WEST BEND — On Wednesday, Packers Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre announced that he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, putting the central nervous system disorder back in the spotlight and bringing awareness to an ailment that affects many in our own communities.
"The biggest thing is more impact, definitely more impact," said Jen Lenzendorf, who owns AIMS Fitness, which celebrated its 10th anniversary this year. She teaches Rock Steady Boxing classes to help people diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease (PD) improve their quality of life.
"If there is a name in the news, a well-known name, someone famous, people recognize that," said Lenzendorf. "And, it brings that ‘what’s in our community to help those with PD.’" According to Lenzendorf, there isn’t enough.
"There is a support group here in West Bend, there is the Rock Steady Boxing class that I have and then there is a Parkinson’s class that is done at the YMCA, and that is it," said Lenzendorf.
Other than these specific classes and support groups, there are only general areas where people can exercise to help maintain their motor functions, nothing with a specific focus on Parkinson’s, a disease that nearly 90,000 people are diagnosed with in the United States annually, and has grown in the Washington County community, something Lenzendorf has seen over the past six years.
"We started out very small with only two fighters, and now we’re at 40-plus," said Lenzendorf.
‘Movement is your medicine’
According to Lenzendorf, it’s not only advantageous to have a celebrity diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease speak out to gain awareness about the resources in the community, it also gives people like her the chance to educate the community about how the disease actually affects people in their everyday lives.
"Understanding Parkinson’s is that people don’t understand, because they see Michael J. Fox and they think that’s what Parkinson’s is. That you have to have a tremor to have Parkinson’s," Lenzendorf said. "That’s not true."
Parkinson’s is a neurodegenerative disease that affects everybody differently.
"I work with 50-some people, and not two of them are the same," said Lenzendorf. "So, different motor skills that are affected, non-motor skills — those are the things that you don’t see — and everybody’s journey is different.
"But, the basics are that movement is your medicine."
According to Lenzendorf, Parkinson’s disease in general is trying to take away movement, at different rates and in different areas that differ person-to-person, so she works on everything from large motor skills down to finger dexterity during her Rock Steady Boxing classes.
"That is important to keep those joints moving, get the muscles moving," said Lenzendorf. "That neuroplasticity of the brain is super-duper important, so trying to get them to do things that make their, I call it, their brains sparkle. We want the brain neurons sparkling because that means there’s new connections trying to be made, which fights against the lack of dopamine, or the production of dopamine, in somebody that has PD."
According to Lenzendorf, while the awareness of Parkinson’s disease and the available resources for those diagnosed with it have improved over the past several years, there is still a ways to go for it to be where it needs to be.
"We need to have it more when somebody gets diagnosed that, you know what, you’re diagnosed. Here’s the best thing you can do, here are some resources," Lenzendorf said. "I would love to have that interaction with the neurologist and other doctors that are seeing these people with Parkinson’s to be like: ‘You know what, this isn’t just go home and sit, you need to go home and move. Here’s where you can move at.’" She added that it is also not just a disease that affects the older population, as her youngest fighter, what she calls her Rock Steady Boxing class participants, is 40 years old, and more can be done for that demographic affected by the disease, as well.
"(We also need to be) getting resources for those young, on-set PD people, so they can plan their life with PD for a very long time," Lenzendorf said. "I would love to link arms with other people in the community so that there are more resources for PD, not just the exercise, but the support. Not just for the people with Parkinson’s, but their caregivers."