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.
More than 50% reported limitations in daily activities due to fatigue, physical weakness, problems with balance/coordination, heat/cold sensitivity, memory problems, numbness/tingling, trouble concentrating, impaired movement/muscle stiffness, and impaired sleeping.
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.
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.
MS and emotions
You may easily burst into tears, or suddenly get very angry. These emotions may build up very quickly, and you may have no control over them.
Changes in the ways people think, talk, feel, behave and express their emotions can affect people with MS. Some of these changes can be understood as part of the feelings of sadness, frustration or anger associated with having MS.
The study found that people with MS lived to be 75.9 years old, on average, compared to 83.4 years old for those without.
Treatment: You can work with a physical therapist. Also try massage and heat. Practice meditation, tai chi, or yoga. Over-the-counter pain-relievers like ibuprofen and aspirin can also help.
Flare-ups occur when damage that's already been done to your central nervous system is triggered by stress or an increase in heat. This can happen because of several different reasons, like emotional stress or infection. Keep in mind that sometimes a flare-up occurs even if you're doing your best to manage your MS.
Although MS isn't fatal, there's currently no cure — MS is a chronic condition. But many people who have MS also have to contend with other issues that can decrease their quality of life. Even though most will never become severely disabled, many experience symptoms that cause pain, discomfort, and inconvenience.
Benign MS is a variation of relapsing-remitting MS. This is a form of the condition in which new or worsening symptoms are very mild or don't flare up for a long period of time. That's why doctors wait so long to diagnose it.
Most symptoms develop abruptly, within hours or days. These attacks or relapses of MS typically reach their peak within a few days at most and then resolve slowly over the next several days or weeks so that a typical relapse will be symptomatic for about eight weeks from onset to recovery.
MS can affect your mood in different ways. It can be mentally hard to adjust to a chronic, constantly changing disease. Changes in your brain may also affect your emotions. Scientists think damage to nerves in your limbic system, the part of the brain that controls emotions, may be to blame.
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. improve your overall health when your MS is mild.
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an immune-mediated demyelinating disease of the central nervous system (CNS). Recently, numerous studies have shown that MS disrupts a number of social cognitive abilities, including empathy, theory of mind (ToM), and facial emotion recognition.
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a condition that affects the brain and/or spinal cord. 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.
MS itself is rarely fatal, but complications may arise from severe MS, such as chest or bladder infections, or swallowing difficulties. The average life expectancy for people with MS is around 5 to 10 years lower than average, and this gap appears to be getting smaller all the time.
Depression can occur in up to 50 percent of MS patients and is three times more common than in the general population. Up to 40 percent of support partners, such as caregivers and spouses, may also experience depression at some point in life.
Alcohol's Effect on MS Symptoms
Even one drink can make issues like unsteadiness worse. “If you have a lot of trouble with balance, thinking, or memory symptoms from MS, it may be better to avoid alcohol altogether,” says Graves. Alcohol can also lead to sleep problems and worsen bladder symptoms.
People living with MS often continue working long after their diagnosis. On the flip side, some people with MS decide to leave their jobs when they are first diagnosed or experience their first major exacerbation, often at the suggestion of their family or doctor.
Long-term stress can cause physical problems including impaired memory, headaches and high blood pressure. Stress is a normal part of life for everyone, but in addition to facing normal everyday stresses, people with MS have to deal with the unpredictability and pressures the condition itself causes.