Question: I am a 77-year-old woman who had polio at the age of nine. I lost the use of my legs, but, with intensive physical therapy, I made a decent recovery enabling me to lead a pretty normal life—minus things like skiing, running, etc. I just had an evaluation at Rancho Los Amigos in California and the recommendation is that I severely limit the many activities I do in order to preserve the strength I still have (hips at 40% of normal). I have mild discomfort if I overdo it but am not in any real pain. Recently I read an article about the use of acupuncture therapy in polio cases.
Do you know if there have been any studies in the US about this? The article refers to pain but also the effectiveness of muscle stimulation.
Dr. Maynard: Thank you for your question. Acupuncture can be helpful in controlling muscle or joint pain, but I am unaware of any evidence that it can be helpful in improving strength in post-polio weakened muscles not inhibited by pain. Similarly, muscle stimulation has not been shown to be helpful for improving strength in post-polio weakened muscles.
I would encourage you to remain active in spite of your apparent weakening as long as you have no signs of overuse. These would include sharp or aching pain in your muscles after a lot of use or strenuous use and/or severe fatigue or exhaustion after activities. Polio survivors like you have to walk the fine line between overuse of muscles leading to acceleration of age-related deterioration of polio damaged motor nerves and underuse of muscles that can also lead to weakness by accelerating disuse atrophy.
Post-Polio Health (Vol. 39, No. 1, Winter 2023)