Guitar teacher launches therapy program for Parkinson's patients
A guitar teacher in Michigan has launched an occupational therapy program to help people with Parkinson's disease play the guitar.
James Lenger's Theraplaying program features a 12-week curriculum to help people strum. Lenger told ABC News' Danny New his latest program is a follow-up to Strum Perfect, his patented guitar attachment that can help stabilize guitar students' strumming motions.
"This is, you know, something I never would have seen coming five years ago," Lenger said of his accidental invention.
Over the years, Lenger said he has seen firsthand how StrumPerfect has helped people with Parkinson's, a condition the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke defines as a progressive disorder of the nervous system where some of the brain's nerve cells or neurons weaken and die, causing movement problems, tremors, stiffness, and balance issues.
"For people who are just picking up the guitar or [those with] early-stage Parkinson's disease, it just helps with muscle memory," Lenger said.
One of Lenger's students, a man named Brian, told ABC News playing guitar has helped alleviate some of his Parkinson's symptoms.
"The diagnosis started out with my handwriting, and now I'm using my fine finger movement, the finesse in my fingers to get them active again," Brian said.
Lenger has also teamed up with doctors, including Dr. Naresh Punjabi at the University of Miami, to research how playing guitar can help people with movement disorders.
"We're not going to be able to reverse severe disease or at least impact severe disease, but in the mild to moderate zone, that's where we can potentially change things," Punjabi told New.
Lenger said he hopes to build on the foundation set by StrumPerfect and Theraplaying and help people with other conditions such as multiple sclerosis and people who've experienced strokes.
"This has been the most fulfilling journey that I've been on," Lenger said.
