Multiple
Sclerosis is real. Its symptoms are not imagined. It’s not caused by a person’s
lifestyle or by an unhealthy diet. There isn’t a specific cause for MS and
to this day there is still no known cure.
Developing
an illness like MS is not our fault. Nobody knows why we got it or where it will
lead. Yet I often feel that if I had done something differently or tried
harder, the outcome might have been different.
If you’re me, you hear
these things all the time:
“She cut out gluten and
started doing yoga and she does not have
MS anymore.”
“Stay away from MS
drugs and Western medicine.”
“Go vegan.”
“Go Paleo.”
“I know someone with MS who runs marathons!”
I was diagnosed in 2011
and have already progressed to Secondary Progressive MS in less than five
years. Should I have taken up yoga and gone vegan the second I was diagnosed?
Maybe. But I was in a “newly diagnosed” fog and was just trying to get a grip
on my new life. Besides, I’d been misdiagnosed for 10 years. I had spent those
years trying to figure out what was wrong with me. I didn’t know what I had let
alone how to fix it.
I think a healthy
lifestyle and a positive attitude is important; Eat healthy, don’t smoke, and
everything in moderation. I wouldn’t abandon conventional MS treatment for alternative therapies, even if they're natural remedies. Blend complementary
and alternative medicine, or “CAM therapies” with traditional medications. Find
a doctor you like. Be your own advocate.
A
friend of mine once said, MS is a neurological disease not a muscular one. I
have to remind myself that no amount of exercise will fix me. It is possible to do all the ‘right’ things, exercise, eat properly, avoid
stress, and so on, and have a recurrence of the disease. It is also perfectly
possible to do all the ‘wrong’ things and not have a recurrence.
It’s not my fault. There’s nothing I did to get
the illness or make it worse.
