The Intelligent Person’s Guide to Beating Multiple Sclerosis

While obesity does not cause multiple sclerosis (MS), obesity is what doctors call a comorbidity, a health problem that coexists with another condition.  Obesity complicates MS in two ways.

First, research shows that obesity makes diagnosis of MS more difficult and delays diagnosis of MS.  Because obesity can be frequently accompanied by numbness, for example, doctors may guess that a patient’s numbness is the result of obesity rather than MS.  The delay in diagnosis of MS is problematic, however, because the delay means a delay in treatment of MS.

Second, obesity makes coping with MS more difficult.  While obese MS patients need exercise and a healthy diet more than most to prevent heart disease, this exercise requires extra effort.    If MS patients are obese, they need extra encouragement to reduce weight and get needed aerobic exercise.

It is especially important to note that the same diet that can lead to obesity, also probably makes MS worse.  Studies show that eating diets high in saturated fats is likely to make MS worse while eating healthy fats and a healthy diet seems to improve outcomes.  Eating right is important for everyone–it is doubly important for those with MS.  Please see my post about eating right for more information.  This is so important that more than one professor of medicine has taken the time to write a book largely devoted to describing just what a healthy diet for MS patients means.  I follow this advice that is based on scientific research and I recommend you do the same.

If you have MS or think you might have MS and are overweight, the sooner you address physical fitness the healthier you will be.  Addressing obesity is important because research shows that obese MS patients are more likely to experience moderate rather than mild disability early after diagnosis.  Please read the post on eating healthy and check out the Swank MS Diet.  The next thing, you know you will be feeling better than you have felt in years.  And you will be looking gorgeous too–healthy eating and living do that for you.

Please let me know if you find my blog helpful.  Please add a comment.  What did you like?  What would you like added?  Thanks!  Together we can change the way the world views MS.

Please remember to consult your doctors about how to stay as healthy as possible. Nothing here should be interpreted as medical advice. Instead, please use the information you find here in your discussions with your doctor.

Copyright 2008 Rebecca Hoover

Tags:  Multiple Sclerosis, MS, Obesity, Diet, Exercise