Answer: Check out the Overcoming Multiple Sclerosis plan and see if it’s something you’d like to try.
The Overcoming Multiple Sclerosis website gives lots of up-to-date scientific information about MS and management suggestions.
Here’s an excellent video where Professor George Jelinek discusses the results of a scientific evaluation of his MS treatment program:
Effect of a residential retreat promoting lifestyle modifications on health-related quality of life in people with multiple sclerosis.
Abstract
AIM:
To evaluate the effect of a residential retreat on promoting lifestyle modification for the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of people with multiple sclerosis (MS).
METHODS:
A longitudinal cohort study of adults with self-reported MS who voluntarily attended a five-day residential retreat in rural Victoria, Australia. Participants were asked to complete the MSQOL-54 questionnaire just prior to the retreat, and at one year and 2.5 years post-retreat.
RESULTS:
Of 188 participants 109 (58%) completed the questionnaire. The cohort showed a significant improvement in HRQOL at one year and 2.5 year follow-up. After one year, overall quality of life (QOL) domain had increased from 73.4 to 81.7 (P<0.001), physical health composite from 66.2 to 76.4 (P=0.001) and mental health composite from 73.7 to 83.6 (P<0.001) in the subset of 76 with data at both time points. After 2.5 years, overall QOL had increased from 68.4 to 71.7 (P=0.03), physical health 59.7 to 70.0 (P=0.01), and mental health 66.9 to 76.6 (P<0.01) in the subset of 44 with data at both time points.
CONCLUSIONS:
HRQOL usually deteriorates over time in people with MS. Attendance at a residential retreat promoting lifestyle modification appears to have a significant short-medium term positive effect on QOL for people with MS. General practitioners caring for people with MS should consider the potential benefits of this approach in overall management.
Managing multiple sclerosis in primary care: are we forgetting something?
Abstract
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is the commonest debilitating, progressive neurological disorder in most Western countries. It is important for many reasons, including the personal costs, levels of disability produced, age group affected and the resultant economic burden placed on individuals, families and the community. Although it is thought to be an autoimmune condition, in general little is understood about the causation of MS and the factors that trigger or contribute to exacerbations and deterioration. This overview of the literature will consider some important studies examining the relationship between lifestyle and psychosocial factors and MS progression. These studies suggest that nutrition, sunlight, exercise, stress and social factors can all modulate the rate of progression of MS and the level of disability. Although appearing in respected journals, this information tends to be little known or discussed by clinician and patient alike. If lifestyle approaches do offer potential avenues for therapy, this raises important questions regarding the management of MS in primary care. More widely prescribed conventional medicines have been studied in more detail but are only modestly effective and may have significant side-effects. Are we presently neglecting the most effective approach of combining the non-drug or holistic approach with the best of conventional pharmaceutical therapies, and if so what are the implications of this omission?
Read the complete scientific paper:
Managing multiple sclerosis in primary care: are we forgetting something?
Some good quotes from the paper:
As Ornish was publishing his groundbreaking research
in the holistic management of heart disease (including
a low-fat diet, exercise, stress reduction and stopping
smoking),1 research from Canada was being published
in The Lancet and elsewhere on a dietary intervention
for the management of MS.2,3 The results were possibly
even more startling, but received relatively little notice
in the wider medical community. Swank found that
over a 34-year follow-up only 31% of MS patients
adhering to a low saturated fat diet (less than 20 g/day)
died, compared with approximately 80% of patients
not sticking to the diet.2,3 Furthermore, in the group
who started with a lower level of disability only5%had
died. The rates of disease progression and disability
were also vastly different in the two groups; ‘when those
who died from non-MS diseases were excluded from
the analysis, 95% survived and remained physically
active’.2
The lifestyle approach in primary care, especially for
chronic illness, should be first-line therapy and not an
afterthought. The slowness in adoption of this approach
needs to be examined. In contrast, there is a
tendency to readily embrace heavily promoted drug
treatments with their associated high cost and frequent
side-effects, despite concerns regarding supporting
evidence and patient quality-of-life issues.
Importantly, however, a holistic approach is not an
argument against the judicious and appropriate use
of pharmacological and technological advances. A
balanced approach in primary care uses the best that
every therapeutic modality has to offer.
