For Jason, small wins stack up to real progress. Diagnosed with relapsing–remitting multiple sclerosis in 2012, Jason lives with his wife and three dogs in Arizona. For years, fatigue has been his greatest challenge. “You're constantly battling it. You have good days, you have bad days,” he said. “Once I get going, I’m fine. But changing direction is hard.”
Jason had worn the first-generation Neural Sleeve for more than a year, and already felt that it made a difference. But wearing the Neural Sleeve 2 as part of Cionic’s home trial has not only improved what he’s able to do during the day, but how well he sleeps at night.
“The ability to walk is completely different,” he said. “Going back for the bathroom would be all I’d be able to do without the sleeve. [But] with the sleeve, I can go to the store with my wife, I can stand up and watch TV for an hour.”
"I rarely wake up with leg cramps"
One of Jason’s biggest improvements has been with spasticity, one of the most common yet inadequately controlled barriers to mobility. It affects 84% of people with multiple sclerosis. For Jason, it meant tossing and turning with nightly cramps that woke him up nearly every hour.
“I rarely wake up with leg cramps anymore,” he said. “[Now], I pretty much lay in one position all night… It’s your best medicine. Since I got the new sleeve, I’m sleeping better. And my wife is sleeping better because I’m sleeping better.”
The sleeve has also eased his pain. “I haven’t opened a Tylenol bottle in weeks. That’s different…. I can’t put a price on that.”
Becky Webster, Cionic’s VP of Clinical Operations and Research, said that many Cionic users have shared similar struggles with spasticity or muscle spasms, and the Neural Sleeve 2 was designed to help manage these kinds of symptoms. In addition to the motor stimulation that is triggered depending on which muscles are activated during the gait cycle, the new sleeve also includes continuous sensory stimulation to relax muscle spasms. That sensory component can be used standalone or with the gait program. In the home trial, which Jason was a part of, participants reported a 30% improvement spasticity over motor stimulation alone.
More daily steps in just weeks
In addition to the improvements in spasticity, Jason said the new sleeve was easier to put on and take off, encouraging him to use it more consistently and with great comfort. As a result, he said he’s moving more than ever.
“My average has jumped about 500 steps a day,” he said. “In just four or five weeks.”
Looking ahead, he knows progress doesn’t mean instant results, but he’s motivated by meaningful changes that come from small, repeatable actions. He tracks steps in the Cionic App and sets manageable goals, like breaking his walking into three chunks and aiming for 1,000 steps at a time.
“It took years for my body to get like this. I can’t expect instant change. But if I look back a month, I can do things I couldn’t do before,” he said. “It was like I [used to] feel good one day a week. Now I feel good every other day.”
And he said his mood has definitely improved too. “I’m not putting all my energy into not hurting and not putting all my energy into movement,” he said. “The movement’s less stressful, easier, and less painful. So it’s better.”
Watch Jason's full interview on the Cionic podcast to hear about his journey with MS and how the Neural Sleeve 2 has helped with his spasticity.
