2023-08-14 08:56:39
14. August 2023, 13:00
Parkinson’s disease, the slowly progressive loss of nerve cells, is “the second most common neurodegenerative disease worldwide,” according to the website “PingPongParkinson.at”. The association has set itself the goal of “promoting table tennis games as part of physical therapy for Parkinson’s disease and getting the approximately 24,000 people in Austria affected by Parkinson’s away from the sofa and the frequent isolation into the sports halls and among the people bring to.”
And apparently with increasing success: Between September 25th and 30th, more than 300 table tennis players from 22 nations will meet in the exhibition hall in Wels, Upper Austria, for a world championship with a special feature: all active participants suffer from Parkinson’s disease.
The table tennis therapy was “invented” by the Croatian Nenad Bach, who lives in New York. The composer and musician Bach, himself a Parkinson’s patient, was no longer able to play the guitar as a result of the disease. Then he noticed how the special movement sequences when playing table tennis alleviated the symptoms. Nenad Bach founded “PingPongParkinson” in 2017 – two years later the first World Cup with Parkinson’s patients took place in New York.
Hans-Peter Stangl from Voitsberg in Styria is himself a Parkinson’s patient and co-organizer of the World Championships in Wels. The passionate table tennis player and tireless “PingPongParkinson” networker was also present at the 2022 World Championships in Pula, Croatia, where he won the bronze medal in mixed doubles.
The sports medicine specialist and neurologist Heidemarie Zach has been dealing with movement therapies for Parkinson’s disease for a long time. One focus of her research is the tremor in Parkinson’s disease, i.e. the involuntary shaking of a part of the body that is typical of the disease.
Zach, who used to be a competitive athlete herself, has also gained a lot of experience with her project “Climbing with Parkinson’s Patients”; she is currently looking for volunteers for her next research project: Boxing with Parkinson’s.
How does exercise therapy help with Parkinson’s disease? To what extent is social interaction beneficial? What special movement sequences ensure that table tennis is particularly suitable as therapy?
Alexander Musik talks to Hans-Peter Stangl, member of the organizational team of the “Ping PongParkinson” World Championship in Wels and Ap. Prof. Priv. Dr. Heidemarie Zach, PhD. BSc., Neurologist at the Department of Neurology at the Medical University of Vienna.
As always, you are invited to join the show. You can reach us free of charge from anywhere in Austria on 0800 22 69 79; or send us an email to punkteins(at)orf.at
series
layout
1692005170
#ping #pong #Parkinsons #MON
