The main aim of Aquatic Therapy is to provide patients with better movement solutions to compliment land-based rehabilitation and assist in functional recovery. The patients with various neurological disorders like stroke, spinal cord injury, cerebral palsy, autism, muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, parkinson’s disease, motor neuron disease, cerebellar ataxia, spinal muscular atrophy, down syndrome can be treated with aquatic therapy.
Physical Improvement:
Aquatic Therapy improves muscle strength, voluntary control, sitting, hand function standing & walking balance.
Physiological Improvement:
It increases cardiac endurance, breathing capacity, concentration & attention span, body awareness, a greater degree of freedom for performing various movements that are not possible on land.
Therapeutic Changes:
Aquatic Therapy uses hydrodynamic principles of water to reduce spastic dystonia, pain during stretching exercises, hyperactivity & to restore body structure & function, to overcome activity limitations and facilitate participation to fulfil their roles independently in daily life physically & socially to the maximum extent possible in their current environment.
Regenerative medicine treatments offered using cell transplantation require rigorous rehabilitation. In many of the neurological disorders this may be limited on land due to activity limitation. Synaptogenesis and synaptic pruning is activity dependent, which means, the greater the activity better will be formation new neuronal networks. This increases the plasticity of the brain. Aquatic therapy also helps to increase secretion of certain neuroprotective chemicals in the body, like Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor, BDNF and reduced inflammation. This coupled with the benefits of goal oriented therapy resonate with the benefits of cell transplantation. It is essential to combine these treatments for optimum clinical improvement.
