To give us all a bit of light.
Grandfather with MS walks for the first time in 28 years in front of ‘astonished’ family - inews
What a shame he didn’t have suitable physiotherapy 28 years ago. However it is great he has access to it now, and that he’s making such progress.
Ziola, a very good point! I count myself incredibly lucky that within 5 minutes of my house there was a MS Society Exercise group that had be ongoing for over 30 years (it had originally been NHS). We have managed to restart it online. Initially just for coffee and chat, but now with our instructor for exercise too. Over coffee last time we were discussing when we are diagnosed and how long ago it was. One lady said she was 50 and she had been one of the early members 30 years ago. She is still living independently and is as bright as a button. I am sure that the combination of socialisation and exercise has helped!
The MS Society has online resources which are good and useful, but the group exercise classes (especially in person) have added benefits. Different local area groups have different offerings, as with a lot of things it is down to luck.
The mantra of:
is easy to say, but much harder to do. We may put our faith in the magic pill just around the corner. However, like the rest of the population we can hold to this as far as we can. It is not a solution, but it is probably the best we can do alongside appropriate DMTs (if we qualify).
This message is not as eye catching as the promise of a cure, but it was good to see a news story of it at work. Research in ths are is in the MS Society plan, but it rarely attracts so much attention.
I use a gym (pre lockdown) that specialises in rehabilitation of disabled people and there should be a lot more of them. The best results are always with those waking up long dormant muscles and gaining new found strength. Not nearly so dramatic if you have always kept muscles as strong as possible, but this just means you get to keep what you have, for longer.
If exercise was a pill everyone would be taking it.