UF professor, Parkinson's patients to bike across Iowa

July 21, 2006

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — College of Health and Human Performance assistant professor Chris Hass will join fellow researchers and Parkinson’s disease patients in a 450-mile bicycle ride across Iowa July 23-29 with the Pedaling for Parkinson’s team.

Hass, who will begin teaching this fall in the Department of Applied Physiology and Kinesiology, said he hopes this bike ride will raise awareness about Parkinson’s and the benefits exercise may provide to Parkinson’s patients.

“Parkinson’s disease is not a death sentence,” Hass said. “Exercise can be very beneficial to PD patients and improve their quality of life.”

Pedaling for Parkinson’s cycling team is led by Jay Alberts of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Cleveland Clinic and Hass, who are working on a collaborative pilot study that will assess the effects of exercise, such as cycling, on Parkinson’s motor symptoms.

The cycling team is participating in the Des Moines Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa, an event famed cyclist Lance Armstrong will participate in this year. Hass said Pedaling for Parkinson’s chooses this event because they have many host families who provide lodging for the cycling team, which reduces costs and allows more money to be directed to research, patient and caregiver support.

Hass, who participated in the bike ride in 2004, said a few Parkinson’s patients will participate in the bicycle ride, either using their own bike, a tricycle or on a tandem.

“We hope to take more of our patients with us on future rides,” Hass said.

About 26 people will participate on behalf of Pedaling for Parkinson’s. The nonprofit organization founded by Alberts and Parkinson’s disease patient Cathy Frazier in 2003 currently is seeking donations online at www.pedalingforparkinsons.org. The organization hopes to raise $20,000 to support research and assist patients’ caregivers.