Researchers have studied that aquatic exercise therapy can help improve balance and help ease fatigue. Because fatigue is such a big and common side effect of MS, finding ways to ease this condition can seriously impact the quality of life in a positive way. Aquatic exercise therapy has no side effects that people with MS should be worried about which is why it is one of the safest ways to battle fatigue.
What is aquatic therapy? Aquatic therapy is a type of exercise therapy that is done while standing in water. There are several reasons why aquatic therapy is especially beneficial for people with MS rather than any other kind of therapy. Because aquatic therapy takes place in water, the water can relieve the stress on the joints in the patient's knees, hips, and ankles. The water also supplies support to be able to stand in the water due to the buoyancy. Increased body temperature is another side effect of MS which aquatic therapy can also help. Due to this therapy taking place in water, it helps keep the patient's body temperature at a moderate and safe level.
In order to test how aquatic therapy really helps people with MS, scientists in Iran and South Africa decided to lead a meta-analysis of the scientific literature. This analysis included 6 prior studies and data. The overall analysis compared aquatic therapy to non-exercise land therapy for 5 months with therapy sessions that ranged from 45 minutes to 2 hours.
To really test if aquatic therapy does help ease fatigue, scientists started using the Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS). Scientists compared the improvement of patients who did aquatic therapy to those who did conventional occupation therapy.’“We found that aquatic therapy positively affects fatigue in patients with MS, which has important implications as fatigue is one of the main symptoms of MS and decreases the quality of life in these patients,'' the researchers wrote.’ according to Multiple Sclerosis News Today.
Aquatic therapy is a safe and beneficial therapy for those with MS. Scientists have noted that this type of therapy shows a significant positive effect on fatigue along with balance. Although due to the very limited numbers of studies done so far, more research is yet to be done.
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