Parkinson's Patients At Northwestern Get Improv Lessons From Second City
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Second City has been holding a couple of improv classes at Northwestern Memorial Hospital for Parkinson's disease patients, reports WBBM's Steve Miller
Second City says those improv classes at Northwestern are essentially what they teach on the first day of class at Second City.
One game involves giving each other a present. But of course, it's all out of thin air.
Dr. Danny Bega is a neurologist at Northwestern.
"This is exercise for their brain in the same way that physical therapy and running on a treadmill is exercise for the body," he said. "There's a lot of good part of the brain that's still working that we need to be tapping into."
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Warren Eagle is 77-years-old and he's had Parkinson's for at least 11 years.
"Parkinson's patients tend to insulate themselves," Eagle said. "That's the worst thing that can happen, take yourself out of the mainstream. Parkinson's patients often lose their train of thought... You don't think you've lost it but you've lost it.
"How many times can you tell the people that you're with that you've lost their train of thought? Pretty soon they stop talking to you."
These Second City classes, he says, are good.
"Humor is therapeutic," he says.
