Page 23 - BusinessWest Difference Makers 2021

Chad Moir
Founder and Owner, DopaFit Parkinson’s Movement Center
He Helps People with Parkinson’s Disease Live Healthier, More Confident Lives
By Joseph Bednar
Leah Martin Photography
said. “I’ve been lucky enough to be put in a position where I can help people while honoring my mother, and I
can do it in a fun and exciting way.” He’s referring to DopaFit
Parkinson’s Movement Center,
the business he started six years ago as the culmination of a tragic event — the premature passing
of his greatest teacher, who was stricken with an aggressive form of Parkinson’s and was gone five years after her diagnosis.
DIFFERENCE
FEBRUARY 17, 2021 39
Chad Moir calls his mother his greatest teacher.
“She really, truly lived by the mantra that you never look down on someone, and that you always stick your hand out to help them,” he
Moir took his mother’s
death hard. “I fell into a bit of a
depression,” he told BusinessWest
when we first spoke with him two
years ago. “I hated Parkinson’s
disease and everything to do with
it. I didn’t even want to hear the
word ‘Parkinson’s.’ But one day,
something clicked, and I decided
I was going to use my resentment toward Parkinson’s in a positive way and start to fight back.”
Today, DopaFit members, all of whom are at various stages of the disease, engage in numerous forms of exercise, from cardio work to yoga; from spinning to punching bags, and much more. On one level, activities are designed to help Parkinson’s patients live a more active life by improving their mobility, gait, balance, and motor skills.
But research has shown, Moir said, that it does more than that: exercise releases the neurotransmitter dopamine into the brain, slowing the progress of Parkinson’s symptoms.
“Exercise is the only proven method to slow down the progression of Parkinson’s disease,” he told BusinessWest. “It has been proven through
“It has been proven
through science that, when
you do vigorous exercise
while living with Parkinson’s
disease, your symptoms
won’t progress as quickly,
and sometimes they are
halted for a while as well.
We have seen people
whose symptoms have
regressed.
”
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