Moderate Versus High Volume Light-Moderate Intensity Exercise for People With Moderate Parkinson's Disease (NCT06088355)
🩺 Plain-English Summary (8th-Grade Level)
Veterans with mid to later stage Parkinson's disease (PD) may not be able to work out as hard as they need to, to prevent brain cell loss. Maybe they could work out longer and more frequently to make up for this during their good times and good weeks and then rest during the bad weeks. The investigators will compare how effective working out a lot one week per month with a break of three weeks is to continuously exercising weekly with no breaks in people with mid stage PD. The investigators will look at how fast participants walk per minute, whether they become more physically active, the biochemicals in their blood, and at how stiff their blood vessels are before and after the exercise.
Who can join: To join this study, participants generally need to meet the listed inclusion criteria (8 items) and avoid the listed exclusions (9 items).
Location: Atlanta VA Medical and Rehab Center, Decatur, GA — Decatur, Georgia
📋 "Do I Qualify?" — 1-Minute Self Screener
Instant ChecklistCheck every box below. If you can check all of them, you may meet the study's basic screening requirements (final eligibility is confirmed by the site team).
Usually NOT eligible if any of the following apply:
- Exclusion Criteria: Participants recruited for this study will be age 40 and older with diagnosis of "definite" PD based upon established criteria (Hughes, Daniel et al. 1992) and determined by a board-certified neurologist with specialty training in movement disorders. Individuals must have presented with asymmetric symptoms that included at least 3 of the cardinal signs of PD (rigidity, bradykinesia, tremor, postural instability), and must show clear symptomatic benefit (e.g., alleviated rigidity, bradykinesia, and tremor) from antiparkinsonian medications, e.g., levodopa (Kempster, Williams et al. 2007). They should be in H\&Y stages 2, 2.5 and 3, and receive a Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) score \>17 (Litvan, Goldman et al. 2012). Age 40 is the upper limit for young onset PD. The investigators will not recruit individuals with a history of significant alcohol or drug use, nor habitual users of antipsychotics. The following exclusion criteria apply:
- Untreated Major Depression and major psychiatric illness
- History of stroke, or traumatic brain injury
- Pure-tone threshold average sensitivity at 0.5, 1.0,and 2.0 kHz exceeds 40 dB
- Alcohol abuse and/or use of antipsychotics
- Planning to leave the area for \>1 month during the study time period.
- Taking moderate to high doses of beta-blockers with a resting heart rate below 60 beats/min given that exercise intensity is measured through target heart rate.
- Severe cardiac disease, including NYHA Class III or IV congestive heart failure, clinically significant aortic stenosis, history of cardiac arrest, use of a cardiac defibrillator, or uncontrolled angina
- Other significant co-morbid disease that would impair ability to participate in the exercise-based intervention, e.g. renal failure on hemodialysis, excessive alcohol use (\>14 drinks per wk)
🔍 Extracted verbatim from the official NIH eligibility criteria. Always confirm with the study coordinator.
📍 All Participating Trial Locations (1 Sites)
- Atlanta VA Medical and Rehab Center, Decatur, GA — Decatur, Georgia
💰 Cost, Insurance & Patient Rights
- 100% Free Items: The investigational treatment and protocol-required procedures are supplied at zero cost by the sponsor.
- Routine Patient Care: Under federal law (ACA § 2709) and many state statutes, routine care costs are covered during participation.
- Voluntary Participation: You may withdraw at any time without affecting your standard medical care.