Self–help for quality of life:
There is no known cause or cure for multiple sclerosis. Therefore, changes to the way a person approaches the way they live their life are not supposed to be curative. However, there are known factors which are thought to trigger MS, or to provoke exacerbations once the MS process has started. So, changes may be adopted by a person with MS with the hope that they can minimise the effects of these risk factors, to slow the time between relapses, to reduce the severity of relapses, to slow or stabilise progression, to attempt to recover some lost function, and to improve general quality of life.
People with progressive MS do not have the option of taking a disease modifying drug. Furthermore, with the general lack of medical interest in what is happening inside their bodies as the disease process unfolds, and in many circumstances no other form of coherent support from mainstream medicine, people with primary or secondary MS have very few options, other than adopting their own wellness strategies.
While there is no concrete proof that these approaches will be certain to make a difference, making considered changes can help a person to maximise their health outcomes in all dimensions, and to stack as many factors as possible in their favour. It seems reasonable to expect that a person who is as fit and as healthy as possible in all other areas despite their MS, stands a better chance of having an improved outcome than someone who is not.
It was stated initially on the home page of this website that there are essentially two types of MS, the type that can get better on its own, and the type that doesn't. With relapsing remitting MS, the confusing feature is that if a person adopts a particular therapy or intervention and has a remission, it is possible that they will ascribe their recovery to that therapy or intervention, when they were going to get better anyway. Up to 20% of people with MS are expected to have a benign course, so unscrambling what success can be ascribed to a particular therapy or intervention and what should be ascribed to the natural course of the disease is a difficult, if not impossible task.
Some people can become relentless champions for a particular theory that has been advanced for tackling MS. However, the problem with any particular alternative or complementary therapy in the management of MS is that they never seem to work for everyone, and if you pick just one and pin your hopes on it, then if it doesn't work in the long run, much time has been wasted.
It is possible that someone who has adopted a particular lifestyle change and who has had 'success' wasn't going to get better anyway, and wasn't misdiagnosed. In that case, if the changes they adopted really were the cause of their good health, then it is possible that the intervention just happened to provide the exact set of circumstances necessary to stop the disease process in their individual circumstances. But these cases can only be affirmed some decades after both the diagnosis and the initial neurological events, and only when the possibility of benign MS has been eliminated.
In the case of progressive MS, the success of any lifestyle change cannot be so easily dismissed as luck or spontaneous remission. Longstanding or advanced MS is not supposed to get better. Stabilisation at any stage of progressive MS is greatly to be desired, but recovery of function from a state of advanced MS is truly remarkable. It is in cases of progressive MS where any lifestyle intervention will genuinely demonstrate its effectiveness.
The following are some of the areas where a person with MS could potentially make some changes that may help them to improve their overall health and quality of life:
Exercise:
As so often happens with medical advice, in years gone by it appears that people with MS were warned against exercise, and now the opposite is true. Yet people with MS face enormous challenges when attempting to exercise. Some of these issues are discussed here, and how a person with MS might be able to exercise when faced with a disease where the very inability to exercise is often the defining symptom.
Diet:
Numerous diets have been proposed to improve MS, but there are many problems with this advice. Some of these issues are discussed here, and how a person with MS can take a balanced view about using diet to maximise their health outcomes.
Stress management:
Stress has long been thought to be one of the triggers for both the onset of MS, and for the onset of exacerbations. If people with MS are likely to develop MS due to a sensitivity to stress, then how do they cope with a disease that may well present them with some of the most chronically stressful sets of circumstances imaginable? How can they change their way of thinking to not only experience stress in less damaging ways, but to actually remain calm, despite the difficulties they face?
Exercise
There is no known cause or cure for multiple sclerosis. Therefore, changes to the way a person approaches the way they live their life are not supposed to be curative. However, there are known factors which are thought to trigger MS, or to provoke exacerbations once the MS process has started. So, changes may be adopted by a person with MS with the hope that they can minimise the effects of these risk factors, to slow the time between relapses, to reduce the severity of relapses, to slow or stabilise progression, to attempt to recover some lost function, and to improve general quality of life.
People with progressive MS do not have the option of taking a disease modifying drug. Furthermore, with the general lack of medical interest in what is happening inside their bodies as the disease process unfolds, and in many circumstances no other form of coherent support from mainstream medicine, people with primary or secondary MS have very few options, other than adopting their own wellness strategies.
While there is no concrete proof that these approaches will be certain to make a difference, making considered changes can help a person to maximise their health outcomes in all dimensions, and to stack as many factors as possible in their favour. It seems reasonable to expect that a person who is as fit and as healthy as possible in all other areas despite their MS, stands a better chance of having an improved outcome than someone who is not.
It was stated initially on the home page of this website that there are essentially two types of MS, the type that can get better on its own, and the type that doesn't. With relapsing remitting MS, the confusing feature is that if a person adopts a particular therapy or intervention and has a remission, it is possible that they will ascribe their recovery to that therapy or intervention, when they were going to get better anyway. Up to 20% of people with MS are expected to have a benign course, so unscrambling what success can be ascribed to a particular therapy or intervention and what should be ascribed to the natural course of the disease is a difficult, if not impossible task.
Some people can become relentless champions for a particular theory that has been advanced for tackling MS. However, the problem with any particular alternative or complementary therapy in the management of MS is that they never seem to work for everyone, and if you pick just one and pin your hopes on it, then if it doesn't work in the long run, much time has been wasted.
It is possible that someone who has adopted a particular lifestyle change and who has had 'success' wasn't going to get better anyway, and wasn't misdiagnosed. In that case, if the changes they adopted really were the cause of their good health, then it is possible that the intervention just happened to provide the exact set of circumstances necessary to stop the disease process in their individual circumstances. But these cases can only be affirmed some decades after both the diagnosis and the initial neurological events, and only when the possibility of benign MS has been eliminated.
In the case of progressive MS, the success of any lifestyle change cannot be so easily dismissed as luck or spontaneous remission. Longstanding or advanced MS is not supposed to get better. Stabilisation at any stage of progressive MS is greatly to be desired, but recovery of function from a state of advanced MS is truly remarkable. It is in cases of progressive MS where any lifestyle intervention will genuinely demonstrate its effectiveness.
The following are some of the areas where a person with MS could potentially make some changes that may help them to improve their overall health and quality of life:
Exercise:
As so often happens with medical advice, in years gone by it appears that people with MS were warned against exercise, and now the opposite is true. Yet people with MS face enormous challenges when attempting to exercise. Some of these issues are discussed here, and how a person with MS might be able to exercise when faced with a disease where the very inability to exercise is often the defining symptom.
Diet:
Numerous diets have been proposed to improve MS, but there are many problems with this advice. Some of these issues are discussed here, and how a person with MS can take a balanced view about using diet to maximise their health outcomes.
Stress management:
Stress has long been thought to be one of the triggers for both the onset of MS, and for the onset of exacerbations. If people with MS are likely to develop MS due to a sensitivity to stress, then how do they cope with a disease that may well present them with some of the most chronically stressful sets of circumstances imaginable? How can they change their way of thinking to not only experience stress in less damaging ways, but to actually remain calm, despite the difficulties they face?
Exercise