Reducing Multiple Sclerosis Symptoms With Rehabilitation

The kind of program that you need to attend and the frequency of the sessions are dictated by the persistence and the severity of MS symptoms in your case. These programs are designed to return you the lost mobility. For mild symptoms, occasionally therapy is all that it takes, but severe cases should be daily treated.

Your disability degree will also determine whether you can perform assisted exercises at home. However, a close contact with a therapist is necessary to enable him to monitor your activity. All kinds of programs include times in which you may relax because the heat generated by the effort makes your MS symptoms worse. The most popular such therapies are:

• - Stretching and range – of – motion exercises
• - Strengthening exercises to improve the condition of your muscles
• - Aquatic exercises
• - Gentile aerobic exercises (walking)
• - Instructions about situations of balance loss that cause you to fall

Occupational therapy

Occupational therapy deals with the balance between your needs and the physical and additional resources that can satisfy them. The occupational therapist will give you:

• - Help to purchase suitable assistive devices, including those for mobility.
• - Training in using properly the assistive devices such as a wheelchair.
• - Instruction on how a person can move from the wheelchair to the bed, automobile or bath tub.

Speech therapy

Because speech may be seriously affected by the lesions of the brain that block the message flow, speech therapy is necessary and it may have the following effect:

• - To help you decrease the number of long pauses in your sentences
• - To reduce the nasal sounds
• - To identify your swallowing problems and to help you find the appropriate kind of food.
• - To reduce the slurring of words caused by poor coordination and the weakness of the muscles.
• - It may improve rhythm of speech, word enunciation and communication.
• - Gives alternative means to speak: alphabet cards, handheld computers.

Cognitive retraining

Cognitive retraining tries to restore the lost cognitive functions: memory, concentration, etc. It can help in different ways:

• - It detects the presence of a cognitive impairment generated by MS
• - It helps you to find alternative methods to remember things or to concentrate
• - It provides help with associated depression, anxiety, stress and tiredness.

Persons to address for rehabilitation: are: Your doctor, An occupational therapist, A physical therapist