Exercise prescription for patients with multiple sclerosis; potential benefits and practical recommendations

Background Multiple sclerosis (MS) can result in significant mental and physical symptoms, specially muscle weakness, abnormal walking mechanics, balance problems, spasticity, fatigue, cognitive impairment and depression. Patients with MS frequently decrease physical activity due to the fear from wo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:BMC neurology Vol. 17; no. 1; pp. 185 - 11
Main Authors: Halabchi, Farzin, Alizadeh, Zahra, Sahraian, Mohammad Ali, Abolhasani, Maryam
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: London BioMed Central 16.09.2017
BioMed Central Ltd
Springer Nature B.V
BMC
Subjects:
Aerobics
Balance
Cardiorespiratory fitness
Care and treatment
Chronic illnesses
Cognition - physiology
Cognitive ability
Cognitive Dysfunction
Comorbidity
Cooling
Coordination
Debate
Depression
Disability
Disabled Persons - rehabilitation
Endurance
Exercise
Exercise - physiology
Exercise Therapy
Fatigue
Fitness
Fitness training programs
Gait
Health aspects
Humans
Kinesiology
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Mental disorders
Multiple sclerosis
Multiple Sclerosis - physiopathology
Multiple Sclerosis - therapy
Muscle contraction
Muscle Spasticity
Muscle strength
Muscle Strength - physiology
Muscle Weakness
Neurochemistry
Neurology
Neurosurgery
Pain
Paresis
Patients
Physical activity
Physical fitness
Physical Fitness - physiology
Physical training
Physiology
Quality of Life
Rehabilitation
Resistance Training
Respiratory function
Spasticity
Walking
Fatigue
Multiple sclerosis
Exercise
Balance
Fitness
ISSN:1471-2377, 1471-2377
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Background Multiple sclerosis (MS) can result in significant mental and physical symptoms, specially muscle weakness, abnormal walking mechanics, balance problems, spasticity, fatigue, cognitive impairment and depression. Patients with MS frequently decrease physical activity due to the fear from worsening the symptoms and this can result in reconditioning. Physicians now believe that regular exercise training is a potential solution for limiting the reconditioning process and achieving an optimal level of patient activities, functions and many physical and mental symptoms without any concern about triggering the onset or exacerbation of disease symptoms or relapse. Main body Appropriate exercise can cause noteworthy and important improvements in different areas of cardio respiratory fitness (Aerobic fitness), muscle strength, flexibility, balance, fatigue, cognition, quality of life and respiratory function in MS patients. Aerobic exercise training with low to moderate intensity can result in the improvement of aerobic fitness and reduction of fatigue in MS patients affected by mild or moderate disability. MS patients can positively adapt to resistance training which may result in improved fatigue and ambulation. Flexibility exercises such as stretching the muscles may diminish spasticity and prevent future painful contractions. Balance exercises have beneficial effects on fall rates and better balance. Some general guidelines exist for exercise recommendation in the MS population. The individualized exercise program should be designed to address a patient’s chief complaint, improve strength, endurance, balance, coordination, fatigue and so on. An exercise staircase model has been proposed for exercise prescription and progression for a broad spectrum of MS patients. Conclusion Exercise should be considered as a safe and effective means of rehabilitation in MS patients. Existing evidence shows that a supervised and individualized exercise program may improve fitness, functional capacity and quality of life as well as modifiable impairments in MS patients.
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ISSN:1471-2377
1471-2377
DOI:10.1186/s12883-017-0960-9