Sunday, March 18, 2012
Vicki's MS Gazette Debuts
There is a headline with the beginning of an article, just enough to let you decide if you want to read this particular article. If the first one doesn't excite you, scroll down. You will see other headlines over short blurbs. Like one? Click to see the full text.
Vicki's MS Gazette collects news and stories from around all edges of the available social media.Enjoy.
Wednesday, November 09, 2011
MS Progressive Types: What Type Are You?
MS Progressive Types: Primary Progressive and Progressive Relapsing
MS Progressive Types: Progressive Treatment Trials
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Create a cloud
Friday, October 21, 2011
Monday, April 25, 2011
Voting for Chelsea's Hope
Michael is supporting Chelsea's Hope, a non-profit for Lafora Children Research Fund. Please vote for Chelsea's Hope.
To learn more about Chelsea's Hope, CLICK HERE.
And just in case you missed it, please vote for Chelsea's Hope. Just CLICK HERE. Come back and vote every day until May. Tell your friends. This is a good thing, and it is easy.
Thank you.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Paralympics, Sports and MS
Do you know what my favorite part of the game is? The opportunity to play. ~Mike Singletary
Exercise is recommended for MSers to help maintain their abilities and general health. However, most MSers have to limit their workouts to fit their abilities. You didn’t think your MS diagnosis meant the end of your active sports life, did you? Here is the story of others who may have thought so, but learned life can still be active and even thrilling.
Some WWII veterans thought their lives were effectively over because of injuries that occurred during the war, but their government would not let them give up. They had been trained, they were strong, and there was so much life left to live. Let’s see what they did to improve their quality of life and to make life worth living.
The British government, after World War II, asked Dr. Ludwig Guttmann to work with spinal injuries in war veterans. Guttmann founded the Stoke Mandeville Hospital. To further veteran's therapy, the doctor used sport for rehabilitation, and in 1948 their therapy turned to sport which turned to competitive games. At first there were 14 men and two women competing annually in the game of archery.
Over the years, there were changes to these games as they expanded offering opportunities to many people with disabilities. They were demonstrating to the world that having a disability does not necessarily put an end to their productive life.
Following are some highlights of Dr. Guttmann’s sports therapy and how it evolved:
- Injured Dutch servicemen joined in the games by 1952, making this activity truly an international competition for the first time.
- By 1960, these games had been opened to athletes with disabilities who were not military.
- That year the competition was hosted in Rome following the Olympics, creating the first Paralympic games.
- Rome hosted the Paralympics after the Olympics; however, those facilities were not wheelchair accessible (surprise!) and military personnel assisted athletes between venues.
- In 1960 there were 400 athletes competing from 23 countries.
- In 1976 athletes, were no longer limited to wheelchairs.
- Improvements were made in designing and constructing facilities for wheelchairs as well as more types of disabilities.
- By 2004, there were almost 4,000 athletes and by that time there were even more than 3,000 media representatives, meaning the world was taking interest.
- Beijing hosted over 3,900 athletes from 148 countries
- In 2010, Summer Paralympics offered 420 events in 20 sports. Winter Olympics had 64 events in 5 sports.
“Para” represented paraplegic at first, but as athletes with more and different disabilities were included, the meaning of the prefix was changed to the Greek “parallel” for “side-by-side.” By then it represented the fact that Paralympics could be considered as equal to the Olympics. These two sports events developed and were scheduled “side by side,” Paralympics after the Olympics, often in the same venue.
Paralympic games, like the Olympics, are now a multi-sport event comprised of international multi-sport events including world-class athletes with disabilities.
Paralympians have been searching for funding equal to Olympians, as well as opening the games to more sports such as track and field. There are even talks about Paralympians once again being eligible to try out and participate in the Olympics, athletes with disabilities competing head-to-head against athletes with no disabilities - athlete vs. athlete and equal opportunity.
The games began as rehabilitation for athletes with spinal cord injuries, soon adding mobility disabilities, amputations, blindness, and Cerebral Palsy. There was always a category called others so athletes with other disabilities, such as multiple sclerosis, can also participate. Today, people with all types of disabilities either play, or are interested in playing, in the Paralympic games. In fact, MSers have participated and with an admirable degree of success.
Of course I do not know about all of the MS Paralympians, but I do know some. In 2008, equestrian team Great Britain at the Paralympics in Beijing included MSers, both Simon Laurens and Anne Durham. Simon Laurens is in the top 10% of the 100 paralympic riders in the UK. Great Britain has acquired more medals for Paralympic dressage in the last 25 years than any other sport. Let me repeat that: Great Britain has acquired more medals for Paralympic dressage in the last 25 years than any other sport.
One rider is a team member for the fifth time. Anne Dunham, who is in the most disabled category of Para Dressage riders, has won a team gold as well as an individual bronze. In this category, medals recognize both world class athletes and horses.
Equestrian events are perfect for MSers since hippotherapy is such a good therapy for us. However, there are so many more sports that work for us, too.
Dr. Guttmann’s initial idea was to use sports as a rehabilitation tool. Sports are a way to keep in shape, to feel better about ourselves, and to remind us we are still capable of doing all kinds of things. We are still capable of being thrilled.
Notes and Links:
Wikipedia on Paralympics
History of Paralympic Games
Saturday, February 05, 2011
Food and MS
Last year I wrote a series about that question called Food and MS. Here are the articles that made up that series:
Food and MS
Food and MS: Beginning to Prepare your Kitchen
Food and MS: Tools, Utensils, and Counter Top Utensils
Food and MS: Tips for Cooking
Food and MS: Let's Go Shopping
Food and MS: Diets
Food and MS: Nutrition
Food and MS: Nutritional Food Sources
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Quality of Life for Children
Here is my contribution last week about Pediatric MS in MultipleSclerosisCentral.com. Children with MS are subject to a Quality of Life that plummets.
This is a section of Health Central.
Pediatric MS: Quality of Life?
Young people with multiple sclerosis still make up a small minority of those with the disease, and it has been only recently that Pediatric MS has even been recognized. Just as with MS when it was first recognized, diagnostic criteria were unclear and treatments were on a trial-and-error basis. There was not a great deal of awareness of ... Read moreSunday, August 15, 2010
Pediatric MS - MS-like Symptoms
This is a section of Health Central.
Pediatric MS: Is it MS?
When a child exhibits MS-like symptoms, it probably means he or she has a problem with myelin. Whether the diagnosis turns out to be MS or not depends on the condition and the lesions. Kids Get MS, Too, by Jayne Ness MD-PhD FAAP, FAAN, tells the story of children 18 and under who have demyelinating conditions. It was published by the ... Read more
Pediatric MS Centers of Excellence - Read more
Pediatric MS: Resources for Kids, Teens, and Parents - Read more
Thursday, August 05, 2010
Introduction to Pediatric Multiple Sclerosis
Pediatric MS is recognized by the medical community, but more education and more awareness is needed. MS is not affecting just young adults. MS possibly affects everyone. This is a section of Health Central.
Pediatric MS - We Did Not Know
Education about Pediatric MS is on the rise, and more children under 18 are being diagnosed with MS. With all of the new information and education, there is still a need for awareness that children have MS, too. Children are often misdiagnosed or not diagnosed at all. For so long, MS was misunderstood. In the 1950's, when I was a child, it was... Read more