muscles Multiple Sclerosis
Can MS physical therapy be used to
help reduce the symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis?
Doing intense physical
therapy with those that have been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis can help to
reduce ms symptoms and help to
improve how well we can function in many ways.
Some of the symptoms of MS that
Physical therapy can help to improve include the
following:
* reduce spasticity
* increase muscle strength
* increase muscle mass
* improve overall
physical balance
* improve how well a person can stand by improving balance
during movement
* improve how long a person with MS can stand before they
have to sit down and rest, by improving endurance and stamina.
Different
Types of Additional MS therapy
can include:
Occupational
Therapy
* Helps to evaluate a person that has been
diagnosed with MS to see if they can return to working again.
* Helps to retrain the person to do
average tasks that are required to perform many job-related tasks.
Speech
Therapy
* Retrains the person with MS to be able
to speak more clearly again, to reduce
stuttering, slurring words or problems with forming words or being able to speak
more clearly to make it easier to understand what the person affected by MS is
trying to say.
Water (Aqua)
Therapy
* Allows the person with MS to be able to
exercise while reducing the fatigue that is often associated with more intense
exercising.
* Can retrain a person to walk again in
water, even if they can not walk on land by supporting the weight of the body
without added exertion by the person undergoing the therapy.
Horse (Equine)
Therapy
* Exercising on a horse strengthens the
muscles, and helps to retrain the
brain to get used to the movement and natural gait of walking again, even if the
person is not able to physically walk for a period of time.
* Equine therapy has the potential of
being able to help people, that have been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis walk again, by
retraining the brain to become more accustomed to what it is like for the body
to walk again.
Brain Strengthening Exercises and
Therapy
* Helps to redevelop Neural Pathways in
the parts of the brain, which have been damaged or confused by the scarring that results
from MS.
* This typically involves exercises
specifically designed to stimulate and strengthen the parts of the brain that
allows those with MS to function better on a daily basis.
* This can include increasing the ability
to speak, increasing how well we can form sentences, increasing how well we can
think logically, improving memory (both short and long term), increasing the
ability to respond to outside stimulation, and improving how quickly our brains
can respond to what is going on around us, and increasing cognitive function,
including many other functions that the body performs daily.
Brain Retraining
Therapy
* Helps to retrain how the brain responds
to any stimulation by basically resetting what is considered the average brain
wave pattern to be at a higher level.
* Several different methods, medical
devices and techniques fall under this category, that stimulate the brain in
different ways to help improve how well the individual can function.
