Got MS? Focus on What You Can Do, Not on What You Can’t

A week after returning from a snowboarding trip, Emmy-award-winning talk show host and New York Times bestselling author Montel Williams recalls how, 15 years ago, a doctor not only diagnosed Williams with multiple sclerosis (MS) but also advised Williams that he would be confined to a wheelchair within four years. “How dare that person look at me for an hour and think he can figure out what the rest of my life is going to be like,” Williams says passionately. “He had no idea who I am. MS has no idea who I am either.”

MS is a chronic disease in which the immune system attacks healthy tissue in the central nervous system — causing any number of symptoms including blurred vision, poor coordination, slurred speech, numbness, extreme fatigue, problems with memory and concentration, blindness and more. These problems may be permanent or intermittent.

“Because MS symptoms are as varied and unique as the person diagnosed with the disease,” says Nicholas LaRocca, Ph.D., vice president of health care delivery and policy research at the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, “there is no one-size-fits-all treatment strategy. Everyone needs to develop their own disease-management strategies, in consultation with their health care providers.” To this end, he notes, the MS Society provides a free MS Navigator® program to support those with MS in getting optimal care.

“It’s our responsibility to look for the ways that we can impact MS,” concurs Williams. He encourages those with the disease to take the initiative of researching treatment options available, revealing that his own research led him to an MS clinical trial that has been “life-changing.” Williams also emphasizes the importance of taking medication exactly as it is prescribed; eating whole, nutritious, unprocessed foods; exercising whatever part of the body is able to move; and getting sufficient rest.

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