Comparing the Effects of Selected Exercises and Ginger Consumption on Physical Characteristics in Young Girls with Multiple Sclerosis

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease of the Central Nervous System (CNS) and often occurs between the ages of 20 and 40years. It is twice likely to affect women, considering their inflammatory conditions and bodily changes. Due to unclear immune system issues, the disease damages the white matter of myelin and creates numerous plaques in this area. The cause of developing plaque in the disease is the infiltration of lymphocytes and macrophages into the brain and inflammatory reactions. MS is a chronic autoimmune disease, progressively destroys myelin and impairs the CNS in young adults. It has spread throughout the world in recent years. Although the Middle East region is at low risk of developing the disease, its prevalence has increased over the past few years. Iran, as one of the countries in this region, has a moderate to high rate of MS prevalence. Furthermore, due to the high cost of pharmacotherapy for controlling MS symptoms as well as numerous complications arising from them, applying complementary therapies for this disease is rising. Therefore, the current study investigated the effect of selected exercises and ginger consumption on the physical characteristics of young girls with MS.

This was a quasi–experimental study with a pretest–posttest design. The statistical population of the present study included young girls with MS, referring to the MS Society and Welfare Organization of Urmia City, Iran. Forty women with MS were randomly divided into 4 groups of 10; control, placebo, exercise + supplement (ginger), and supplement (ginger). Before and after conducting the protocol, all subjects participated in the tests of muscular strength, muscular endurance, flexibility, and balance. Then, intervention groups conducted Pilate’s exercises, and central stability exercises three sessions per week for an additional 12 weeks. The recipient groups of ginger daily received three grams of ginger after the meal, and the placebo group received three grams of maltodextrin capsules once a day. To analyze the data, Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was conducted in SPSS.

The obtained results suggested that in the weight variable, all three intervention groups were compared with the control group (p<0.001), exercise + placebo and exercise + supplement (ginger) (p<0.001) and exercise + supplement group (ginger) with supplement (ginger) (p<0.001); however, there was no significant difference between the exercise + placebo and supplement (ginger) groups. In other words, the exercise + placebo and exercise + supplementation (ginger) groups were superior to the supplement group (ginger) in the weight variable and demonstrated significant decreases in weight. In the BMI, there was a significant difference between the three intervention groups, compared to the controls (p<0.001) and exercise + supplement (ginger) with supplement (ginger) groups (p=0.024). However, there was no significant difference between the exercise + placebo and the exercise +supplement (ginger) groups (p<0.001) as well as the exercise + placebo and supplementation (ginger) group (p=0.685). In other words, the exercise + supplement group (ginger) was superior to other groups in the BMI and revealed a significant decrease in BMI. In the endurance index, all three intervention groups were significantly different from the control group (p<0.001), exercise + placebo, and supplement (ginger) (p<0.001), as well as exercise + supplementation (ginger) and supplement (ginger) groups (p=0.025). However, there was no significant difference between the exercise + placebo and exercise + supplementation (ginger) groups (p=0.497). In other words, the exercise + supplement group (ginger) was superior to the other groups in the endurance variable and suggested a significant increase in endurance. In the strength variable, all three intervention groups were compared with the control group (p<0.001), exercise + placebo and exercise + supplement (ginger) (p<0.001) as well as the exercise + supplement and supplement (ginger) groups (p<0.001); however, there was no significant difference between the exercise + placebo and supplement (ginger) groups (p<0.001). In other words, the exercise + supplement group was superior to other groups in the power variable and indicated a significant increase in power. Besides, the exercise + supplement group (ginger) was superior to the other groups in terms of flexibility and demonstrated a significant increase in flexibility. Finally, in the balance variable, all three intervention groups had a significant difference compared to the controls (p<0.001); however, there was no significant difference between the intervention groups in this regard. In other words, there was no superiority in the intervention type in the balance variable between the study groups.

Performing selected exercises with ginger consumption could significantly affect the physical characteristics of people with MS. Therefore, implementing a training program with the use of ginger positively influenced the performance of the studied girls with MS.