Alzheimer’s disease is a neurodegenerative pathology that affects nearly 1.2 million French people. To slow down the progression of this disease that we do not yet know how to cure, several therapies and activities have proven their worth: yoga, mindfulness meditation, art therapy, zootherapy…
More surprising no doubt: to combat the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, ping pong could be interesting. So much so that in 2019, the France Alzheimer association and the Table Tennis Federation entered into a partnership.
A sport that has physical and relational benefits
Precisely: to quantify the benefits of this sport on Alzheimer’s patients, the France Alzheimer association (in cooperation with Dr. Pierre-Louis Bernard, gerontologist) will launch a vast study in 2023, with a group of 200 patients.
The goal? Determine “to what extent this activity will allow the patient to solicit, maintain, or even improve physical dimensions when [il] has become sedentary, motivational dimensions and relational dimensions because [qu’il] was isolated“explained Dr. Pierre-Louis Bernard to our colleagues from France Inter.
Why ping-pong rather than another sport? “As we are mainly interested in an elderly population, it is a very accessible sport even for people who are not able to move around a lot.justifies Kevin Rabiant, the doctor in neuroscience who heads the Studies and Research department of the France Alzheimer association. And the material is relatively easy to obtain. This is a practice that can be put in place quickly.“A research to follow, therefore.