Clonus is what happens when your nerves don't send messages to the brain that your muscle needs to stop holdind a deep tendon reflex, one that should happen in concert with your reflexes to contract and relax your muscles. This causes your foot, leg, knee, wrist, ankle to jerk when it shouldn't.
Testing for clonus at the ankle is often one of the first tests for multiple sclerosis that a doctor will do. My doctor did that and my foot started stomping up and down like crazy---and I couldn't stop it. After a few years of MS, my knee to foot started bouncing out of control. Very scary.
I finally taught myself, using yoga principles of going INTO the affected area, how to make it stop. I was DX MS in 1990 and now can stop any clonus. My clonus is very position--it happens mostly when my foot/knee/leg is in a certain position. Avoid, and embrace to control, has worked very well for me.
Not surprisingly, clonus comes from the Greek for "violent, confused motion," and that says it well. Have someone hold your foot firmly in the middle, if it bounces up and down then you might want to see a doctor. (Unless you already have MS.) Other neurological conditions can also bring on clonus.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
MS WORD OF THE DAY: CLONUS
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Clonus is what happens when your nerves don't send messages to the brain that your muscle needs to stop holdind a deep tendon reflex, one that should happen in concert with your reflexes to contract and relax your muscles. This causes your foot, leg, knee, wrist, ankle to jerk when it shouldn't.
Testing for clonus at the ankle is often one of the first tests for multiple sclerosis that a doctor will do. My doctor did that and my foot started stomping up and down like crazy---and I couldn't stop it. After a few years of MS, my knee to foot started bouncing out of control. Very scary.
I finally taught myself, using yoga principles of going INTO the affected area, how to make it stop. I was DX MS in 1990 and now can stop any clonus. My clonus is very position--it happens mostly when my foot/knee/leg is in a certain position. Avoid, and embrace to control, has worked very well for me.
Not surprisingly, clonus comes from the Greek for "violent, confused motion," and that says it well. Have someone hold your foot firmly in the middle, if it bounces up and down then you might want to see a doctor. (Unless you already have MS.) Other neurological conditions can also bring on clonus.
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