5 Tips for Managing Multiple Sclerosis: ‘The More You Do, the More You Can Do’
It took Vickie Hadge a long time to get a diagnosis of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) — the most common type of multiple sclerosis (MS), an autoimmune disease that targets the central nervous system.
Having RRMS meant she would have periods of recovery, during which her body could heal, and then relapses, when her symptoms would get worse. People with RRMS can go long stretches between relapses, which is one reason it can be difficult to diagnose.
Vickie had her first episode of MS in 2006, when she was 40.
“I didn’t know at the time what it was,” she says. She had weakness in her right foot and was tripping and stumbling. It got so bad that she was losing her ability to walk and had to be hospitalized.
She took several diagnostic tests and met with a neurosurgeon, who was able to rule out a tumor and some other conditions. Ultimately, Vickie took high-dose steroids to treat her symptoms and was able to walk again. Afterward, she followed up with her neurologist every 6 months for years.
The episode left Vickie weak. Although her neurologist said it may have been a one-time thing, it got her attention. She started taking better care of her health, getting more exercise, and eating vegetarian.
“I went happily along for almost 10 years, and then started to develop symptoms on the left side of my body,” says Vickie, who lives with her husband in Northeast Connecticut and documents her journey on her YouTube channel, Even So It Is Well, with videos about everything from MRI claustrophobia to favorite soup recipes.
She tried to deny it, ignore it, and rationalize it away, she says. But, finally, the symptoms got bad enough that she went back to the doctor. It took a year and several specialists to finally get a RRMS diagnosis, in 2017.
By that point, Vickie had already started down the path of healthier, more mindful living. But, with the official diagnosis, she decided to take charge of her health even more. These 5 tips have helped her feel more in control and live well with chronic illness.
1. Try a whole-food, plant-based diet
So much of what we eat causes inflammation and is full of saturated fat, Vickie says. Both of these things can be triggering for people with nervous system disorders.
Vickie realized a while back that her body felt better when she wasn’t eating meat. But, these days, she is completely vegan, meaning she only eats plant-based foods. There are more than 20,000 edible plants, she points out.
She also tries to eat mostly whole foods, which are foods as close to their natural state as possible. One example is eating fresh apples instead of canned applesauce.
“I didn’t realize how wonderful a whole-food, plant-based diet could be,” she says. “I eat a better variety of foods now than I did before I was plant-based.”
She gets protein through seeds, nuts, legumes, and even dark-green, leafy vegetables. And when she goes out to eat, she looks at the side dishes served with entrees for options.
“I will ask them to create a dish without animal products for me,” she says. “Chefs are usually very accommodating, and I have had the most amazing dishes.”
Vickie’s husband also eats a whole-food, plant-based diet. Her son and daughter are grown and aren’t necessarily all about eating vegan, though they are both leaning vegetarian, she says. And her grandchildren enjoy her vegan treats, like popsicles and wheat-flour brownies topped with berries, when they visit.
Eating this way helps Vickie feel less sluggish; it doesn’t make her feel deprived or make her long for other foods. “I just feel a lot healthier,” she says.
2. Move your body regularly
Vickie’s digital fitness tracker is her best friend, because it helps her chart her activity and reminds her to move. She walks 1 to 2 miles almost every day. She also does yoga and Zumba (dance workouts) and alternates between her at-home cardio equipment, a recumbent bike and elliptical machine.
“Exercise helps me manage my symptoms,” Vickie says. “If I don’t keep up with it, I feel weaker, especially on the left side.”
Vickie has read that a large percentage of people with MS don’t exercise, which she understands. She knows people fear falling or doing anything to trigger symptoms. “Symptoms can flare when my body temperature goes up,” she says of one of her own triggers.
When she does Zumba, for example, and starts to sweat, she will feel a prickly pain on the bottom of her foot. It’s nerve pain, which feels almost like blisters developing. “But it settles down once I cool down,” she says. “The benefits of exercise outweigh it.”
You don’t need to do super intense exercise, she says. You just need enough to keep moving and to challenge your core. “The more you do, the more you can do,” she says.
3. Get adequate sleep to fight ‘cog fog’
Vickie has learned that sleep doesn’t just help with MS fatigue; it also helps clean out plaques that build up in the brain.
“Sleep gives our bodies time to rest and refuel and clean out the garbage in our brains,” she says.
Many people with MS who leave the workforce do so because of fatigue and cognitive fog, not because of mobility issues, Vicki says. For her, getting a consistent 7 to 8 hours of sleep each night helps her fight what she calls ‘cog fog.’
Her sleep tips include dimming the lights in your house once the sun starts to set, not eating close to bedtime, and using a fan for temperature regulation and white noise.
“I also don’t have any screens — TVs or devices — in the bedroom,” she says.
4. Treat yourself, and your condition, with kindness
Even before her MS diagnosis, Vikie had studied mindfulness-based stress reduction and been meditating for years. But, after she was diagnosed, reducing stress took on a new urgency.
“When stress hormones are flooding our systems nonstop, it’s really bad for your health if you have MS,” she says.
She’s kept up her meditation practice. But, more than that, she’s changed her attitude about MS. Instead of “fighting” it or being a “warrior” against her condition, she says, she decided to practice mindfulness and turn kindness inward.
“I decided to treat my own immune system like I would treat anyone I loved who was sick or hurting,” she says.
5. Extend grace to others, who don’t always understand MS
“With MS, you don’t get it until you get it,” Vickie says. “People don’t understand what it’s like to live in a body that isn’t functioning well.”
When she looks at online groups and forums, she sees that people with MS have a lot of anger toward doctors, bosses, family members, and friends.
She understands the frustration and has felt it, too. But she made a decision a while back to stop reacting with anger to people’s poor attempts to relate to her MS symptoms and unsolicited advice.
“I feel that most people are good and kind and want to be helpful. They aren’t trying to be mean,” she says. “They just don’t understand.”
For example, if she’s explaining MS fatigue, and someone recommends taking a nap every day, she tries to respond with something like, “Thank you, I’ll look into that.” Or, if someone is persistent, she may say, “I appreciate that and have looked into it. But my health team and doctor have a plan and that’s not part of it.”
Then, instead of getting angry or resentful, she just lets it go. “Once I had that shift, it helped a lot,” she says.
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