呼氣肌阻力訓練對巴金森氏患者之影響

Effects of Expiratory Muscles Resistance Training in Patients with Parkinson's Disease

巴金森氏症是老年人常見的中樞神經系統慢性退化疾病。現今治癒巴金森氏症的傳統方式，主要有藥物和外科手術二種。雖然如此，該病仍會隨著罹病時間的增長，而逐漸邁向失能，甚至死亡。因此，近年的研究試圖從呼吸障礙的角度，來減緩原發性巴金森病患的症狀；呼氣肌訓練主要是以阻力訓練的方式，強化呼吸肌群的肌力，並進一步改善最大呼氣壓力和其他功能。

Parkinson's disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system commonly seen in the elderly. There is no cure for the disease but the symptoms can be relieved by medication and/or surgery. Nevertheless, the progression of the disease is inevitable and loss of function is gradual which may eventually result in death. Recent research has focused attention onto respiratory impairments in Parkinson's disease in a search to ameliorate the symptoms. Expiratory muscle training strengthens the respiratory muscles via resistance training in order to improve the maximal expiratory pressure (MEP) and others function.