Dr. Andrew Puckett is a busy man with an impressive list of titles after his name. The 60-year-old associate dean for medical education at Duke University, in Durham, North Carolina, has a Ph.D. in adult education and a minor in clinical psychology, and he has been a counselor for years. He also has Parkinson’s disease, a chronic condition that causes muscles to tremble and become rigid. He was diagnosed with it a few years ago.
Has his chronic condition slowed down his activities? It doesn’t appear that way. In addition to his regular activities, 2 years ago, Dr. Puckett volunteered to take part in a study of how stretching exercises affect people with Parkinson’s disease. He enjoyed the feeling of stretching so much that he kept doing the exercises after the 10-week study ended, and now does them at least 3 days a week for 40 minutes at a time.
It’s not yet clear whether or not stretching exercises have an effect on Parkinson’s disease specifically, but it’s very clear to Dr. Puckett that they have helped him feel better overall.
“I literally feel so much better from doing the exercises,” he told us. “I’m more flexible than I’ve been in 20 years. Stretching has given me so much ease of movement. It’s a fluid feeling,” he said. In addition, Dr. Puckett finds that stretching exercises give him a sense of well-being. He likens it to the “runner’s high” that some joggers experience.
Dr. Puckett noted another positive aspect of his stretching exercises: the feeling that he is nurturing himself. He described it as a secure feeling; a feeling that he is doing something good for himself.
Another motivator for keeping up with his stretching exercises is “the fear of being stiff and rigid; bent over. I want to keep that from happening,” he told us.
Besides working at the university, Dr. Puckett splits his own firewood, plays tennis, gardens, mows his lawn with a push mower, and walks a mile or more at least 3 days a week.
“But people shouldn’t feel that physical activity has to be some super-human or highly disciplined effort,” he said. “I don’t want them to be scared off from the idea of exercising. I think once they experience how much better they feel, they’ll want to keep on doing it. It has so many built-in benefits.”Labels: anti-aging, exercise |
