What is Multiple Sclerosis? (MS)

There is currently no cure for multiple sclerosis (MS), but there are many lifestyle changes you can make that can help manage the disease, reduce the frequency and severity of relapses, and slow its progression.

Lifestyle interventions like diet, exercise, stress management, and good sleep have been shown to support overall health and potentially reduce the severity of your symptoms.

These changes form the basis of the Overcoming MS Program.

Included in our Program is the use of medications, known as Disease-modifying therapies (DMTs). These help reduce inflammation and slow the progression of MS. They’re especially effective in relapsing-remitting MS.

MS is an autoimmune disease that occurs when the immune system attacks the body’s own tissues, specifically the myelin that covers nerves in the central nervous system. 

You can’t completely prevent multiple sclerosis (MS), but you can reduce your risk of developing it and slow its progression by:

• Maintaining a healthy lifestyle: Get enough sleep, exercise regularly, and maintain a moderate body weight.
• Eat well: Adopt a plant-based, wholefood diet that is rich in omega-3 while excluding dairy and minimising saturated fats
• Getting enough vitamin D: You can get vitamin D from your diet or sun exposure. 
• Reducing stress: Learn how to manage stress through meditation or mindfulness.
• Quitting smoking: Smoking is associated with an increased risk of MS.

The above points form the basis of the key pillars of the Overcoming MS Program – to help you live well with MS.

When searching for the causes of various symptoms online, many sources will refer to MS in the list of possible diagnoses. The symptoms often attributed to MS can also be caused by many other conditions, so it is important that a specialist makes a diagnosis of MS.

If you have recently been diagnosed with MS, one of the first symptoms you may have experienced is a problem with your vision. You may have previously noticed other symptoms like dizziness or fatigue, but these are often dismissed.

People with multiple sclerosis can experience a wide range of symptoms, and have different symptoms at different times — you may not experience any of the symptoms that others do, and no two people with MS will have exactly the same experience.

Typical symptoms can include:

• Fatigue
• MS spasticity
• Vision problems
• Walking (gait) difficulties
• Tingling and numbness
• Cognitive symptoms
• Bladder spasms and MS
• MS vertigo
• Bowel problems
• Sexual problems
• Depression

It can feel overwhelming to see a long list of possible symptoms, but there are so many ways in which you can manage your symptoms and their progression with the Overcoming MS Program.

With people who have an underlying genetic predisposition towards MS, it can be triggered by things such as:

• Lack of sunlight and vitamin D – the risk of MS increases directly as you move further north or south of the Equator. As soon as you are diagnosed with MS make sure your vitamin D levels are tested.
• Smoking – people who smoke are twice as likely to develop MS compared with those who don’t smoke, and their MS tends to progress more quickly.
• Viral infections – such as the Epstein-Barr virus (responsible for glandular fever)
• Females are at higher risk – women are up to three times more likely to develop MS than men
• Close family members and children of people living with MS are at an increased risk of developing MS themselves, but luckily there are steps that can be taken to reduce your overall risk.

What you can do:

• Stop smoking
• Exercise regularly
• Make sure you get enough sun exposure and supplement with vitamin D (5,000 IU per day in winter)
• Keep your stress levels down
• Eat a healthy diet low in saturated fat, and supplement with flaxseed oil.

There is a lot of information on this website about optimising your wellbeing to live well with MS.

MS varies from person to person — from its different symptoms to how quickly it progresses, so the combination of MS treatments will vary depending on your needs.

Treatment for MS may include:

• MS medication — disease modifying drugs
• Medication to manage symptoms
• Physiotherapy
• Occupational therapy can help you make adaptations to make everyday tasks easier
• Self-management techniques such as learning to pace yourself
• Aids, assistive devices and equipment
• A speech therapist to help you if you have trouble with speech
• Stress management techniques
• Talking therapies for depression
• Diet
• Exercise
• Vitamin D — which dampens overactive immune responses and also protects brain cells

Take a look at our individual symptoms pages to read about what specific treatments can help with certain symptoms. The Overcoming MS Program combines all these treatments for the most comprehensive approach, improving your overall physical and mental wellbeing.

There can be a lot of benefits to finding an MS community of like-minded people to help you live well with MS. You can join our community on the Live Well Hub here.

With the shock of being diagnosed with MS, you may feel a sudden lack of control. Overcoming MS aims to change that by showing you that you have control over the measures you take to help yourself. It’s never too late to see the benefit of lifestyle changes through the Overcoming MS Program — by making positive changes, over time you will see that you are more capable and much stronger than you think. There are steps you can take to improve your health by making changes in the following areas:

• Diet
• Exercise
• Making sure you get enough sunlight and vitamin D
• Stress reduction, including meditation.

Join our community on the Live Well Hub here and connect with others looking to live well with MS.