Characterising Physiological Resilience in People With Parkinson's Disease

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a condition that affects movement and gets worse over time. It is more common in older adults. People with PD may have symptoms like shaking, stiff muscles, slow movement, and trouble with balance. They may also experience other issues like pain, depression, anxiety, and memory problems, which can make daily life harder. Physiological resilience is the body's ability to recover or stay strong despite challenges like aging or illness. People with low resilience may struggle to cope with illness, become less active, and have a higher risk of weakness or hospitalization. Since both PD and low resilience are more common in older adults, understanding how PD affects resilience can help improve care. This study will look at resilience in people with PD by measuring heart, lung, muscle, coordination, memory, and thinking abilities. It will also compare two types of single-session aerobic exercise-cycling and walking on a treadmill-regarding participants' perspectives. Participants will be randomly chosen to do one of these exercises for 40 minutes at a moderate level. Afterward, they will share their thoughts on how enjoyable and comfortable the exercise was and whether they would continue doing it. Aerobic exercise is often recommended for people with PD, but it is unclear which type is best for people with PD and which type is mostly preferred by participants with PD. The results of this study will help practitioners make better exercise recommendations for people with PD, leading to better symptom management and a higher quality of life.