NeuroSuitTM: a new cerebral palsy therapy
IAN MULLANE sheds light on how a revolutionary medical therapy is rapidly improving the mobility and quality of life of children and adults with neurological and orthopaedic ailments - including his daughter Zara.
TF: What's the best thing that's happened to your family since moving to Singapore?
IM: Since our move from the UK eight years ago, definitely the birth our daughter, Zara, in February 2006. Zara was born with cerebral palsy, but her quality of life has steadily improved thanks to the NeuroSuitTM.
TF: What is the NeuroSuitTM?
IM: The NeuroSuitTM, founded by Patricia Hernandez, is an affordable, non-invasive rehabilitative treatment. It improves the range of mobility in children and adult patients with Cerebral Palsy and neurological and orthopaedic ailments as a result of stroke, Down syndrome, spasticity, traumatic brain injury, oxygen deprivation and spinal cord injury. The suit is comprised of a vest, shorts, knee pads, elbow pads, gloves, shoes and a hat, all woven together using bungee cords.
TF: What are its benefits?
IM: The bungee cords act as a muscle frame. Just wearing the suit provides a correction in the posture of the body and extremities, which provides a vertical load on antigravity muscles. This allows the normalisation of afferent messages from muscles and joints to the brain, activating motor centres in the body's central nervous system.
Coupled with the NeuroSuit MethodTM, which involves a range of exercises, the suit stimulates the brain systems' delayed in development. And with the normalisation of afferent input from the wearer's muscles and joints, it creates new pathways to-and-from the central nervous system. This strengthens weak muscles and creates the repetition of new skills, allowing the creation of new movement patterns even when the person isn't wearing the suit.
TF: How has NeuroSuitTM therapy enhanced Zara's life?
IM: Zara is steadier on her feet and the suit provides a platform for her therapy to become significantly more effective. Our dream is simply for Zara to reach her full potential.
TF: What activities do you, Zara and the family enjoy?
IM: A great deal, including swimming, travelling and following the Young Lions S League football!
Breaking medical ground
NeuroSuitTM, developed by Occupational Therapist Patricia Hernandez, is the only suit offering a complete mode of therapy to include the upper extremities - an area of treatment not yet seen in other suits available in the market. The NeuroSuit concept originated in the Russian Space Program in the 1970s, in the form of a compression suit used to combat the negative effects of weightlessness in prolonged space flights. In the US, 77 percent of children with a host of neurological ailments who underwent the NeuroSuit method experienced improved results in their range of motion, within just three weeks of intensive suit therapy totalling 60 hours. Patients such as world-renowned TV personality Dick Clark have benefited from the wonders of this impressive technology. www.neurosuitasia.com
Posted Feb 2011
