What research says...

Some thoughts after attending a presentation by Prof Motl.

Last Saturday, I attended an online presentation by Prof Robert W Motl, one of - if not- the top researcher(s) in exercise and MS. Not only did it reinforced my conviction that exercise is a therapy but it also made sense of a few things I couldn’t understand. So I’d like to share these with you today.

Exercise and the Body

I love the simple way Prof Motl has to explain the benefits of exercise. He explained that:
Exercise activates:
•the central nervous system
•the peripheral nervous system
•the endocrine system
•the skeletal muscle system
•the cardiovascular system.
It does so in a very integrative and systematic manner and by repeatedly exposing yourself to bouts of exercise, all of these systems adapt in an integrated manner. They learn how to work better. They grow stronger. They grow better.

Isn’t that amazing? By exercising we improve all the systems!

Did you know that?

1. People with MS in general have a low aerobic capacity, ie the oxygen isn’t delivered throughout the body optimally (another reason I personally think to do Breathwork!). This low aerobic capacity is not necessarily due to MS. It could be linked to the changes in lifestyle after diagnosis. But we know that if people living with MS improve their aerobic capacity, it helps them manage their health better.

2. Aerobic fitness is also important for maintaining a healthy brain for people with multiple sclerosis and everybody else! According to research, people with a higher aerobic fitness also have better cognition.

3. Most of the studies done in the pharmacological industry are trying to slow down disability as measured on the EDSS scale. But when it comes to exercise, researchers are talking of reversing disability. Colleagues of Prof Motl looked at how much people with MS can improve with exercise and found out that there was a half standard deviation improvement in aerobic power across all the studies they reviewed. This is huge and it would translate into secondary improvements in cognition,mobility, fatigue, depression, health related quality of life and the capacity to maintain independence.

4. When our core body temperature increases due to exercise (active stimulus), this doesn’t affect symptoms (like fatigue) because the body adapts. This is different when temperature increase in our environment (passive stimulus). Then this adaptation doesn’t happen and symptoms might get worse.

What to do?

Prof Motl got together with other specialist and they came up with an exercise prescription for people with low or moderate disability.

How often: 2/3 days per week and then once the body adapts, slowly increase.

How much: Start slowly with 10 min (it could be in 2 sessions of 5 min), and progressively increase to 30 min.

How hard: Moderate intensity, that is you should be able to say a sentence or two while exercising but not to conduct a normal conversation.

How to: It really depends what gets your heart rate up. It could be walking, cycling, running and I’d say yoga too or any other modality as long as it gets your heart rate up… Add some strengthening too and progressively increase the number of repetitions and the intensity.

I hope this motivates you to keep exercising!

See you on the mat whenever you want to join me…

With love

Véronique