Multiple sclerosis: Resistance training may reduce brain atrophy

Stuart SchlossmanComplementary & Alternative therapies and devices for Multiple Sclerosis (MS)


                                                                  

  
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Research has shown that the mobility of patients with multiple sclerosis may be improved with exercise, but the benefits of physical activity may not end there. A new study suggests that resistance training could help to slow the progression of multiple sclerosis.
a woman lifting weights

Research suggests that resistance training could help to slow the progression of multiple sclerosis

Researchers found that engaging in resistance training twice per week for 6 months was associated with reduced brain atrophy – that is, the loss of brain tissue – in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS), the most common form of multiple sclerosis (MS).


For some patients, resistance training was even associated with an increase in the volume of certain brain regions.
Study co-author Prof. Ulrik Dalgas, of the Department of Public Health at Aarhus University in Denmark, and colleagues say that their study is the first to suggest that physical activity can protect the nervous system against MS, rather than simply help to alleviate symptoms of the disease.
The researchers recently reported their findings in Multiple Sclerosis Journal.
MS is a disease in which the immune system mistakingly attacks the protective coating of nerve fibers, called myelin, in the central nervous system.

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