BRADENTON- While there’s no cure for Parkinson’s disease, a Suncoast physical therapy clinic has a program to help make it more manageable.


“Parkinson’s disease is one of those diseases that is a movement disorder,” says Toya Crutchfield, Co-Owner of Therapeutic Lifestyle Solutions. She says these patients are missing the chemical dopamine, which allows us to move.


Medication helps, but Crutchfield says it’s not enough. “Now you have to figure out from a physical standpoint, how do we keep that person from falling, how do we keep that person out of the skilled nursing facility,” she says.


Through 7 exercises, Crutchfield has found a way. “The LSVT program takes basic movement and brings it back to a more normalized movement pattern,” she says. One hour in the clinic, another hour at home, four days a week. That’s the recipe for success.


“Can’t dress, can’t bathe, can’t take care of themselves when they first came to this program,” says Crutchfield. “Now these are people who are not only back doing activities of daily living, but they’re back dancing, they’re back going out to restaurants, they’re back playing golf.”


All the things we take for granted, Crutchfield’s patients are gaining back. “It’s what I got into this business for, it’s exactly what I got into it for,” she says.


For more information visit Therapeutic Lifestyle Solutions.