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I know that heat makes my symptoms get worse and that hottubs are lethal but in the UK we are having a big cold snap and temperatures have been below freezing for days. I have noticed that the colder I am, especially if I am outside, the worse my symptoms get - my leg becomes very difficult to control, the dragging and dropping is severe and my walking becomes very spastic.

Is that normal?

it's normal for me... my nerve conductivity is more impaired outside a narrow range. i work outside in extremes of temperature. i know hands can stiffen up in the cold, but i think it happens to mine faster these days. and as you'd expect, if i get my core temperature up too high, my whole body will lame out.

Me too.

The cold is the worst thing - it makes my leg stiff. Recently I have noticed the hot tub effect too. It reduces sensation.

Roll on summer.



J.

Jacuzzi a.k.s hot tubs should be used with precautions if using for therapeutic purposes because certain bodily conditions warrant some amount of prudence. In MS, heat intolerance is normal and in fact, for many years, the "hot bath test” was used to diagnose MS. A person suspected of having MS was immersed in a hot tub of water, and watched to see if neurological symptoms appeared or got worse, which would earn them a diagnosis of MS. So basically, you should avoid taking hot tubs. They would just enhance your symptoms of MS. Please find any alternative for that as this would only harm you. God Bless!

As an FYI - this is yet another thread that Andrea bumped from 4 years ago, from 2009. Andrea, the problem with your habit of continually bumping truly old, aged threads without noting their date is that often members spend much effort to come up with a thoughtful reply to the original posters, who may not have even visited the forum in years.

But, since you've brought up the topic, I have to agree with some of the other posters that cold weather is MUCH worse for my body.

I dont have MS but would think that cold would make MS worse because it deranges my immune system. It suppresses mine, but then in an attempt to overcome that, my body compensates by turning on my immune system, but it does not do so in the usual way, such that it actually causes damage to my brain, such that for many hours afterward, if I get cold long enough, my dopamine is suppressed, and my brain feels like it has a scar across the front and I feel slightly sick. This brain symptom may not be as pronounced in others as it is for me due to the fact I have some brain damage , making injury to it easier. But have you notice that after being real cold for a longish time, when you get back inside you will feel sleepy? That would probably be due to the fact that when my brain is in the process of healing after injury it makes me very sleepy, the cold not causing the injury directly , but indirectly by triggering thi above described imperfect immunity enhancement.

PS I know it is my immune system that is in this compensating state that is causing the brain damage rather than the cold because as soon as my immune system , which I can monitor as described in another thread, gets turned on, my tinnitus gets worse, and it always gets worse immediately when my brain is being injured.

Steve Lord