"Mary" is a 79 year old lady with two newly-diagnosed conditions: Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Disease. I saw Mary and her daughter in order to engage Mary in RMT movements on three consecutive days while she visited my town. Her daughter noted that she planned to teach her family how to engage her mother in the RMT movements in order to help her. The family's central concern was their mom's decrease in mental awareness and acuity: she napped much of the day, then retiring for the night at 7:30. When Mary initially came to see me, her daughter hovered at her elbow as they came up the sidewalk and stairs, as Mary's walk could be considered a shuffle, and was asymmetrical enough that she looked as though she'd fall at any moment.
She was cheerful but vague in conversation.
For the three days, I worked a half-hour with Mary, doing the exercises, and a half-hour with Mary's daughter, doing the exercises on her, and having her practice on her mother. The second day, her daughter announced with great joy: her mom had not only taken NO naps the previous day, but also had stayed awake until 9:30 that night. I was pleased to see that the stimulation to the brain had provided Mary with better mental functioning.
But my real pay-off came at the end of the next day: I realized that something had “clicked in” during those three days.
"Mary," I asked, "would you please walk down the sidewalk?" And walk Mary did; alone, upright and symmetrically. She didn't shuffle; there was at least two inches between the toe of one foot and the heel of another. Three months later, Mary is still doing well. She walks 3/4 of a mile at a time these days.