People who undertake even a ‘medium amount' of exercise may reduce their risk of developing Parkinson's disease, a new study suggests.

Parkinson's is a progressive neurological disease, the symptoms of which include tremors, stiffness and slow movement. An estimated six to seven thousand people in Ireland are affected and there is no cure.

Swedish researchers followed the progress of over 43,000 men and women over a 13-year period. All of the participants' activity levels were assessed during this period, ranging from how much exercise they got to how active they were in their homes and jobs, including on their commute.

None of the participants had Parkinson's disease at the outset. They were monitored from October 1997 to December 2010 and during that time, almost 300 cases of the disease were detected.

The study found that people who spent more than six hours per week on household and commuting activities had a 43% reduced risk of developing Parkinson's, compared to people who spent less than two hours doing the same activities.

In males, a medium level of total physical activity was found to reduce the risk of Parkinson's by 45% when compared with a low level of activity.

According to the researchers from the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, one of the strengths of this study is that it looked at ‘the entire spectrum of daily energy output, rather than purely focusing on dedicated exercising'.

"We found that a medium level of daily total physical activity is associated with a lower risk of Parkinson's disease. The protective effect of physical activity was further supported when we summarised all available evidence from published prospective cohort studies. These findings are important for both the general population and for the healthcare of patients with Parkinson's disease," they added.

Details of these findings are published in Brain: A Journal of Neurology.