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Blog | 12.10.14

Multiple Sclerosis Exercise Benefits

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A few days ago a wonderful client of mine called me to say she had been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). MS is a condition of the central nervous system. I found myself considering multiple sclerosis exercise benefits.

In MS, the coating around nerve fibres (called myelin) is damaged, causing many symptoms.

More than 100,000 people in the UK have MS. Symptoms usually start in your 20s and 30s but it can affect younger and older, it affects almost three times as many women as men.

When she gave me the news my initial reaction was “oh no, how terrible” and I began to cry simply because having seen what the effects for some people are as time progresses.

I felt saddened for a while but then started to think why should this be a negative for her. Life throws many things at you and to overcome them you have to find that positive as I had when I broke my back. You have to be in control of the condition not the other way around. This is no different for my client.

I started to think about what the multiple sclerosis exercise benefits and a healthy eating plan would have be.

Diet, Exercise And Your Lifestyle

Some people may be frustrated if prescribed treatments aren’t suitable or don’t work as well as you would like. Many people with MS find it useful to manage their health actively

Multiple Sclerosis Exercise Benefits

Regular exercise will help to keep your body working to its full potential. It is always important to find exercise that you enjoy and find beneficial.

Exercise can help to:

Improve the overall health of people with milder form of MS
Help people with a more severe form of MS, stay as mobile and active as possible
Help some people manage their MS symptoms and reduce the risk of heart disease
Improve muscle strength and fitness, which will help with body strength an mobility
Help with weight management, especially when combined with a healthy, well-balanced nutrition plan

Finding the exercises that you enjoy and work for you, maybe with the help of a fitness professional, you can stop many problems becoming worse than they need to be.

Getting fit and staying fit helps the body and mind to stay as healthy as possible into the future.

Types of exercise　

There are many different types of exercise and as MS affects individuals in different ways there isn’t a specific exercise that is most beneficial but make sure that you enjoy exercise and that it includes many functional full body movements.

Exercises to include are:

Strength exercises for body conditioning
Aerobic exercises to help manage fatigue
Stretching to keep the muscles supple and relaxed, reduce soreness and spasms
Full range of movement exercises
Core exercises for good posture.

If you find that your condition changes, then adjust your exercise routine to keep the benefits of exercise going.

Relapses and exercising

There is no supported evidence that taking regular exercise will make the symptoms of MS worse as time progresses, or that exercising causes relapses. If you are having a relapse it is advised not to carry on exercising until after symptoms have stopped and you have completed any medical treatment. A fitness professional can help you get back into exercise following the relapse recovery period.

Healthy Eating

Eating nutritionally balanced meals helps the body work to its full potential. This is important to everyone but particularly important for people with MS.

Everyone should be aiming for a healthy, balanced diet. Rainbow eating is best, aiming to eat a variety of different natural fruits and vegetables to ensure you are getting all of your required vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. You should ensure you are eating foods containing the following:

Proteins – for muscle growth and repair
Carbohydrates – for energy
Fats – to absorb certain vitamins and also for energy
Fibre – for a healthy digestive system
Vitamins & Minerals – needed for many processes in the body, including tissue repair, bone strength and the absorption of other nutrients.
Fluids – for optimum health as our bodies are largely water, it is essential for carrying nutrients and many other processes that our bodies carry out every second of the day and night.