I’ve recently been told by the MS clinic that apart from spasticity and spasms I’m also having muscle fatigue, which is effecting my leg strength and walking.
Apparently muscle fatigue is caused by the muscles and the brain not communicating effectively due to damaged nerve paths, and so the muscles work out of synch and tire very easily.
They (clinic) suggested low impact exercise, such as a cycle machine, which in time should build up some muscle strength and therefore maybe help improve my walking distance.
Apart from that there was no medication offered.
I’ve read that Amantadine can help with fatigue, but can it help with muscle fatigue ?
Yeah I as thinking the same if I’m honest. I did give it a go sometime back but only very very briefly and it did nothing. Both my sister and first cousin also have MS, and each have had different responses to it, one has said it’s the best med she’s tried, but the other thinks it’s okish for general fatigue (tiredness), but does nothing for muscle fatigue.
I might give it another try and see how it pans out ?
Thing is I dont get tired, as in sleepy, I could stay up all day & night if needed, I dont really need more than a few hours sleep, and never have a nap during the day because I just dont feel that I need to !
I just get really heavy stiff legs that just grind to a halt .
I doubt that Amantadine will help at all. If your problem is with stiff and heavy legs, you are probably better off looking for a drug that works on them rather than a fatigue drug which helps your brain cope with fatigue rather than your muscles.
Apparently, it is possible for the brain to open up new pathways by exercising the specific muscle groups, which is always a good idea anyway. “Plasticity is a way that the brain can rewire to get information from one place to another, as discussed previously when there is damage to a nerve circuit and by laying down new connections (synapses) it a process by which we learn new memories. Although there is a belief that in MS some of these connections are lost, which can be part of the problem. This study indicates that that there is nothing wrong with the capacity to lay down new connections following some brain training, but the routes for the brain processess may be different between MSers and non-Msers. However as we have seen in other posts on the Blog that brain training may be a way to improve cognitive (thinking and brain function) performance” Multiple Sclerosis Research: Research: Brain Plasticity
I was on the Sativex trial about fifteen years ago and from what I remember it is supposed to help with spasticity and spasm, but doubt it will do anything for muscle strength.
The only thing that builds stronger muscles is exercise and that works even if limited signals get through. Best start slowly though.
I do try to do some exercises, but if I’m totally honest I find it very difficult.
I just lose the strength so quickly to carry on.
My legs go very very tight, which I’m guessing is spasticity, hence trying Sativex (hopefully), once this tightness is there all I can do is stop and rest.
Finding the right balance between doing enough and doing too much is very, very difficult and the “right balance” can vary dramatically, especially for me anyway, almost from day to day.
The main thing that prevented me from doing enough over the last couple of years was extreme fatigue, especially when I was working full time. Now that I’m no longer working full time, I’m doing so much more exercising, a much wider variety of exercising and much more stretching etc. And I’m feeling better for it.
My main problem now is my right knee which is either stiff, very stiff or very, very stiff. The knee can also be sore,very sore or very, very sore. The levels of stiffness and the soreness doesn’t always correlate with one another, and also sometimes they both don’t correlate with the level of activity or inactivity.
All of this is very frustrating but keep at it and you’ll find out what works out best for you.