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How exercise can help if you have multiple sclerosis (MS)?

People with MS can benefit from being physically fit. However MS affects you, there are exercises that can be helpful - to stay as healthy and fit as possible and to improve some of your symptoms and minimise their effects.

Exercising regularly will keep your body working to its full potential. MS affects each person differently and you will have your own preferences, so it is important to find a type of exercise that you enjoy. While one person enjoys team sports, another may prefer tai chi or yoga. All kinds of physical movement can be of benefit. Even gardening, cleaning and short walks use your muscles and help you to stay fit.

"Exercising regularly will keep your body working to its full potential”

There is no evidence that exercise makes MS worse in the long-term, or that exercising causes relapses. In fact, research has suggested the opposite - that exercise can:

• improve the overall health of people with milder MS
• help people with more severe MS to stay as mobile and active as possible
• help some people manage their MS symptoms, such as fatigue, muscle stiffness, bladder and bowel problems, balance difficulties, anxiety and depression.
• decrease the risk of heart disease

Click here for the MS Society's publication 'Exercise and Physiotherapy'

www.mssociety.org.uk

• Buy a fitness machineAchieve new levels of fitness in the comfort of your own home.

Copyright © 2007 Multiple Sclerosis Society

This information has been provided by the MS Society, the UK's largest charity for people affected by MS. The MS Society aims to support and relieve people affected by MS, and to encourage people affected by MS to attain their full potential.

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