What to do if your muscles atrophy due to long-term bed rest

For some patients, they will be bedridden for a long time, especially paralyzed patients. The impact of long-term bedrest is relatively large, which can easily cause muscle atrophy and aggravate the condition. Therefore, for people who are bedridden for a long time, they should also pay attention to moderate exercise during the period of bedrest. If their ability and conditions permit, they can move their bodies frequently. Usually, family members or caregivers can also do some massage and physical therapy, which can help slow down muscle atrophy.

What to do if your muscles atrophy due to long-term bed rest

1. Provide good psychological care and pay attention to the patient's ideological work. Paralysis brings a heavy mental burden to patients. Family members must encourage patients to be optimistic and open-minded, build up confidence in overcoming the disease, enable them to cooperate with medical staff and family members, perform functional exercises of paralyzed limbs as soon as possible, and prevent joint deformities and muscle atrophy. 2. Maintain the functional position of the limbs. The finger joints of the paralyzed limbs should be extended and slightly flexed. A piece of sponge can be placed in the patient's hand; the elbow joint should be slightly flexed; the shoulder joint of the upper limb should be slightly abducted to avoid adduction of the joint; extend the hip and knee joints; to prevent foot drop, the ankle joint should be slightly dorsiflexed; to prevent external rotation of the lower limbs, sandbags or other support objects should be placed on the outer side.