Living with Multiple Sclerosis (MS)
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a condition that affects the body’s central nervous system (CNS). By the latest estimates, over 2.5 million people worldwide have MS.
It’s a disorder that causes your body’s immune system to attack myelin, a coating that insulates some of your nerve fibers. This process is known as demyelination. When myelin is damaged or destroyed, it affects the nerve impulses traveling to and from the brain and spinal cord, causing a wide variety of symptoms in MS.
MS affects your brain, spinal cord, and optic nerves in your brain resulting in symptoms such as:
Trouble walking
Feeling tired
Muscle weakness or spasms
Numbness and tingling
Blurred or double vision
Poor bladder or bowel control
Pain
Depression
Problems focusing or remembering
Physical therapy treatments for multiple sclerosis
However, with Physical Therapy there are ways around all of this through proper treatments. Physical therapists can help through exercises like stretching to ease muscle spasms and figuring out your limitations as far as what you can do in life.
Physical therapists can be very helpful for patients with MS. Treatment for MS may include:
MS medication — disease modifying drugs
Medication to manage symptoms
Occupational therapy can help you make adaptations to make everyday tasks easier
Self-management techniques such as learning to pace yourself
Aids, assistive devices and equipment
A speech therapist to help you if you have trouble with speech
Stress management techniques
Talking therapies for depression
Diet
Exercise
Vitamin D — which dampens overactive immune responses and also protects brain cells
If you are someone you know has been diagnosed with MS call us at Wind City Physical Therapy to get relief from your symptoms.
Resources: https://overcomingms.org/about-multiple-sclerosis/what-is-ms
