Parkinson's, Seniors, and the Power of Exercise

Power for Parkinson’s: Jim Kreisel’s Diagnosis and Exercise Support with Instructor Lauren Lewis

Season eight of Villages Vitality Life features host Mike Roth interviewing Jim Kreisel, a 77-year-old retired Austin psychiatrist diagnosed with Parkinson’s three years ago after balance and leg issues led to neurological testing of dopamine levels. Jim describes shock at diagnosis, explains that Parkinson’s may shorten lifespan slightly but complications often cause death, and credits twice-weekly Power for Parkinson’s classes with slowing progression through symptom-specific exercise, improving balance and energy, and boosting mood; he notes music helps movement. He advises newly diagnosed people not to hide the disease and to seek support. Roth also interviews lead instructor Lauren Lewis, recruited by co-founders Nina Moser and Susan Stahl, who now teaches only Parkinson’s-focused fitness. She explains using props, seated and standing exercises, repetition, neuroplasticity, and forced exertion, and directs listeners to powerforparkinsons.org, the YouTube channel, and info@powerforparkinsons.org.

00:00 Season 8 Welcome
00:41 Meet Jim Kreisel
01:50 Parkinsons Diagnosis
03:23 Power For Parkinsons
05:00 Exercise And Mood
05:24 Music And Movement
05:48 Advice And Benefits
07:03 New Drug Talk
09:41 Meet Lauren Lewis
10:27 Why She Joined
12:51 Parkinsons Exercises
15:53 Neuroplasticity Science
17:08 Research And Exertion
18:34 Videos And Contact
20:33 Closing And Supporters

New FAN MAIL features TXT & Voice Mial

Transcript

Dolores: 0:33

Welcome to Season eight of Villages Vitality Life, seniors Life unscripted. In this new season, we talk to leaders of clubs and interesting folks who live in and around The Villages. We also talk to people who have information vital to seniors. You will get perspectives of what is happening in and around The Villages, Florida, in addition. We will add more information for all seniors. We are a listener supported podcast.

Mike: 1:02

This is Mike Roth on Village's Vitality, a Senior Life Unscripted. Today I am here with Jim Kreisel a 77-year-old retired Austin, Texas psychiatrist with degrees from Duke University, Emory School of Medicine. He completed his residency at the University of Colorado and then served on the faculty for two years. After receiving his medical education, he returned to his hometown of Austin, Texas practiced General Adult Psychiatry in Austin from 1982 to 2017. During his working career, Jim served as president of the Austin Psychiatric Association and earned a 2009 statewide Excellence award. Jim was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease three years ago. Aside from his family, he says Powerful. Parkinson's is the most important thing in his life. Jim, thanks for joining me today.

Jim: 2:01

Well, I'm honored that I was chosen to, be here and represent a wonderful organization, powerful Parkinson's.

Mike: 2:08

How long have you, been a member of powerful Parkinson's?

Jim: 2:11

Well, soon after I was diagnosed, I was referred by my neurologist, so that would've been about three years ago.

Mike: 2:17

Three years. And, where were you before you joined the Parkinson's Club?

Jim: 2:21

Well, I was living in Austin and I was a retired physician, and, I was having problems with my legs and my balance and such, but I'd had a lot of knee problems and multiple surgeries on my knees with complications. So I kept blaming it on my knees. But eventually my primary care doctor sent me to a neurologist who examined me and sent me for a special test that measures dopamine levels in the brain, the parts of the brain, that control movement. I went back and he gave me the news. You have Parkinson's disease?

Mike: 2:56

Okay. So that was a firm medical diagnoses.

Jim: 2:59

Yes, it was.

Mike: 3:00

Okay. What was it like hearing that you had Parkinson's?

Jim: 3:05

I was shocked. I was stunned. I'm a doctor, so I know what Parkinson's disease is, and the outlook is not good. In some ways it, it's a progressive neurological disease, so I anticipated my way, you know, in future years in becoming a complete invalid or something like that.

Mike Roth AI4: 3:23

How long do most people who have been diagnosed with Parkinson's live beyond the diagnosis?

Jim: 3:29

Well, it varies tremendously. It may shorten lifespan a bit two or three years, but it's usually not the thing that causes the demise of the patient. It's usually some sort of complication of Parkinson's disease, such as. Infection in your lung or your blood or kidney disease, heart disease, that sort of thing?

Mike: 3:50

And how did you find out about these free exercise classes offered by power for Parkinson's?

Jim: 3:56

Well, my neurologist re referred me. He had served on the board of the local power for Parkinson's group, so he was quite familiar with it. He encouraged me and I went to find out about it right away.

Mike: 4:08

You're taking classes at Power for Parkinson's, how have they helped?

Jim: 4:14

Well twice a week I attend group exercise classes and they've helped in a number of different ways. First. Exercise is the one thing that's been shown to slow the progression of Parkinson's disease. And in the exercise classes we exercise for an hour and we engage in movements that specifically address the symptoms of Parkinson's disease, such as the tremor, the muscle stiffness, the trouble with amplitude of your movements. Even your voice can be affected by Parkinson's disease. So all of these things are used during that session to address the symptoms of the illness. It's also been tremendously helpful for me emotionally because of the sport I received there. The organization is headed by a. Wonderful woman Nina Moser and her caring supportive and intelligent leadership filters down through the organization, down through the staff, down through these wonderful volunteers that are present during the groups and they all really care about us. Want to get to know us and support us

Mike: 5:27

How has it helped your mental state?

Jim: 5:29

well. People with Parkinson's disease frequently have problems with depression, anxiety, apathy, and that sort of thing. And I certainly was experiencing those, some of those symptoms. And I have continued from time to time. But going to the groups always makes me feel better. It has an uplifting emotional effect upon me and I, I leave there more hopeful and optimistic.

Mike: 5:51

Do they use music in these classes that you attend?

Jim: 5:54

Yes. And it's been shown scientifically that music facilitates movement in Parkinson's disease. It makes it more fluid. There's a rhythm that kind of you sink into and it helps you move in a regular pattern, in a smoother way. And it's enjoyable. It makes the whole thing pleasurable. Yeah.

Mike: 6:15

What advice would you give to someone with Parkinson's Disease?

Jim: 6:19

Well, you know, unfortunately many people when they're diagnosed. They are afraid, they're ashamed. They're worried that others will think less of them because they have the disease. So they may go a year or two keeping it a secret. And in that way, they cut themselves off from understanding and support from other people. So I would advise them, look. This disease is not your fault. You didn't do anything to cause it, so you need not be ashamed and reach out to others and share with them your experience so that they can understand, empathize, and be supportive.

Mike: 6:57

Do you find that exercises gives you more, allows you to muster more energy? Jim?

Jim: 7:02

More energy and also it reduces those symptoms that I was referring to the, they call bradykinesia slow slowing of movements, trouble starting movements tension and even spasms, especially in my legs. Problems with balance that was, has been a particular problem for me. And so we do exercises that improve our balance.

Mike: 7:26

Jim, I want to thank you for being part of Vitality. Okay. Before we hang up and, I ask you to hit the leave button, I did want to tell you, because you're in the medical community about a show that I'm going to record the, about a week with a, of a drug development firm in Boston got a new drug that's supposed to help, with Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease by changing the way the brain processes, waste products. Guy's name is Dr. Messin, M-E-S-S-L-I-N-G. Have you heard of him?

Jim: 8:01

I, I may have read some of his stuff. I don't the name, no, I, I don't, I'm not familiar with the name. I'm sorry.

Mike: 8:07

Yeah, that, that show will be coming out a week or two after this show. But

Jim: 8:11

Where is he located again?

Mike: 8:13

He's located in Boston.

Jim: 8:15

Mm-hmm. Okay.

Mike: 8:16

Let me give you the name of his company. I gotta pull up on another screen here to see that. A second. I'm assuming that this power for Parkinson's is only located in Austin, Texas,

Jim: 8:27

Well.

Mike: 8:27

or they're all over the country.

Jim: 8:28

The live groups are primarily in Austin. However, YouTube videos that patients can follow online exercise videos, informational videos cover the world. Now you can be anywhere in the world. If you have access to the internet, you could participate.

Mike: 8:45

Okay, I think I'm gonna cut that back. That last sentence back in the name of the co, his company is Anex, A-N-A-V-E-X Life Sciences.

Jim: 8:55

Life sciences. Okay.

Mike: 8:57

Yeah, and the the website probably Anex corp, A-N-A-V-E-X-C-O-R P.com,

Jim: 9:08

Okay, I will look forward to that.

Mike: 9:10

and I know they were going. And I know they're gonna be doing stage two and stage three trials on their their new med. Naturally he's very positive about it, but qualified.

Jim: 9:22

I hope you're

Mike: 9:23

I wish you all the,

Jim: 9:24

I hope,

Mike: 9:25

again, Jim.

Jim: 9:25

Yes, I'm here. She's a very lively and engaging group exercise leader. People turn out in droves to participate in her classes.

Mike: 9:33

Those are good types of people.

Jim: 9:35

Do you, wanna talk about why you love Lauren? Well, the fact that there are a variety of instructors is good 'cause each has their own approach and, and, and they supplement each other. But Lauren is especially outgoing and energetic and positive and engaging. I love the woman.

Mike: 9:52

Okay. And we'll be back after we hear an Alzheimer's tip from Dr. Craig Curtis, and we'll talk to Lauren.

Jim: 9:58

Thank you, Mike.

Mike: 9:59

Thanks a lot, Jim.

Dr. Craig Curtis: 10:00

We now know that Alzheimer's disease starts about 20 years before the symptoms with the buildup of a toxic protein called amyloid. And so scientists have been on a quest to remove amyloid to see how it affects the disease. The medicine that was recently FDA approved to slow down symptoms in people with Alzheimer's disease memory problems. Works by removing this substance called amyloid out of the brain. And now we're attempting to use those medicines to actually remove amyloid before someone develops symptoms of Alzheimer's disease, such as memory loss and forgetfulness.

Mike: 10:42

So that's in that 20 year period before the disease is obvious.

Dr. Craig Curtis: 10:47

That's right. Scientists now call it Alzheimer's Pathologic change versus Alzheimer's disease. We're saving the term Alzheimer's disease for when someone is actually experiencing symptoms due to Alzheimer's disease.

Warren: 11:01

With over 20 years of experience studying brain health, Dr. Curtis's goal is to educate The Villages community on how to live a longer, healthier life. To learn more, visit his website, CraigCurtisMD.com, or call 3 5 2 5 0 0 5 2 5 2 to attend a free seminar.

Mike: 11:17

This is Mike Roth today, and I'm talking to Lauren Lewis with Power for Parkinson's. Thank you for joining me. Lauren, lemme tell our listeners a little bit about you. Lauren is a lead fitness instructor at Power for Parkinson's, and she's worked in the fitness industry since 1986. Lauren loves finding ways to make boring, tedious, difficult, painful exercises even enjoyable. That's an important quality. Lauren loves seeing progress in people who have not previously seen success and showing them how to exercise that can be beneficial and fun. She's focused on Parkinson's specific exercises since 2015, and she joined power for Parkinson's. Thanks for joining me again, Lauren. Why did you join Power for Parkinson's?

Lauren Lewis: 12:06

Actually I was recruited the co-founders, Nina Moser and Susan Stahl had taken classes of mine in gyms and they liked my style and my, the way I taught, and they asked me to come and join their organization. I said no, because I never met anyone with Parkinson's disease. I didn't know anyone with Parkinson's disease and I don't know anything about Parkinson's disease. That started a lot of lunches and coffees and books and articles and I said, I'll give it a shot. And that was what, 11, 12 years ago. Since then, I've given up everything I used to do. This is the only thing I do anymore. I, I work as specifically and only with people with Parkinson's.

Mike: 12:51

What do you love most? Eating fitness glasses for people with Parkinson's.

Lauren Lewis: 12:55

The people, the exercise I've had all my life, but the, this is different. The people are, they're so appreciative. They're so responsive, they're so attentive, they work so hard. One of the things that I've always found difficult in teaching exercise is people don't wanna do it, but this population sees such great results that they wanna be there, they're happy to be there, and they work hard. And I see results. In exercise you rarely see results. People wanna lose five pounds or three pounds or whatever. But this we can see on a daily, weekly, monthly basis, we can see big results, big changes, and it's gratifying and worthwhile for both sides. It's a win-win.

Mike: 13:34

How do you translate your exercise that you do in person to be beneficial for people who are working online?

Lauren Lewis: 13:42

I start by teaching the class that I intend to do video. In my local classes, so I get a feel for how people respond to it, what's hardest, what's best, how I can cue better how which exercises need more explanation. And then I just take it from there and I find that it's unscripted, so I just teach as if I was teaching a class and I have often, I usually put one of the participants in my mind's eye and I teach to that person. I feel like I'm really talking to someone instead of just looking at a camera. And I think that's very effective because I try not to let my videos be too edited. I want it to feel like I'm in your home and I'm trying to help you and we're working together.

Mike: 14:27

Maybe you can put our listeners few exercises that are critical to people's Parkinson's disease.

Lauren Lewis: 14:33

That'd be great. We use props in our exercises like balls or drumsticks. We don't use them for the purpose that they're made for. We don't bounce the ball. We don't catch the ball. The ball is used for seeing where you are in space. When you're holding a ball, you can see if your arms are fully extended. You can see which direction you can see. Are you really fully using your body as big as you can? And with Parkinson's disease, one of the symptoms is a loss of range of motion or a loss of feel of range of motion. So this feels like this. We wanna make sure that you're fully extended and every movement is intentional. So the ball or the drumsticks help you see where you are. So there's seven or eight common symptoms that affect people with Parkinson's. All of our exercises address one of those symptoms. Range of motion, as I just said, would be one. Crossing the midline is a major symptom. That's when, and again. Don't feel like you're crossing that invisible line. And when you do, you're using both sides of your brain more efficiently, more functionally crossing, not only crossing the midline, but using both sides of your body, your right hand and your left leg together, and vice versa because gait, using that contralateral motion can be very diminished in people with Parkinson's. So I try to find exercises that will address all of those. One exercise specifically that I would do would be like a seated cross crunch where your right elbow lifts to your left knee and then vice versa where you're doing a crunch in your chair. Usually that's done for core, but for our benefit for Parkinson's, it actually is addressing core for better balance. It's addressing crossing the midline and it's addressing that contralateral. In addition, by lifting your knee, you are working on gait, lifting that knee nice and high, avoiding shuffling. So a seated crunch is a perfect exercise. Another exercise would be like seated jacks, where you're lifting your arms nice and high, you're swinging them, working on mobility, using and lifting your legs out and in again. Forcing your legs to lift, avoiding shuffling. But here also when you lift both legs at the same time, your core is very engaged. So we use all these different exercises that you know of Jacks seated, knee lifts, crunches, but specifically to address different symptoms.

Mike: 17:01

So these are all seated exercises.

Lauren Lewis: 17:03

Thank you for asking that. Because yes, many of them are seated, but they can be done standing. Then we have videos and we have some classes and videos that are only for people that are standing or that can be done either seated or standing to include as many people with Parkinson's as we can. But we do have videos that are just specifically for people, maybe young onset or that have better mobility that people can do standing

Mike: 17:29

and what makes these exercises more beneficial. People with the specific symptoms of Parkinson's.

Lauren Lewis: 17:35

We know that repetition is how you learn. So by specifically repeating these large intentional motions, we know that the neuropathways that have been erased, I'm getting a little sciencey here, but the neuropathways that are erased because of the disease we're building new neuropathways. The big buzzword in Parkinson's right now is neuroplasticity, and that's the brain's ability to learn new things. So if your brain has deleted a mobility. We work on retraining, relearning that mobility. And if your brain has not deleted it, or maybe that symptom is not one that you are affected by, just reassuring, reminding the brain to use your brain that way. Crossing the Medline using contralateral motions a better is huge symptom of Parkinson's. Reminding you to sit nice and tall. Just keeping your body erect so that you're not losing your balance by leaning too far forward. All those things through repetition will establish new neuro pathways. And here's also been years

Mike: 18:43

of

Lauren Lewis: 18:43

time.

Mike: 18:43

How do continue to create,

Lauren Lewis: 18:44

I'm sorry.

Mike: 18:44

How do you continue to create new exercises as surg studies indicate best ways Parkinson's disease patients to move?

Lauren Lewis: 18:54

So a lot of research. Constantly staying on the most recent articles and journal articles to see where the science is going. A few years ago, forced exertion was something that was being studied heavily and at first forced exertion meant being on a treadmill or being specifically on a bicycle. New studies have come out that we can use more of, and that is showing that all any kind of forced exertion. Is beneficial because it forces the brain. Remember, we're not talking about a muscular disease. It's a neurological disease. So by forcing the brain to move faster, it will improve cognitive processing as well as mobility. So in classes, since reading those articles, now, I include adding some very fast motions that may people can either follow or not follow, but they're trying to follow. And that either means doing a sequence slowly and then doing it as fast as you can, or just moving quickly, boxing quickly, rolling your arms as quick as you can, running in place. All of those things include or forced exertion, and we know that the forced exertion triggers the brain differently and anything that triggers the brain. It's very beneficial for Parkinson's.

Mike: 20:10

Laura, maybe you can tell our listeners how they can see some of these YouTube videos through a specific channel or how they can contact you after the podcast.

Lauren Lewis: 20:19

Great. On our website is Power for Parkinson's, power for parkinson's dot org. Our YouTube channel, YouTube Power for Parkinson's is easily accessible because we're the number one exercise class for Parkinson's, so it's easy to find. We've been doing for the last seven years, three to four videos a week. So we have a huge library of videos. Our videos include videos in Spanish. We have five or six different formats. We have a, a, relax, and. Reset, which is more like a yoga video. We have brain and body because we have videos that work strictly on working on patterns, strengthening your brain. We have strength and balance. We have a number of different videos that depending on what you're, how you learn best and what you're most comfortable with, you can find. The other thing that I love to tell people is you can use these videos in many ways. You can use, invite your friends and family to do them with you because they're beneficial, not just for people with Parkinson's, but we've found that spouses and caregivers that take the classes and videos with their, the person with Parkinson's find just as much benefit from it. We know that support groups use our videos, so that's another use. You may wanna think about bringing our video to a support group. People can meet, just in their apartment building and do it together. It's always more fun to do it together, but if you are immobile or can't leave your house or you're already exercising and you need something to do on the weekends, our videos are a great addition.

Mike: 21:53

Great. Thanks Lauren for joining us today. Is there a specific email people can use if they wanted to ask a question to you?

Lauren Lewis: 22:02

It would be info. Power parkinson's dot org.

Mike: 22:07

Great. Thanks for joining us, Lori.

Lauren Lewis: 22:09

Thank you, Mike.

Nancy: 22:09

Remember, our next episode will be released next

Friday at 9: 22:12

00 AM Should you wanna become a major supporter of the show or have questions, please contact us at Mike. At Roth voice.com, this is a shout out for supporters. Tweet Coleman, ed Williams, Dwayne roic, Paul Sorgen, and Dr. Craig Curtis at K two in The Villages. We'll be hearing more from Dr. Curtis with short Alzheimer's tips each week. If you know someone who should be on the show, contact us at mike@rothvoice.com. The way our show grows is with your help. Text your friends about this show. If you enjoyed listening, use the fan mail button on our homepage, villages Vitality Life. To leave comments, be sure to include your name, email, and phone number. We thank everyone for listening. The content of the show is copyrighted by Roth Voice 2026, all rights reserved.