by: Dave D’Marko (Fox 4)
Posted: Sep 20, 2022 / 10:30 PM CDT
To enjoy the video of the live interview visit https://fox4kc.com/news/kansas-city-parkinsons-patients-trying-to-deliver-ko-punch-to-disease/
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Kansas City, Missouri assisted living community program is hoping to deliver a knockout punch to Parkinson’s Disease.
Nearly one million Americans are living with the brain disorder. Rachel Klammer is one of them.
“Opening a pill bottle, walking down the stairs, walking in general, there’s a lot of things that I used to do that I can’t do anymore,” she said.
But now she’s fighting back. She does weekly workout classes at Senior Star at Wexford Place where residents battling Parkinson’s Disease go through a series of neuro-protective exercises designed to delay or even reverse the brain disorders effects.
Some stations are geared toward posture when walking.
“Once you allow that Parkinson’s to take over you start to slowly slump over and it all derails from there,” program coordinator Chloe West.
But there always seem to be a favorite part of the Rock Steady Boxing classes for residents.
“I like to hit, I like the boxing part,” Klammer said.
And for good reason. While boxing Klammer told her instructor, “you know when I have these gloves on I forget I have tremors.”
It’s a brief moment of focus, and none of the incessant sometimes debilitating trembling. That could be just the knockout these seniors are looking for.
“I’m moving, there’s going to come a day when I won’t be able to. But I’m going to move as long as God allows me to move,” Klammer said.