Muscles are the driving force that your body uses to propel itself by converting
energy into motion.
Muscle is incredibly sophisticated. They are long-lasting, self-healing and grow
stronger with use.
Muscle requires stimulation to maintain its tone. Muscles respond to stimulus, without
use the muscle slowly become weaker.
There are three types of muscle in the body:
Skeletal muscle - Attaches to the skeleton and works in pairs, one muscle to move
the bone in one direction and another to move it back the other way. These muscles
usually contract voluntarily , meaning that you have to think about contracting them
and your nervous system tells them to do so. They will do either a short, single
contraction (twitch) or a long, sustained contraction (tetanus).
Smooth muscle - Found in your digestive system, blood vessels, bladder, airways etc.
Smooth muscle has the ability to stretch and maintain tension for long periods of
time. It contracts involuntarily, meaning that you do not have to think about contracting
it because your nervous system controls it automatically. For example, the stomach
and intestines do their muscular work day and night, and, for the most part you are
never aware of it.
Cardiac muscle - Found only in the heart, its features are endurance and consistency.
It will stretch in a limited manner, similar to smooth muscle, and contract with
the force of skeletal muscle. It is a twitch muscle only and contracts involuntarily.
Atrophy - There are two types of muscle atrophy:
Disuse atrophy - Occurs from a lack of physical exercise. those with sedentary jobs,
or medical conditions that limit movement, those with decreased activity levels can
lose muscle tone and develop atrophy. This type of atrophy may be reversible with
vigorous exercise, however the longer the period of time without exercise the more
difficult it becomes to regain muscle tone..
Neurogenic atrophy - a more severe type of muscle atrophy which occurs when there
is injury or disease to a nerve. This type of muscle atrophy usually occurs more
suddenly than disuse atrophy.
Even minor muscle atrophy may result in varied amounts of loss of mobility or power.
Diet - Site Page
Hyperbaric Oxygenation - Site Page
Massage - Site Page
Physiotherapy - Site Page
Pilates - Site Page
Reflexology - Site Page
Resistance Training - Site Page
Vibration Technology - Site Page
Exercise in MS -A process that is multifaceted and multidisciplinary which needs
to be tailored too the individual.
If you have Multiple Sclerosis, or any disease that compromises muscle tone, you
have essentially two problems:
First, you have weak nerves.
Second, because the muscles don't get enough general use, you have weak muscles.
The difficulty is that you cannot tell the difference.
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!
Background: Nick was diagnosed with MS in 1988 and has been wheelchair-bound for
approximately 7 years. He started treatment in November 2006 and improved enough
to resume his gym workouts in June 2007 after a 2-year hiatus.
Kathy.
Rehabilitation -Therapies 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.
