Parkinson's is a degenerative disorder in which an insufficient amount of dopamine in the brain leads to chronic shaking or muscle rigidity.

A team headed by Kim Chang-Ju from the department of physiology at Kyung Hee University's College of Medicine said on Sunday that experiments on Parkinson's-infected mice showed that walking delayed the loss of dopamine-secreting cells.

This indicates that walking may help prevent Parkinson's disease, the team said. The results of the study were published in the Aug. 9 issue of Neuroscience Letters.

The team had six infected mice and six saline liquid-injected mice walk for half an hour every day for two weeks. The mice that exercised were found to have far less dead dopamine-producing cells compared to others with no exercise.

"Just one hour of fast walking a day alone could delay the disease," said Professor Kim.

(englishnews@chosun.com )