾蘭郵報》報道，早在2010年，沃爾普在愛爾蘭的一個舞蹈中心表演時就有了靈感。一名明顯患有帕金森癥的男子走上了舞池。而且，正如報紙所述，“走路如此不穩(wěn)的人不需要別人幫助就能跳舞。”事實上，這個男人毫不費(fèi)力地完成了這些動作，就好像他是另外一個人一樣。”

Irish dancing often involves keeping one's upper body and arms relatively stationary while the legs — particularly the feet — get extremely busy. It's sometimes likened to tap dancing.

愛爾蘭人的舞蹈通常包括保持上半身和手臂相對靜止，而腿——尤其是腳——非常忙碌。有時它被比作踢踏舞。

Think, Riverdance — an Irish dance production that carried the ancient tradition to the world on its twirling, whirling legs.

想想看，《大河之舞》——這是一部愛爾蘭舞蹈作品，通過旋轉(zhuǎn)的腿把古老的傳統(tǒng)帶到了世界各地。

The frequent changes in direction, along with measured step lengths mean an Irish dancer is always alternating weight from one leg to another.

在方向上的頻繁變化，以及測量的步長意味著一個愛爾蘭舞者總是交替的重量從一條腿到另一條腿。

You might think that a progressive nervous system disorder like Parkinson's would make such complex movements difficult, if not impossible.

你可能會認(rèn)為，像帕金森氏癥這樣的漸進(jìn)性神經(jīng)系統(tǒng)紊亂會使這種復(fù)雜的動作變得困難，如果不是不可能的話。

But the man Volpe saw dancing made it seem effortless.

但是沃爾普看到的跳舞的人使它看起來毫不費(fèi)力。

So when he returned to Italy, he donned his medical hat — and conducted a study published in BMC Geriatrics involving 24 Parkinson's patients. Dividing the group in half, his team administered conventional physiotherapy to 12 patients. The other contingent was taught to dance.

所以當(dāng)他回到意大利時，他戴上了醫(yī)生的帽子，并進(jìn)行了一項發(fā)表在《英國醫(yī)學(xué)委員會老年病學(xué)》上的研究，涉及24名帕金森患者。他的團(tuán)隊將患者分成兩組，對12名患者進(jìn)行常規(guī)物理治療。另一支隊伍被教跳舞。

At the conclusion of the six-month trial, researchers noted the unlikely Irish dancing troupe edged out their counterparts in every category of bodily control. Physiotherapy was still effective in helping patients control their movements, but Irish dancing appeared even more so.

在為期六個月的試驗結(jié)束時，研究人員注意到，這個不太可能的愛爾蘭舞蹈團(tuán)在身體控制的各個方面都勝過了他們的對手。物理療法在幫助病人控制他們的動作方面仍然有效，但愛爾蘭舞似乎更有效。

"Although improvements were made in both groups, the dance group showed superior results to standard physiotherapy in relation to freezing of gait, balance and motor disability," the researchers noted in the study.

研究人員在研究中指出:“盡管兩組都有改善，但在步態(tài)凍結(jié)、平衡和運(yùn)動障礙方面，舞蹈組的效果優(yōu)于標(biāo)準(zhǔn)物理療法。”

Volpe theorizes that the music itself — a lilting rhythm with clear patterns — may help patients navigate the dance. Those patterns could allow the cerebral cortex to to bypass certain regions that control motor skills.

沃爾普的理論是，音樂本身——輕快的節(jié)奏和清晰的模式——可以幫助病人駕馭舞蹈。這些模式可以讓大腦皮層繞過某些控制運(yùn)動技能的區(qū)域。

In a sense, patients feel the music, and that means Irish eyes — and Irish minds — are smiling.

在某種意義上，病人能感受到音樂，這意味著愛爾蘭人的眼睛和思想在微笑。