The deeply relaxing state reached inside the Float tank benefits people who suffer Multiple Sclerosis by decreasing blood pressure while lowering adrenaline and cortisol levels. Response mechanisms in the brain react to what happens during sensory deprivation, resulting in a feeling of extreme relaxation, which leads to lowered blood pressure and decreased burnout, due to reduced flow of stress hormones.
Multiple Sclerosis also referred to as MS, is a progressive disease that hurts the central nervous system. This condition might result in the distortion of body signals to the spine and the brain. As this condition develops, it severely impacts the mind and body. Furthermore, as a result, it can cause immense pain, fatigue, stress, and a series of other health problems.
In addition to this, MS damages the digestion, vision, and motor skills. According to several testimonials, people who have multiple Sclerosis can reap a wide array of benefits from REST (Reduced Environmental Stimulation Therapy). This article includes some of the techniques that describe How Flotation Therapy treats multiple Sclerosis.
What is Float therapy, and who invented it?
Floatation-REST (Reduced Environmental Stimulation Therapy) decreases sensory input to the nervous system through the act of floating horizontally in a pool of water saturated with Epsom salt. The float therapy experience is calibrated so that sensory signals from visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, thermal, tactile, vestibular, gravitational, and proprioceptive channels are minimized, as is most movement and speech.
The history of Flotation (REST) dates back to the 1950s when Drs. Jay Shurley and John Lilly at the National Institute of Mental Health in the USA grew interested in learning how the human brain would react to an environment devoid of external sensory input.
Float therapy is recognized to be a practice that promotes relaxation and wellness and ensures better sleep. Floating also offers relief from chronic pain. With regular use of the sensory deprivation tank, patients who have multiple Sclerosis can receive a variety of health and mental benefits. Floating relieves the tension and stress accumulated over the due course of time.
The Float Pod.
Floating is practiced with the aid of an isolation tank, or chamber known as float tank, or float pod, which is a soundproof, light-proof, and pitch-black tank filled with thirteen inches of a water solution (around 500kg of Epsom Salt) heated to skin temperature. As the environment is created, a person can float on the water surface effortlessly.
It is known to all that stress can produce high blood pressure. However, while in the float tank, the body enters into a state of deep relaxation never felt before; thus, playing a vital role in lowering blood pressure significantly. With the relaxation, comes stress-relief. Floating enhances the flow of blood, thereby reducing hypertension.
Another benefit people with MS can get while practicing floating is the fact the floating also provides muscle and joint relief by reducing the pressure exerted on the body by gravity. As a result, float therapy has been proven to be an excellent remedy for the prevention of swelling due to bad circulation.
How can a float tank benefit someone with MS?
Too often, mixed MS symptoms intervene with health, safety, independence, and quality of life, while co-existing health conditions and difficulties can increase disability and possibly decrease a person’s life. Family members frequently feel left to their own devices as they provide care for a loved one while attempting to manage additional responsibilities at home and work, and attend to their individual health needs.
Floating can assist someone with MS by providing a better quality night of sleep.
Patients with multiple Sclerosis can have trouble falling asleep. However, reports suggest that people who have floated have found significant improvements in their sleeping patterns over the due course of time. With consistency, they have gained great success in reaching a restful sleep.
Float Therapy lowers stress levels.
The symptoms of multiple Sclerosis can lead to a tremendous amount of stress. Patients who have tried consistently floating in the past can find immense relief in the float tanks. As they enter the tank, the sensory input is limited. As a result of the sensory deprivation, the body enters a state of total relaxation.
During the time, the happy hormones of the human body, such as endorphins, are known to be released. It also leads to the reduction of stress hormones. It helps people to feel better all around.
As patients continue to “float”, the therapy shows to be useful in preventing the build-up as well as the accumulation of stress. In addition to this, float therapy is effective in reducing the symptoms of anxiety, such as tight muscles and increased blood pressure. As stress is reduced significantly, it boosts positive mental health. In addition to this, it offers support to the well being and healthy life. Patients who have multiple Sclerosis can find a reduction in the symptoms by undergoing float therapy.
Float Therapy relieves pain in muscles and joints.
Gravity is not a factor inside the float tank, and it is because of that reason that the body gets into a complete relaxation while floating, but, how can people with MS benefit? People with multiple Sclerosis are continuously in distress; When a patient gets into the float tank, every single muscle in the body gets into an absolute relaxation state, which is much-needed for someone dealing with MS.
It is also important to note that magnesium sulfate is a great muscle relaxant and a “protein builder” for joints. While floating, not only you decompress, but your body is absorbing the minerals in the water, and it has a direct effect on the muscles. As soon as you step out of the tank, and your float session has ended, you will immediately feel less tension in your muscles and a sense of total rejuvenation on both mind and body.
How float tanks offer relief from migraines for people dealing with MS.
Many people with MS suffer from migraines, a severe and often debilitating class of a headache. At their worst, migraines send people to the emergency room, cutting in on their work, leisure, and family lifestyle. Some even encounter them for multiple days a month, greatly diminishing their quality of life.
While nothing is a replacement for medical attention, flotation therapy can help you find relief from migraines if you suffer from MS. Float therapy releases endorphins—hormones that act as “natural painkillers.”
Additionally, float therapy at Indigo Float involves no internal or external stimulation. Noise, light, and movement won’t reach you; this allows your brain to withdraw from the stimuli that can often produce a migraine. At Indigo float centers in Denver, Jacksonville, and Orlando, you can float in total darkness in one of our sensory deprivation tanks away from these triggers, buoyed by 1000 Lb of Epsom salt. Without continuous stimulation, your brainwaves shift. This happens quicker in a float tank than practically anywhere else. Your brain and body will be ready to use their additional sources for healing, which will lower symptoms and headaches over time. Your body will gradually recalibrate its chemicals and metabolic levels, reducing your chance of imbalances that contribute to more migraines. Floating is an effortless, natural, and enjoyable way to free yourself from chronic pain without the need for drugs or other invasive techniques.
Many chronic pain (fibromyalgia) and MS sufferers find relief through meditation.
Some of the proven benefits float therapy has for fibromyalgia include:
⦁ Reduces stress, or improves the ability to handle stress better, by lowering cortisol levels.
⦁ Promotes deep relaxation, eliminating fatigue.
⦁ Assists in battling insomnia.
⦁ Develops focus and concentration.
⦁ Increases dopamine production.
⦁ Lessens pain by relaxation and hormone production.
Floating prevents the tendency of a person towards developing diabetes. Besides this, it is also useful in preventing the symptoms of autism, arthritis, fibromyalgia, and other conditions.
Experience of a patient who has multiple Sclerosis before float therapy.
Before the flotation therapy session, MS sufferers usually deal with a series of physical issues. Muscle tightness and spasticity in arms and hands are among those. Pain and neuralgia in parts of the neck and face, and brain fog. On top of all that, anxiety plays a significant role.
As the float session starts, patients recall remarkably simple to focus only on your breath and felt themselves going into a meditative and relaxing state. While floating, people can tune in to their own body, including breathing and heartbeat – so, sometimes, the term “sensory deprivation” can be switched for “sensory enhancement.”
Experience of a patient who has multiple Sclerosis after flotation.
Patients suffering from MS who floated regularly reported a decrease in pain, with the highest level of relief in the upper back, and the lowest in the legs. This shows that float tanks help with chronic pain.
As you come out of the isolation tank, you are going to enjoy optimum relaxation and calmness. In addition to this, you will find that your muscles have loosened and become lesser tensed.
A Float therapy Experience from someone dealing with chronic pain.
Jennifer Langdon credits floating with being a transformative experience in her life. She had lived with chronic pain and near-constant stress for years until she determined she required to make some significant changes. In trying out a range of alternative methods, Jennifer came across sensory deprivation float tanks, and from the start, she was all in. From the first float, she accounts for her experience at the 2018 Float Conference.
If you know, someone suffering from MS multiple Sclerosis, reach out and inform him/her about the benefits float therapy can bring to their lives. The Flotation Sanctuary is committed to delivering mental health awareness to the community as well as providing a most needed quiet time to everyone dealing with MS.
