It's recommended that people with MS avoid certain foods, including processed meats, refined carbs, junk foods, trans fats, and sugar-sweetened beverages. Other tips to manage MS symptoms include: making meals in bulk.
Multiple sclerosis (MS) triggers that worsen symptoms or cause a relapse can include stress, heart disease and smoking. While some are easier to avoid than others, maintaining a healthy lifestyle and overall health and wellness can have outsized benefits for MS patients.
A 2019 study by researchers in Australia found at least 32 websites offering dietary advice for people with MS. In addition to recommending specific foods, these meal plans cautioned against a number of supposed MS triggers, including dairy foods, gluten, saturated fat, and refined sugar.
It advises cutting out dairy and meat, and eating less fat – particularly saturated fat. It also recommends flaxseed oil as an omega 3 supplement and vitamin D supplements if you don't get out in the sun much.
Multiple sclerosis is caused by your immune system mistakenly attacking the brain and nerves. It's not clear why this happens but it may be a combination of genetic and environmental factors.
One of the first questions many people have when they're diagnosed with MS is: “Will I still be able to drive?” The good news is that most people with MS continue to drive as normal.
According to Harvard Health Publishing, an anti-inflammatory diet should include foods like tomatoes, leafy greens such as spinach and kale, and fruits like strawberries, blueberries, cherries, and oranges. There's some evidence that consuming these foods could be beneficial for MS.
Multiple sclerosis sufferers often complain of more severe disease symptoms after consuming dairy products. Researchers have now found a possible cause for this. According to the study, a protein in cow's milk can trigger inflammation that targets the 'insulating layer' around nerve cells.
However, many people in the MS community have found that there is a direct link between what they eat and their MS symptoms. While every person with MS likely has a different list of foods they avoid, there is a lot of overlap in terms of the worst offenders.
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a potentially disabling disease of the brain and spinal cord (central nervous system). In MS , the immune system attacks the protective sheath (myelin) that covers nerve fibers and causes communication problems between your brain and the rest of your body.
It's a lifelong condition that can sometimes cause serious disability, although it can occasionally be mild. In many cases, it's possible to treat symptoms. Average life expectancy is slightly reduced for people with MS.
Nail problems are common, and they are not usually serious. If a person has multiple sclerosis (MS), nail problems can cause pain or discomfort. While nail issues are not directly related to the disease, determining the cause may help prevent a person with MS from experiencing further discomfort.
A wide range of conditions can be mistaken for MS, including: migraine, cerebral small vessel disease, fibromyalgia, functional neurological disorders, and neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders, along with uncommon inflammatory, infectious and metabolic conditions (1, 3).
The strongest known risk factor for MS is infection with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). Compared with uninfected individuals, the hazard of developing MS is approximately 15-fold higher among individuals infected with EBV in childhood and about 30-fold higher among those infected with EBV in adolescence or later in life.
Although the person with MS knows from their experience that their MS symptoms started after or alongside a stressful period of time, there is no direct evidence that stress causes MS — although it might trigger it.
Genetic Factors
MS is not an inherited disease, meaning it is not a disease that is passed down from generation to generation. However, in MS there is genetic risk that may be inherited. In the general population, the risk of developing MS is about 1 in 750 - 1000.
Not only is drinking enough water essential to our overall health and wellbeing, it can also help to manage MS symptoms such as heat sensitivity, continence problems, and fatigue.
New research, which features in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, finds that having a cocoa drink every day for 6 weeks helps combat fatigue in people living with multiple sclerosis.
The risk of MS is substantially reduced among those who reported a high consumption of coffee, exceeding 900 ml daily OR 0.70 (95% CI 0.49–0.99 in the Swedish study) and OR 0.69 (95% CI 0.5–0.96 in the US study). No significant association was found between coffee or caffeine intake and the risk of MS.