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Day in Health
by Lisa Collier Cool
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Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Health Topics
Ann Romney says a 2,500-year-old therapy saved my life after she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1998. New studies show that the treatment shes usingtherapeutic horseback ridingreally does have some remarkable benefits to rein in symptoms of MS and other debilitating diseases. "I was very, very weak and very much worried about my life, thinking I was going to be in a wheelchair as well," the wife of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney stated on Good Morning America. "After I turned to horses, my life has been dramatically different. They gave me the energy, the passion to get out of bed when I was so sick that I didn't think I'd ever want to get out of bed." Learn About Celebrities Who Live With MS
A Devastating Diagnosis
In late 1998, Romneys symptomsincluding extreme fatigue and numbness in her right legwere so severe that she couldnt get out of bed. She was hospitalized and treated with IV steroids intended to halt the progression of multiple sclerosis, a chronic, unpredictable autoimmune disease affecting the brain and spinal cord. Up to three times more common in women than men, MS affects about 400,000 Americans and can cause blurred vision, loss of balance, slurred speech, tremors, extreme fatigue, brain fog, blindness and paralysis. While it can occur at any age, most people with MS are diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 50, reports the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. About 66 percent of people with MS can walk, but some need a cane or crutches or use a wheelchair or scooter at times. After six months of treatment with steroids, Romney switched to alternative therapies, including acupuncture and equine therapy. I really felt that I was on the fast track to being incapacitated for the rest of my life, so I thought, what do I really want to do that I haven't done in my life? she told Dressage Today. And I remembered my love of horses."
Is there any scientific evidence that horse therapy helps with MS symptoms?
A 2010 systematic review of three earlier studies of hippotherapy for MS patients reported medically documented improvements in balance and quality of life, with the greatest benefit for those with primary progressive MS, compared to other
subtypes of the disease. A 2009 randomized clinical trial found that MS patients who participated in hippotherapy for 20 minutes, once a week, for a three-week period, showed improvements in their ability to walk, endurance and gait, compared to a group of MS patients treated with physiotherapy that didnt involve horses.