Multiple Sclerosis

"The results clearly indicate that the device helps patients with MS control their gait. The degree of improvement is proportional to the degree of impairment. The results support the potential role of the device as a rehabilitation modality in MS, and substantiate their specific implementation in efforts to alleviate, improve, and restore mobility in patients with gait disturbances due to neurological disorders in general."

Ariel Miller, MD, Multiple Sclerosis Center, Carmel Medical Center and Rappaport Faculty of Medicine & Research Institute

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"I have MS, use a walker and would like to stand up straight and walk as normally as possible, but I use the walker at work, etc because of my balance problems. I walk
with the Medigait [GaitAid] on the side of the house with a cane and use the wall for support. Since I started using the Medigait I could walk more, stand up straighter and walk more and not become nearly as tired when I practiced walking without it. I was starting to not lean on the wall so much for support, but the weather is hot now, but I will practice more anyway. It felt good to be able to walk more effortlessly and freely without feeling so much fatigue. I had to make myself stop sometimes after a while, It's an experience that feels good. My best hope now is relying on Tysabri to keep me stable and waiting for stem cell therapy (I hear it is happenning in Isreal), but in the meanwhile it's nice to have something non-invasive to help you walk better."

Karen Neely, Camarillo CA

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Dear Audrey and Amir,

You are changing the world: Some of us have new life because of you. I want to tell you my story and the part Medigait plays in it, in case it motivates other people to benefit from your work.

I became crippled in 2001, (though it took until 2006 before a doctor suggested that the cause might be Multiple Sclerosis). I didn’t let it stop me. And my condition was bad. The physician who treated me the first year told me that 70 % of folks who suffered what I did “climb into bed, never get back out, and do nothing with the rest of their lives.” For some reason, I couldn’t do that, I couldn’t give up. I don’t say this to brag; it is just my story, so it is the only one I can tell. For example, I wrote and sold two books, dictating their contents from bed.

For months I lay sick, trying to find spiritual answers to the overwhelming dilemmas long-term illness brought. The Divine filled my mind with lessons - - original prayers, meditations, spiritual exercises, visualizations, and other solutions, all of which helped me a great deal. (Yes, God spoke directly to me, my divine Parent and Teacher, as She will to anyone who listens.) I desperately needed the spiritual sustenance these lessons gave me.

I was in such bad physical shape that it took a year and a half before I could sit. I could not even be propped up by pillows in bed. I had to lie flat, because just a pillow under my head was too painful. That year and a half was not spent passively waiting; I had to be aggressive: For example, a physical therapist gave me mega-amounts of exercise to do. Another example: I refused pain meds. I am not against them, mind you, but I personally needed the feedback the pain gave me during physical therapy.

The exercise had to start very small. For example, my “walks” outside began with my inching my way along, shuffling, until I was thirty seconds away from my house, then I would carefully turn around, and shuffle the thirty seconds back home. That was a marathon!

I was so weak that speaking could injure me. At one point, the vertigo was bad enough that, if I got out of bed, I had to fall right back in or I would have fallen on the ground. The pain was awful. Despite all my efforts from the very beginning, I got weaker and weaker, until I was a few months from dying.

But I am a stubborn woman, and kept pushing. I now have another ten-thirty years in me.
I changed my diet, researched medicinal herbs, and so on. And, as I said, I applied the spiritual info that came from the Divine. I often ignored Western Medical views, became I didn’t like the odds they gave me. I cannot say in one letter all the things I did and all the things I changed to improve my health, but I needed to change everything. I even moved all the way across the U.S. because, in my case, healing demanded leaving the city and living in the country.

It is a miracle to be alive, to be able to sit all day now, and to be far higher functioning than I was seven years back. I can do all sort of things! I take long walks! (I can walk but I am not structurally stable. So I cannot stop or navigate around anything. I stay aloft by sheer momentum. But I live outside of town, where no one else walks, and I just start out the door and keep going. Aside from that, I usually have to be in a wheelchair to leave the house: If I was walking, and someone cut in front of me, I could not stop. I would just fall down, or slam into them; so my easily injured body would get badly hurt. But at least I can careen through the beautiful countryside!) Like many people with disabilities, I have figured out how to navigate “around” my physical limits somewhat.

Things keep improving. I have become strong enough that speaking is less exhausting. In fact, about a year ago I started being able to sing again, though my singing voice is not as strong as it was once. At that time, I also got strong enough to learn a musical instrument, something I could never have done even a few years ago.

It has been seven years since I woke up one morning crippled, and the lessons continue. Despite the fact that not many people improve to the degree I did, I am still seriously crippled. And I knew I could mend more, and faster. That’s when Medigait came into my life.

I had rejected the prevalent Western Medical model that scarred myelin sheath cannot be healed. I knew deep down that it could heal, or that at least it was possible to “rewire” the nervous system, so that if one part of it could not work, the messages usually relayed by that part could flow along a new pathway. I worked hard at making this happen, and had real success. But it was so hard doing it without support. I had to figure out, all on my own, how to accomplish it, step by step. I made up all sorts of methods. Luckily, I had training in everything from dance to shamanism to movement efficiency to inform me, and I also trusted my hunches and the sensory input my body gave me. Sure nuf, if part of my body could not do its job, another part would take over. ((Now I am finding articles by doctors and scientists who agree with me about rewiring the nervous system. It is a good thing that, a few years back, I didn’t listen to the professionals who said that what I am trying is impossible, or I would be in way worse shape!)

In any case, I wasn’t consistent with the rewiring sessions: It was too hard to make it all up, on top of physical therapy and the daily struggle of living with Multiple Sclerosis. Then I found out about Medigait: I believed it was possible to re-pattern the brain’s functions, and the GaitAid does it for me - - what a relief! I don’t have to create methods myself anymore! All I have to do is put on the GaitAid and follow the instructions that come with it. It does the work for me. Now, the repatterning is happening at a fast rate.

You guys did the research and testing needed to create Gaitaid. That is a lot of work, too much for me to do! My efforts to come up with techniques to accomplish some of what the Gaitaid does were truly successful. However, I had to keep refining the methods I created, on and on, which didn’t leave me with enough energy to consistently use what I was creating.

Medigait has helped me in other ways as well. Though my progress before Medigait was exceptional, it is not enough - - I want maximum progress! After experiencing insufficient improvement for such a long time, the Gaitaid motivates me to work toward all the health that is possible. I had lost my steam in some ways. But the progress possible with a Gaitaid made me believe in myself again! And it renewed my hope for recovery. As a result, I was able to recommit to a more vigorous physical therapy exercise program that I had done in recent years. That program, in and of itself, is improving my movement.

My sex drive has returned some recently. I think this is due to my overall health getting better, but I suspect that the GaitAd has played a part too, simply by waking up my body. It is a gift to feel sexual again.

Overcoming physical disabilities as extreme as mine does not happen if you think others should do all the work for you. I have to be pro-active. But the success I am having from the GaitAid gives me tremendous motivation to do whatever is needed to become as strong and healthy as possible.

Using the Gaitaid motivates me in another way, too. During practice sessions with it, I have better posture and an easier stride, both of which send my brain the message that I am strong and capable of dealing with this illness. It gives me a sense of empowerment. I feel more confident in my own ability to heal.

Because of the GaitAid, I have so much hope that I can get a lot better. Someday, maybe I will be strong enough to speak in the morning (I have times of day when I am less capable) and will be able to walk through a store or concert arena instead of being wheeled through. Maybe if I keep researching ways to overcome Multiple Sclerosis (MS), and keep applying what I discover, the exhaustion that plagues me daily will end. (The fatigue is still so great that I sometimes cannot think straight enough to put a sentence together, cannot go out often because it is too tiring, and have to limit how much I even talk. However, I am less tired that I used to be!)

When I first started using the GaitAid, I asked friends for feedback. One friend told me I lurched less from side to side when walking. I did not know I lurched, but the GaitAid lessened it anyway. (I guess the lurching was part of the constant momentum that keeps me aloft when walking.)

Another friend said that my lower body was much less clenched and tense when moving. (If my understanding of MS is right, it can cause spasms that won’t leave, despite stretches, massage, and the like. When I first got sick, my whole body was like a clenched fist, radically restricting movement. I am still unclenching, bit by bit. It takes a lot of persistence and experimenting.) It has been a few months of using the GaitAid now, so I asked for more feedback. She said I am even more relaxed while walking, and walk in a rhythmic and more fluid manner.

Today after doing my GaitAid session, I had a strong sense of my feet and legs UNDER me, holding me up. MS has made my feet somewhat numb, so today’s experience gives me hope and motivation.

One challenge I had after getting a GaitAid is that, though it is waking up the nerves needed to walk in a more balanced, fluid, normal gait, I still didn’t see how I could leave the house without a wheelchair. As I said, trying to walk, navigating around people in a store or office or even on the street, would badly injure me, because I am easily injured and structurally unstable. However, I am hoping that while the GaitAid is creating the nervous impulses (or whatever they are) to walk better, it is also waking up nerves that feed any muscles that might hold me steady. Perhaps as I walk more normal in the GaitAid sessions, the muscles to hold me thus will kick in. Also, as I said, I am doing more physical therapy, to the same ends. Mind you, the weakness is not just muscular; it is also in my joints. So the joints get seriously injured a lot. As I said, just speaking can damage me. But if my muscles get strong enough hold my joints in place well enough that they stop getting injured, maybe they will have a chance to get healthy and provide stability.

One last thing: Audrey, the support you give during our talks has been amazing. Your insights into how I use the Gaitaid and your suggestions about how I personally might best apply the Gaitaid have been so helpful.

Thank you. Thank you. Great inventions don’t always get used, no matter how much press or other attention they receive. So I don’t know how many people have bought your product yet. But whatever happens, keep going, because you are making such a difference for those of us who do use a GaitAid.

And that’s my story. Feel free to share it if it will help anyone.

Warmly,
Francesca De Grandis

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