Researchers yoga and aqua fitness relieve MS symptoms

Yoga and aquafit have positive effects on MS symptoms
According to a new study, Yoga and Aquafit have positive effects on certain symptoms of multiple sclerosis (MS). According to this, patients with the help of such a movement program suffered less from fatigue, depression and skin tingling.

Multiple sclerosis is still incurable
According to experts, multiple sclerosis (MS) is the most common chronic inflammatory disease of the central nervous system in Central Europe, with women being affected about twice as often as men. Despite intensive research, the disease is still considered incurable. Nevertheless, researchers are cautiously optimistic about the future. Thanks to new drugs, MS is becoming increasingly manageable. In addition, studies showed that you can slow down multiple sclerosis with proper nutrition. Only recently, scientists from various research institutions in the journal "Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry" reported that increased coffee consumption can reduce MS risk by up to 30 percent. Swiss and Iranian researchers have now discovered that physical activity can positively affect certain symptoms of multiple sclerosis.

Yoga and aquafit have a positive effect on various symptoms of multiple sclerosis. Patients suffer less from fatigue and depression. (Image: jd-photodesign / fotolia.com)

Yoga and aquafit reduce some MS symptoms
As the scientists at the University and the University Psychiatric Clinics Basel have demonstrated with Iranian colleagues, patients who practice yoga and aquafit suffer less from fatigue, depression and skin tingling. In the journal "Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise" they published their results. MS is a chronic progressive autoimmune disease in which the body's immune system affects areas of the nervous tissue, writes the University of Basel in a press release. Possible consequences of this are movement disorders. Other typical symptoms include "fatigue," ie, when chronic fatigue becomes pathological, depression, and paresthesia (tingling in the limbs), such as skin tingling, itching, and numbness.

Fatigue and depression decreased significantly
The researchers from Basel and Kermanshah (Iran) now showed in an attempt that these symptoms improved significantly after an eight-week intervention with Yoga and Aquafit: According to fatigue, depression and paresthesia after three times weekly training compared to the control group significantly. In the non-physically active group, the likelihood of moderate to severe depression was reported to be 35 times greater than that of the groups that ran Yoga or Aquafit.

Physical training as a supplement to standard treatments
A total of 54 women diagnosed with MS at the mean age of 34 years participated in the study in three groups: with yoga, aquafit, or no physical activity. The subjects had to complete questionnaires on the symptoms before and after the intervention. Their existing therapies - for example, with drugs that act on immune regulation - remained unchanged during the study. "Physical training should be considered in MS as a supplement to standard care in the future," the researchers write. The study involved Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences in Iran, the University Psychiatric Clinics Basel (Center for Affective, Stress and Sleep Disorders) and the Department of Sports, Exercise and Health at the University of Basel. (Ad)