Contact:
Elizabeth Blevins, Director, Office of Communications
Phyllis Noah, Communications Coordinator
Office: (740) 351-3810; FAX: (740) 351-3179; Cell: (740) 464-4854
940 Second Street – Portsmouth, Ohio 45662
E-mail: eblevins@shawnee.edu or pnoah@shawnee.edu
Web site: www.shawnee.edu

            Multiple sclerosis patients who live within a 30-mile radius of Portsmouth, Ohio, may be eligible to participate in a Shawnee State University Occupational Therapy graduate research project on aquatic exercise.
            The graduate program received a $5,000 incentive grant from SSU Development Foundation’s Student Undergraduate Research Experience Grant. The students are looking for six to 10 people to work with this semester.
            Included in the project are free support group meetings, free “easy on/off” bathing suits, free aqua shoes and free exercises two times each week. It is possible that the aquatic exercises will help improve fatigue and quality of life for MS patients.
            “There are studies that support the use of exercise to reduce the effects of fatigue which is one of the major symptoms of MS,” Ed Kehres, assistant professor of the MOT program said. “The use of aquatic exercise has limited research with the MS population, therefore we are studying the effect of aquatic exercise on fatigue.”
            The program is free for MS patients who qualify and there is limited enrollment. For more information, contact Kehres at (740) 351-3473 or Brittany Wolf at (419) 566-5933.