An article in Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair, Vol. 22, No. 6,706-714 (2008) considers the issue of "Rehabilitation of Reaching and Grasping Function in Severe Hemiplegic Patients Using Functional Electrical Stimulation"

The aim of this study was to establish the efficacy of a therapeutic intervention based on functional electrical stimulation (FES) therapy to improve reaching and grasping function after severe hemiplegia due to stroke.

The FES group improved significantly more than the control group in terms of object manipulation, palmar grip torque, pinch grip pulling force, Barthel Index, Upper Extremity Fugl—Meyer scores, and Upper Extremity Chedoke—McMaster Stages of Motor Recovery. The chronic stroke subjects demonstrated improvements in most categories, but the changes were not statistically significant.

An article published today at Washington University in St Louis suggests that Interferon could be a key to preventing or treating multiple sclerosis.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) results when the body's own defense system attacks nerve fibers in the brain and spinal cord. Now scientists led by John Russell, Ph.D., at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown that interferon-gamma plays a deciding role in whether immune cells attack and injure the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) in mice.

Interferon-gamma is an immune system protein that helps the body defend itself from invaders. In their latest research, which appeared in the October issue of the Journal of Experimental Medicine, the researchers show that interferon-gamma determined whether activated immune cells — previously primed to go after nerve cells — would actually cause nerve damage in experimental mice.

The researchers found that in the cerebellums and brainstems of the mice, interferon-gamma was protective. However, in the spinal cord, interferon-gamma had the opposite effect, permitting nerve cell damage.

"Some studies show that the most serious cases of MS in people occur when the immune system specifically targets the cerebellum, a part of the brain responsible for sensory perception, coordination and movement control," says Russell, professor of developmental biology. "Our study suggests that researchers need to look at the amount of interferon-gamma produced in the cerebellum and other brain regions in people with MS."

WebMD reports on an experimental multiple sclerosis drug that proved to be much more effective for the treatment of early MS than a widely used treatment in a study - but the efficacy came at a price.

Patients with early relapsing-remitting MS treated with the drug alemtuzumab had far fewer relapses and evidence of MS progression than patients treated with the approved treatment, interferon beta-1a.

Some patients who got the experimental drug had less disability associated with their disease three years after starting the study than at entry, raising hopes that the treatment might stop the disease in its tracks before it progresses to its crippling stage.

Multiple Sclerosis can restrict exercise participation and lead to a reduction in fitness. Along with this restriction goes a higher risk of health complications and illness in the longer term. 

It's understandable that many people with Multiple Sclerosis steer clear of regular exercise because they're afraid it might increase their fatigue or because they feel they simply aren't up to it.  But with a properly managed regime, always taking into account a person's individual limitations, exercise is a good thing both
physically and mentally.  In this article we examine whether FES Cycling can provide that precisely controlled exercise sought by persons with Multiple Sclerosis.