Green Light for Exercise for MS Patients

A new study changes the traditionally held view that MS patients shouldn’t engage in physical activities, writes SYLVIA THOMPSON  UNTIL RECENTLY, people with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) were advised not to take up physical activities that they found tiring. However, the results of a new study of an exercise program co-ordinated by the MS Society of Ireland have radically changed that view.

“We now know that it’s important for people with MS to remain physically active as much to preserve and even improve their abilities as to combat the harmful effects of inactivity – stiffness, muscle loss, reduced flexibility, etc,” explains Aidan Larkin, the co-ordinator of Getting the Balance Right exercise program for people with MS.

The program was initiated by the MS society after a survey found that physiotherapy and exercise were what people with MS most wanted. “We found that physiotherapy and exercise-related programs were the top priority in terms of services required which were not widely available either through the HSE or from MS Ireland,” says Larkin. More than 1,600 people have availed of group and one-to-one physiotherapy, yoga, instructor-led gym classes, t’ai chi and hydrotherapy since the program began 18 months ago.

Furthermore, MS Ireland teamed up with the Department of Physiotherapy at the University of Limerick (UL) to investigate the specific effects of various forms of exercise.
Dr Susan Coote, chartered physiotherapist and lecturer in physiotherapy at UL, was the principal investigator of the study. “We found that for people with MS who used a stick, being physically active reduced the impact of MS and also reduced their fatigue,” explains Coote.“We also found that people in this category had similar improvements whether they had one-to-one physiotherapy or group physiotherapy.“Traditionally, exercise was viewed as wrong for MS patients, but there is a growing body of evidence that suggests there is no increase in risk of relapse from exercise,” she says. In fact, the study found that those who didn’t participate in exercise programs had a greater risk of relapse and had significant reduction in their balance. Coote adds that while those who participated in gym classes, physiotherapy or yoga all showed “reduction of impact of their MS and reduction in fatigue”, only those who participated in gym classes or physiotherapy also showed an improvement in their walking ability. In other words, those who did yoga didn’t show the additional improvement in their walking ability