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Therapies

The process of working at bringing the body and mind back to health and fitness after it has been compromised by illness- disease - accident. It is a process that is multifaceted and multidisciplinary, and needs to be tailored too the individual need. Nutrition and exercise should be considered to be the backbone of good health, not as a cure for disease.

 

Exercise.

If you have Multiple Sclerosis, or any disease that compromises muscle tone, you have essentially two problems.
First, you have weak nerves; and second, because the muscles don't get enough general use, you have weak muscles. The difficulty is that YOU CANNOT TELL THE DIFFERENCE
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It is worth remembering that, although the nerves are damaged, there is NOTHING wrong with the muscles. The fact that they do not work well is only a "side-effect".

By the same logic, if your nerves were miracle-cured tomorrow, you probably wouldn't notice much difference. You still couldn't stand up, for example, because the muscles aren't ready for it. Therefore, because the muscles aren't "damaged", it is important to
find some way of maintaining muscle tone. With the exciting developments that are going on at the moment, eventually the nerves will be fixed. It would be a shame if you then had to go on a long, intensive rehab program because your muscles weren't ready for the liberation.

I have a subscription to a local gym and although I cannot even use the same weights as a child it does allow me to give my muscles some exercise. Just the effort of getting out of my wheelchair and into a weight machine is as valuable as working the machine itself.
On top of that, it is good to get out of the house and DO something.

A gym is a very good place to exercise. Everybody there is trying to improve their condition, just as I am, and as such they are very supportive.

I find that being physically cool makes a quantum improvement in my gym performance. If I am not cool there is no point in going to the gym because I can't do anything. To see if cooling would improve your success with exercise, this effect can be easily tested by drinking an ice cold smoothie or slushie immediately before working out. Unless you make a conscious effort to do exercise of some sort, the tendency is to sit around and get weaker. There is a lot of wisdom in that old adage: Use it or lose it!
Nick
 

Background: Nick was diagnosed with MS in 1988 and has been wheelchair-bound for approximately 7 years. He started ‘Aimspro’ treatment in November 2006 and improved enough to resume his gym workouts in June 2007 after a 2-year hiatus.

Kathy.

 


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Rehabilitation

Rehabilitation is a therapy designed to maximise ability that uses physiotherapy and often also occupational therapy. It isn’t a holiday and requires hard work and dedication. Having said that, I have experienced great humour and camaraderie.

 

At an early stage you will be involved in a goal planning meeting to set out what expectations there will be. Items of equipment used are tailored to your needs. There are so many I can only remember a few, for example, plinth, dumbells, treadmill and standing frame.

 

I have been in rehab four times, firstly when I had relapsing remitting MS when my legs were strengthened. Latterly, when I progressed to secondary progressive MS I was taught how to propel a wheelchair.

 

My last session involved a lot of trunk and stomach strengthening and I was able to sit up at the sink and wash my top half. Incidentally this would not of been possible without the treatment I now have.

 

My advice? Get as much rehab as you can by getting your GP to refer you a  rehab unit. I am working on my abilities at home both alone and with the aid of one off the unit’s physio and a private physio. I’m hoping to go into rehab again for another working holiday.

 

Angie Garrett

 

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The importance of exercise cannot be over emphasised - Muscle is important for two key reasons :

 

There are three types of muscle in the body :

 

Muscle wasting -  Wasting -  Atrophy of the muscles. There are two types of muscle atrophy:

 

Common Causes

Some atrophy occurs normally with aging while disease causes may include:

 

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See also Whole Body Vibration Technology

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Rehabilitation

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