Boosting Mobility and Walking With Neurostimulation

PoNS therapy is not something you just pop in your mouth while walking around the house. It’s part of a structured 14-week rehabilitation program led by a specially trained physical therapist.

After the device is prescribed, you will meet a PoNS-certified therapist who will complete an evaluation of your walking and endurance and then create a plan according to your goals, says Christina Arbogast, a physical therapist and a registered PoNS trainer at Elliot Rehabilitation Services in Manchester, New Hampshire.

“At the first follow-up appointment, we typically review the protocol, make recommendations for specific exercises for motor control and balance, and prepare the patient for the next visit, when we will start the first phase of the therapy,” says Arbogast.

First Two Weeks Typically, people using PoNS meet with a rehabilitation professional who activates the device, provides training, and supervises early exercise sessions.

Ongoing Program (Weeks 3–14) After about two weeks, the therapy is performed mostly at home with periodic check-ins with the therapist on progress and to make any exercise adjustments. Occasional clinic visits are used for data collection and retraining if needed.

Daily Routine and “Dosing” Device use is measured in minutes during exercise, and an average of 100 to 120 minutes per day is recommended to get the best results. Clinical studies show that the therapy’s effectiveness depends on adherence to the schedule of daily exercise, combined with device use.

A typical daily training schedule might include morning and afternoon sessions that would include:

• 20 minutes of balance training
• 20 minutes of gait training
• 20 minutes of breathing and awareness training

The combined time for the twice-daily sessions would add up to two hours a day.

To complete the 14-week program, people should be ready to dedicate a significant amount of their time to improving their health, says Arbogast. “Without that understanding, people can easily be overwhelmed and may potentially give up,” she says.