Exercise and Motor Neurone Disease

[joshmeyer]

Can anyone help with guidelines about exercise / management of people with MND. Have a ptient who was just diagnosed and is in the early stages of the disease.
Josh

[perfphysio]

Nothing concrete but one cuold work on the premise that in the normal individual we only voluntarily use a small percentage of our motor neuronal end plates. Activities that may increase this recruitment in the normal individual would lead to reduced effort in much the same way as an increase in VO2 max may do in an untrained individual. Not sure as to the issues with over exertion on MND - i believe these hae been shown to be detrimental in MS yet swimming has been very beneficial for those suffering from MS. The magazine Swimmer or Australian Swimmer had a nice article on an individual with MS who took up swimming. The publish date was around 1993, but sorry it is in a box stored in Sydney somewhere. Best of luck in finding out more. richard