Stutter Step

[Lookingforhealing]

If this has been addressed before, I missed the post. Does anyone else experience stutter step, (uncontrollable, unpredictable quick steps) which makes it hard to keep balance. My husband is almost 3 years post diagnosis and started stutter step recently a couple of months ago. When it happens, it's a challenge for him to keep from falling even with a cane. He is on Sinemet. I didn't even know what it was called until it was mentioned in Michael J. Fox's book No Time Like the Future. When I googled stutter step, I found that it is done in basketball, but in PWP, it is not a controlled movement.

What have you found to be helpful for this? Thank you in advance for any helpful advice.

[park_bear]

Festinating Gait

parkinsonschronicles.com/gl...

[Lookingforhealing in reply to park_bear]

Thank you for the link.

[Hikoi]

Yes its festination and very common. Sounds like he would be safer with a walker than a stick.

[Dap1948]

Yes, festination. Try playing music and getting him to walk to the beat. Music stimulates an alternative neural pathway and allows normal stepping. I cover this in my book “Music as medicine particularly in Parkinson’s” amazon.co.uk/Music-As-Medic...

[Lookingforhealing in reply to Dap1948]

Thank you for the suggestion of music. He put on music on his phone and what a difference it made. It was incredible. He was walking like a normal person.

[Dap1948 in reply to Lookingforhealing]

I am so pleased. It does work like magic! The book covers many symptoms...

[GymBag in reply to Dap1948]

please contact me by chat and advise how to get book , no kindle and in Canada.

EDIT never mind I see now where to get it from

[GymBag]

If he liked that

Try it with a wheeled walker, some tiny ear pods connected to a phone or MP3 devise with recorded music.

His feet and legs will move to the rhythm with out having to think about taking each step, and he will have a place to sit when he tires. He will go probably 4 times farther and much faster.

[Stollemf]

Thank you for starting this discussion. I have not been diagnosed with Parkinson's but i have been diagnosed with dystonia. And i experience stutter step. It occurs most often if i am dancing or playing a sport like ultimate Frisbee or bowling. Anything that requires an intentional step. There are times i fall as a result. I am interested in finding out anything that can help me get over this.