Contents. You may have to adapt your daily life if you're diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS), but with the right care and support many people can lead long, active and healthy lives.
Lifestyle Factors and MS Progression
We know lifestyle factors such as eating a healthy diet, maintaining a healthy gut microbiome, exercising regularly, and taking vitamin D are helpful for our overall health. Some, like exercise, can help with MS symptoms, prevent complications, and possibly be neuroprotective.
Communicating with friends and family can help you relate your condition to them, but there is nothing better than connecting with other people that are living with MS. There are MS Focus support groups in many communities that offer meetings. There are also support groups online if you can't make an in-person meeting.
There is no known way to cure MS or prevent it from developing. However, a person may be able to slow down the progression of the condition. In this article, learn more about MS, including its possible progression types, some symptoms, and the treatment options.
Multiple sclerosis (MS) triggers that worsen symptoms or cause a relapse can include stress, heart disease and smoking.
Ocrelizumab (Ocrevus).
This treatment reduces the relapse rate and the risk of disabling progression in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis. It also slows the progression of the primary-progressive form of multiple sclerosis.
Constant fatigue is common for people with MS. This tiredness can impact all aspects of life, including effective brain use and the ability to go out and partake in activities. The symptoms of MS can cause constant discomfort and disability that limit a person's ability to go about daily activities.
Disease Course of MS Is Unpredictable
A person with benign MS will have few symptoms or loss of ability after having MS for about 15 years, while most people with MS would be expected to have some degree of disability after that amount of time, particularly if their MS went untreated.
Exercise strengthens the muscles that help you walk. It also eases fatigue, boosts mood, and improves quality of life in people with MS. There's even some evidence that strength training might help slow MS damage in the brain. An exercise program for MS includes 150 minutes of "aerobics" each week.
MS can occur at any age, but onset usually occurs around 20 and 40 years of age. However, younger and older people can be affected. Sex. Women are more than 2 to 3 times as likely as men are to have relapsing-remitting MS .
Over time, more than two-thirds of people remain able to walk, although they may need an ambulation aid such as a cane or walker to do so. Some may choose to use a motorized scooter or wheelchair for long distances, in order to conserve energy and remain more active; others may need to use a wheelchair all the time.
A study in the journal Neurology that used health data from Manitoba, Canada, confirms Chitnis's observation. In the population studied, people with MS had a median life span of 75.9 years, while for people without MS, it was 83.4 years.
It can cause symptoms like problems with vision, arm or leg movement, sensation or balance. It's a lifelong condition that can sometimes cause serious disability. In many cases, it's possible to treat symptoms. Average life expectancy is slightly reduced for people with MS.
Periods between attacks are known as periods of remission. These can last for years at a time. After many years (usually decades), many, but not all, people with relapsing remitting MS go on to develop secondary progressive MS. In this type of MS, symptoms gradually worsen over time without obvious attacks.
Research tells us exercise can help you manage multiple sclerosis symptoms, including fatigue, and problems with balance and walking. Exercising can also: improve your mood.
Diana: The best MS exercises are aerobic exercises, stretching, and progressive strength training. Aerobic exercise is any activity that increases your heart rate, like walking, jogging, or swimming. You just don't want to overdo it—it should be done at a moderate level.
As expected fatigue was a significant symptom for the people with MS in the studies included, it was commonly experienced and often affected those people severely. Daytime sleepiness was observed less often than fatigue and was usually less severe, but it had a significant impact on the people it did affect.
There is currently no cure for multiple sclerosis, but various treatments can help manage symptoms, reduce the frequency of relapses, and slow disease progression.
But no one knows exactly what triggers the immune system to attack the central nervous system. Most experts believe it occurs when a person with a genetic predisposition to MS is exposed to certain environmental conditions, such as a low vitamin D level, smoking, or the Epstein-Barr virus.