Can Do MS

New Year’s resolutions often involve aspirations to improve wellness. While wellness is frequently thought to include just diet and exercise, it includes many more dimensions. Can Do MS and the National MS Society recognize six dimensions of wellness: 1) Diet, Exercise, and Healthy Behaviors, 2) Relationships, 3) Work and Home, 4) Emotional Wellbeing, 5) Spirituality, and 6) Cognitive Well Being....

Cognitive changes are common among individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS), affecting 40-60% of the MS population. Much like physical MS symptoms, cognitive changes vary widely from person to person. Whereas many individuals with MS experience slowed processing speed as their predominate cognitive difficulty, others may experiences problems across a number of cognitive areas including learning, m...

Over 2.2 million Americans are in the “sandwich generation” – simultaneously providing support to aging parents/in-laws and at least one child under age 18. Providing support has significant positive effects, but also poses financial, emotional, psychological, social, and marital burdens. Caring for yourself and others is a team-effort, so it’s important to work together to maintain a balanced giv...

While no one plans to get sick or hurt, health insurance protects you from unexpected medical costs and offers other benefits like preventative care. We have taken some common questions and offered strategies and solutions to help to navigate this sometimes overwhelming world of health insurance.

We know that people with MS tend to experience other health conditions that precede or coincide with the MS. It’s helpful for people with MS and their families to know where to turn and how best to coordinate their care.

When life feels like it is at its worst, you have the opportunity to be at your best. Receiving a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis (MS) represents one of these junctures. What is helpful is recognizing you can shift your mindset and respond with positivity; decreasing your stress and increasing your overall wellness.

Multiple sclerosis can present ongoing changes to the person with MS and support partners. Changes to strength, balance, coordination, dexterity, and other physical abilities are not uncommon. Making intelligent changes to your home to improve environmental accessibility is important to compensate for these changes, while promoting as much independence as possible and, most importantly, ensuring t...

MS is commonly associated with a variety of visual disturbances. To maximize function, independence and safety, it is important to successfully incorporate compensatory strategies into purposeful occupations and functional daily activities in the home, in leisure skills, at work, and in the community.

We all know that exercise is important and researchers are finding increased specific benefits related to multiple sclerosis. Can Do MS believes that exercise will help you in all facets of your life, and these benefits are achievable to everyone. A well-balanced fitness program needs a number of components - some tangible, some not so tangible.

Don’t weight for wellness! Build your MS team to help you focus on what you can control! Recruit a physical therapist or exercise physiologist who understands MS to help you establish an exercise and/or physical activity routine that suits your ability levels. We also suggest seeking the guidance of a registered dietitian (RD or RDN) who understands the challenges of MS to help you make manageable...

When trying to determine whether and under what conditions you can work with multiple sclerosis, it is key that you understand the laws that govern accommodations in the workplace.

Following the diagnosis of MS and during periods of change in your MS, it is not unusual to feel your personal GPS is out of whack and not working as well as it had in the past - or not as well as you were hoping it would. This is true whether you are the person with MS or someone who cares about you. You may feel lost, without direction, and overwhelmed with multiple choices and decisions. You ma...

Sleep is a surprisingly complex process that is essential to maintaining health and wellness. Unfortunately, problems with sleep quantity and quality and the negative impact of poor sleep on daily functioning are particularly common among people with MS, affecting 50% of the population.

he Paleolithic Diet. The Mediterranean Diet. The McDougall Diet. The Swank Diet. With so many diets being promoted, it is hard to fully understand each of their nutritional benefits, possible deficiencies, and effects on multiple sclerosis. However, it is clear that certain dietary factors are linked to the risk of developing MS, as well as to helping manage symptoms, support treatment options, an...

Living with MS can be challenging not only for the person who has MS, but also for the support partner – whether he or she is providing assistance with everyday tasks, emotional support, and/or hands-on care. How do I help? Am I helping too much? I’m frustrated with this disease…I have no time for me…I’m exhausted…I feel stressed. Sound familiar? The support person – whether a spouse/partner, frie...

Making sure you are enrolled in a health insurance plan at all times may be the single most important way to avoid debt and assure your ability to get the health care services you need. Many changes have been made to health insurance in recent years, including new protections for people with pre-existing and high-cost conditions like multiple sclerosis. Unfortunately, even comprehensive health ins...

Anxiety is an umbrella term that describes an emotional state of apprehension, worry, fear, or terror. Typically one’s body also responds resulting in: sweating, increased heart rate, muscle tension, shaking, dry mouth, or a flushed face. It is normal to occasionally feel worried or anxious. However, anxiety is considered problematic when it starts to interfere with your daily life. In such cases,...

"Spasticity: Your Friend, Foe, or Indifferent Acquaintance " by Gail Hartley, MSN, NP, MSCN and Kathy San Martino, PT, NCS, MSCS, ATP/SMS, CLT © Can Do Multiple Sclerosis

A cruise vacation is an excellent choice for people with multiple sclerosis. You can visit a lot of ports and only unpack once, which saves a lot of energy. Additionally, since todays cruise ships offer a variety of healthy menu options and state-of-the-art exercise facilities, it’s easy to stay in shape while at sea. Last but not least, if fatigue hits while you’re on a cruise, it’s easy to alter...

Research is the driving factor in understanding the cause, management, and, hopefully one day a cure for multiple sclerosis. What we know about MS has come a long way over the years, particularly its profound effects on the critical nerve protectors known as myelin. This article will also provide a real-life look into exercise rehabilitation and its impacts on cognition, as well as the promising t...

Essential Tools To Manage Stress in MS by Can Do MS

Every day you are faced with countless decisions. What should I have for breakfast? What clothes should I wear? Other decisions, of course, are more complex, such as which bill to pay first or how to strategize with a work team to impress a potential customer. Some decisions are reflexive, requiring minimal thought; others require thoughtful consideration of the implications and a process for arri...

"The Relationship Between Exercise and Cognition" by Mandy Rohrig, DPT.

If you have been diagnosed with MS, some of your initial thoughts might be around how your work life may be impacted. Don’t panic! Don’t make any decisions too quickly. Allow yourself the time to review your situation and explore the various resources available. Many people continue to work with MS, and while some changes may need to be made, managing your career with MS is really not that much di...

Pain is a common and complex symptom for people living with multiple sclerosis. Creating and maintaining strategies for managing pain is an important component of wellness. It is estimated that approximately 65% of the MS population experiences some form of pain, which is an internal experience that others cannot see. Pain is a complicated symptom to address because it has many causes and many tre...