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Get started: Why lifestyle matters

Learn how living well with MS is possible through lifestyle changes, and how you the charity can support you.

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There is hope: living well with MS is possible

If you have been diagnosed with MS, we are here to tell you that there is hope. There is a growing body of scientific evidence demonstrating the powerful role that healthy lifestyle choices make in managing MS.

Following the launch of the Overcoming MS Program, thousands have benefited – exactly what that looks like will vary from person to person. These people show that you can live a full and healthy life with MS.  

Although a cure for MS isn’t yet available, Overcoming MS is about living your best life after an MS diagnosis.

“Overcoming MS was my light in the darkness.  It’s made an enormous difference to my physical and mental well-being. I recommend it to anyone living with MS”. 
Dr Jonathan White.

The benefits of a proactive lifestyle

Lifestyle choices play a crucial role in managing multiple sclerosis (MS). Research shows lots of different choices can have a big impact on how MS progresses, and how well you feel living with MS. It also shows that the more positive changes you make, the bigger the impact. This is great news! 
 
Overcoming MS is here to help you understand how your choices can affect your MS and health. We want to support you in making changes to help you live your best life, even with the challenges of MS.
 
Discover how you can positively impact your MS through lifestyle. If you would like to read the references used to create this page, you can find them listed at the end.

Reduce relapse or slow MS progression

Research has found that some lifestyle choices can help people with MS, for example, reducing the likelihood of MS relapse and even affecting the brain to slow down how MS progresses. Lifestyle choices such as stopping smoking, regular physical activity and having a healthy diet have the strongest evidence. This is great news, as it shows that there are things that people with MS can do to support their well-being. By making specific lifestyle choices, people can take an active role in stabilising their MS.

 

Improve or manage symptoms

A healthy lifestyle can improve or help manage symptoms like fatigue, pain, mood and cognitive difficulties like brain fog or slow thinking. Making small changes to what you eat, how you move, your quality of sleep or how you manage stress have all been found to affect these symptoms. As they all tend to affect each other, small improvements to one behaviour can have a positive impact overall, making daily activities more manageable.

Support brain health

Healthy lifestyle choices can protect your brain from further harm and its natural ‘reserves’ last longer. People with MS can lose more brain tissue than those without MS. Their brains respond more to damage, and their ‘reserves’ get used up more quickly. Things that help protect the brain, or boost its ability to heal, include eating and sleeping well, getting regular physical activity, and keeping stress under control.

Reduce the likelihood of other conditions

Lifestyle choices have been shown to impact the risk of developing other conditions like diabetes, obesity, and heart problems. These can all negatively impact MS, affect the success of disease-modifying treatment, or even increase the risk of relapse. They have also been found to prevent up to 40% of dementia which is really positive given how common cognitive impairment is in MS. Preventing these other health issues helps better manage MS and contributes to a longer, healthier life.

Feel hope, take control of managing your MS, and live well

Making positive lifestyle choices has been found to increase the feeling of hope, which has been linked to better resilience and empowers people with MS to feel they have more control over their choices and outcomes, regardless of their MS. It also gives them a sense of control over how they manage their MS and general health, often leading to a better quality of life. Being able to manage their MS themselves often leads to better use of healthcare systems. 

Get started with the Overcoming MS Program

Want to know more? Discover the history and evidence that provides the foundation for Overcoming MS and the Program in this short email series.

Get Started
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Let Overcoming MS help you

As a charity, we are here to support people with MS to live well by making lifestyle changes and following medical advice. We are here to help you:
  • Understand the power of lifestyle, and how it can help you manage your MS
  • Connect to others and gain support and guidance as part of a positive community
  • Make lifestyle changes to live well, eat well, move well and manage stress!
Read on for three ways to help you get started…
 
Learn about Overcoming MS Discover Online Event
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STEP 1: Find out about steps you can take to support your wellbeing

Investigate the evidence-based steps that can help support your well-being with MS: Diet, nutrition, vitamin D, physical activity, stress management, and medication. There are simple ways to get started. Learn more!

Download our Program leaflet

STEP 2: Register for our introductory email series

If you want to know more about our charity and Program, discover the history and evidence that forms the foundation of our work, including the 7 pillars of the Overcoming MS Program in this short 4-email series to help you live well with MS.

Register for the series
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STEP 3: Sign up to Discover Overcoming MS online event

If you’re new to Overcoming MS, this free online event is the perfect place to start, guiding you through lifestyle changes which can help you live well with MS.

Discover Overcoming MS session

References

  1. Proschinger S, Kuhwand P, Rademacher A, Walzik D, Warnke C, Zimmer P, Joisten N. Fitness, physical activity, and exercise in multiple sclerosis: a systematic review on current evidence for interactions with disease activity and progression. J Neurol. 2022 Jun;269(6):2922-2940. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9119898/ 
  2. Lin X, Zarghami A, Jelinek GA, Simpson-Yap S, Neate S, Nag N. Diet and omega-3 and vitamin D supplement use predict five-year fatigue and disability trajectories in people with multiple sclerosis. Mult Scler Relat Disord. 2024 Jun;86:105615 https://www.msard-journal.com/article/S2211-0348(24)00189-5/fulltext 
  3. Simpson-Yap S, Nag N, Probst Y, Jelinek G, Neate S. Higher-quality diet and non-consumption of meat are associated with less self-determined disability progression in people with multiple sclerosis: A longitudinal cohort study. Eur J Neurol. 2022 Jan;29(1):225-236. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9292143/ 
  4. Rodgers J, Friede T, Vonberg FW, Constantinescu CS et al. The impact of smoking cessation on multiple sclerosis disease progression. Brain. 2022 May 24;145(4):1368-1378. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9128822/ 
  5. Motl RW. Exercise and Multiple Sclerosis. Adv Exp Med Biol. 2020;1228:333-343. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32342468/ 
  6. Weiland TJ, Nag N, De Livera A, Jelinek GA, Neate SL, Bevens W, Simpson-Yap S. Two healthy lifestyle scores are associated with lower subsequent fatigue risk using inverse probability weighting in an international longitudinal cohort of people with multiple sclerosis. Eur J Neurol. 2021 Sep;28(9):2952-2964. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ene.14956 
  7. Marck CH, De Livera AM, Weiland TJ, Jelinek PL, Neate SL, Brown CR, Taylor KL, Khan F, Jelinek GA. Pain in People with Multiple Sclerosis: Associations with Modifiable Lifestyle Factors, Fatigue, Depression, Anxiety, and Mental Health Quality of Life. Front Neurol. 2017 Sep 5;8:461. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5591834/ 
  8. Chan JSY, Liu G, Liang D, Deng K, Wu J, Yan JH. Special Issue – Therapeutic Benefits of Physical Activity for Mood: A Systematic Review on the Effects of Exercise Intensity, Duration, and Modality. J Psychol. 2019;153(1):102-125. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30321106/ 
  9. de Sousa Fernandes MS, Ordônio TF, Santos GCJ, Santos LER, Calazans CT, Gomes DA, Santos TM. Effects of Physical Exercise on Neuroplasticity and Brain Function: A Systematic Review in Human and Animal Studies. Neural Plast. 2020 Dec 14;2020:8856621. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7752270/ 
  10. Hughes AJ, Dunn KM, Chaffee T. Sleep Disturbance and Cognitive Dysfunction in Multiple Sclerosis: a Systematic Review. Curr Neurol Neurosci Rep. 2018 Jan 29;18(1):2. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29380072/ 
  11. Ercan Z, Bilek F, Demir CF. The effect of aerobic exercise on Neurofilament light chain and glial Fibrillary acidic protein level in patients with relapsing remitting type multiple sclerosis. Mult Scler Relat Disord. 2021 Oct;55:103219. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34433118/ 
  12. Burns MN, Nawacki E, Kwasny MJ, Pelletier D, Mohr DC. Do positive or negative stressful events predict the development of new brain lesions in people with multiple sclerosis? Psychol Med. 2014 Jan;44(2):349-59. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4123859/ 
  13. Navarrete-Pérez A, Gómez-Melero S, Escribano BM, Galvao-Carmona A, Conde-Gavilán C, Peña-Toledo MÁ, Villarrubia N, Villar LM, Túnez I, Agüera-Morales E, Caballero-Villarraso J. MIND Diet Impact on Multiple Sclerosis Patients: Biochemical Changes after Nutritional Intervention. Int J Mol Sci. 2024 Sep 17;25(18):10009. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11431943/ 
  14. Du Y, de Bock GH, Vonk JM, Pham AT, van der Ende MY, Snieder H, Smidt N, Krabbe PFM, Alizadeh BZ, Lunter G, Corpeleijn E. Lifestyle factors and incident multimorbidity related to chronic disease: a population-based cohort study. Eur J Ageing. 2024 Nov 28;21(1):37. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11604909/ 
  15. Salter A, Kowalec K, Fitzgerald KC, Cutter G, Marrie RA. Comorbidity is associated with disease activity in MS: Findings from the CombiRx trial. Neurology. 2020 Aug 4;95(5):e446-e456. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9629214/ 
  16. Livingston G, Huntley J, Sommerlad A, Ames D et al. Dementia prevention, intervention, and care: 2020 report of the Lancet Commission. Lancet. 2020 Aug 8;396(10248):413-446. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7392084/ 
  17. Gil-González I, Martín-Rodríguez A, Conrad R, Pérez-San-Gregorio MÁ. Quality of life in adults with multiple sclerosis: a systematic review. BMJ Open. 2020 Nov 30;10(11):e041249. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7705559/ 
  18. Barker I, Steventon A, Williamson R, Deeny SR. Self-management capability in patients with long-term conditions is associated with reduced healthcare utilisation across a whole health economy: cross-sectional analysis of electronic health records. BMJ Qual Saf. 2018 Dec;27(12):989-999. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6288702/ 
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