Improving lives with a plain and simple approach

Dr. Dina Brooks remembers the day she met a stroke survivor who was distraught because he no longer had the strength to drive or use public transit. “In effect, he was housebound with very limited ability to get out and about,” recalls Dr. Brooks, an Adjunct Scientist at Toronto Rehab.  

Dr. Brooks helped the man to regain the energy required to take public transit, so that he could once again board vehicles and take escalators. “After he had worked with us, he was able to navigate the public transit system,” she says. “This opened many doors for him, and let him live a richer, more varied life.”

What breakthrough therapy made the difference for this patient?Incredibly, it was plain old exercise.

“Exercise can havea huge impact on people’s lives,” says Dr. Brooks, whose major research focus is on understanding the benefits of physical activity and finding ways to bring those benefits to people with chronic conditions.

Working with Toronto Rehab scientists and clinicians, Dr. Brooks is conducting research that is leading to the design of unique exercise programs for people who have had a stroke and for those with other neurological impairments. Stroke is a leading cause of death and disability in Canada.

In one groundbreaking study in which Dr. Brooks was involved, the team showed that a professionally designed and supervised program of aerobic exercise can be safely started as early as two weeks after a stroke.

Participants in the study rode stationary bikes three times a week during their hospital stay. The results? Those who exercised were fitter, could walk farther and enjoyed better cardiovascular health than those who remained inactive. “It has a very positive effect on their quality of life and their ability to do things,” Dr. Brooks says.

Starting an exercise program soon after stroke makes sense. “It’s a good time because people have just been through a crisis, so they’re more open to change,” explains Dr. Brooks. “Plus, we can monitor them closely and make sure they’re safe, because they’re still in hospital.”

The Toronto Rehab team is one of the few groups in the world exploring both the early and long-term benefits of aerobic exercise for people with stroke and other neurological impairments.

“In general, we need to build awareness of just how important exercise is, because it’s a non-pharmacological intervention that virtually everybody can benefit from,” says Dr. Brooks. “If we can just persuade people to be more physically active, we can have a significant impact on their lives.”

But there are barriers. Lack of time, lack of access to facilities and uncertainty about how hard or how long to exercise can all get in the way. By one estimate, less than 50 per cent of Canadians are active regularly. “That percentage is probably much lower with people who have some form of disability, because it’s so much harder for them,” says Dr. Brooks, who aims to change this.

A physiotherapist by training, Dr. Brooks works with three patient populations: people with chronic lung disease; those with cardiovascular disease; and the frail elderly. In addition to her research on aspects of pulmonary and cardiovascular rehabilitation, she is studying ways to validate measures of exercise capacity in older people. Her work also examines the effects of exercise in elderly patients with kidney disease who are undergoing dialysis.

Dr. Brooks has always enjoyed working with older people and finds her work highly rewarding. “Our research has direct and immediate implications. It changes the way people are practicing, sometimes within a year or two. And it’s very gratifying to see how much our interventions can improve patients’ lives.”

Publications since 2000

Curriculum Vitae

More info