Research
Hotter Days May Worsen Mental Task Ability People with multiple sclerosis often report worse symptoms when the weather is hot. A recent study concludes that hot weather may also worsen the ability to perform mental tasks in some people with MS. The research may help people plan activities and may improve the design of future clinical trials. Warmer weather tends to worsen many people’s neurological symptoms of MS. Research also suggests that relapses are more likely to occur in warmer months; some people may have more MRI-detected active MS brain lesions during these months. This study examined a possible link between outside temperature and the ability of people with MS to perform various mental tasks. Researchers compared 40 people with MS and 40 people without MS or any other condition that might have affected the results. Each participant was tested for the ability to process a mental task and for learning and memory. The average outside temperature on the testing day was recorded. The results showed that people with MS tended to perform worse when the weather was hotter than when it was cooler. People without MS performed equally as well regardless of the outside temperature. This study has several implications. Awareness of heat-related problems with mental tasks may impact lifestyle decisions; for example, whether to take a mentally-challenging college course in the summer or winter. The results also suggest that clinical trials involving people with MS should take temperature into consideration when designing the study and interpreting the results, especially when cognitive testing is used as a treatment outcome measure. 18 I JOIN THE MOVEMENT: nationalMSsociety.org
Eye Movement Training Focuses on Improved Balance A controlled study suggests that a six-week balance and eye movement-focused exercise program improved balance, reduced fatigue, and reduced disability because of dizziness or disequilibrium in a group of people with MS. The effects lasted for at least four weeks following supervised training. Larger and longer studies are needed to determine how long the benefits last, and which people with MS would be most likely to respond to the program. The study by Jeffrey Hebert and colleagues at the University of Colorado, Aurora was partially funded by a pilot research grant from the National MS Society. This study is the first to examine the effects of an exercise program involving balance and eye movement training – or “vestibular rehabilitation” -- in people with MS to see if it improves both fatigue and balance. For this controlled study, 38 people with MS were divided into three groups: one group did not participate in an exercise program and only received normal MS medical care; one group participated in a general exercise program involving endurance and stretching; and one group participated in the vestibular rehabilitation program specifically designed to improve balance. The endurance and stretching exercises included bicycle riding and exercise designed to stretch various muscles. The vestibular rehabilitation program included balance exercises on various surfaces, arm movements while kneeling, head movements on a trampoline and while fixating on different objects, and ball catching while walking; the program also included three types of eye movement exercises. Exercise programs were performed for 60 minutes twice a week in the clinic; a daily home exercise program, consisting of a subset of exercises performed in the clinic,