Were you diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and then handed a binder about medications with a lot of promises, but also a lot of side effects? Somehow, with no medical background or understanding of pharmaceutical drugs, you're supposed to decide which medication you should take. It's like you were handed a menu at a restaurant and the server comes by to take your order. But instead of choosing the meal that you're most in the mood for at the moment, you're deciding which medication you'll be taking for the rest of your life to manage MS. Why is this decision left up to you? Just as there's no one test to definitively diagnose multiple sclerosis, there's also no one plan to treat it. Frustrating, I know. Because everyone has such a unique experience with MS, each person needs a unique plan to manage it.

This can be both empowering and confusing. So let's talk about it. This is not a medical conversation. I am not a doctor. So I am not qualified to speak to specific medications or give you medical advice. This is about having an honest conversation about how to handle this common but very overwhelming situation many of us find ourselves in. This is about supporting you and having the most productive and collaborative conversations with your doctor so you can come to a decision, one that you feel confident about. And my friends, just a side note, if you need help prepping for upcoming doctor's appointments so you can get answers to questions and concerns, download my appointment planner at Alenebrennan. com/ planner. Okay, now on to today's episode. There are 1 million people diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in the US.

So that makes you one in a million. And you have a special purpose in this world that no diagnosis can take away from you. So if you are ready to reclaim your body, mind and life from multiple sclerosis, welcome to my MS podcast. I'm your host, Alene Brennan. Multiple sclerosis, it's complicated and it's personal. No two people have identical symptoms or progression rates. While there are some general guidelines on how to manage MS, each person has to figure out their own unique path, which again, on the surface can be really empowering, but deep down, it's also confusing and overwhelming. So what do you do? Naturally you start to look at your options. Front and center you have your doctor. They're recommending medication. Immediately. They're using words like 'or else' to emphasize a sense of urgency.

And let's be honest, they have years of training clinical experience. So they kind of know what they're talking about. But then you stumble upon these people online talking about how they're managing MS with diet and lifestyle. And you start to wonder, is that legit? Are they telling the whole story? Are they saying it's all diet and lifestyle, but when the camera goes off, they're taking medication too? Are they saying that they've eliminated symptoms, but behind the scenes, they're struggling too? Or even if they are managing it with just diet and lifestyle, how can they be so confident that it won't come back to bite them in the future? They don't know how this disease will progress in their future. Maybe it's great for the moment, but maybe they're going to regret that decision later.

And should social media really influence a major medical decision for you? So then you start to lean back towards your doctor's advice. It's backed by science, research, and there's reassurance that comes with that. But what about the side effects? They're so hard to get past. Some are even worse than MS itself. How does that work? Here you stand, clock ticking, pressure mounting, and decision looming. Which is the right one for you? The one that will give you the best chance to keep this disease stable and the one that you won't regret. Again, I can't give you medical advice. Only your doctor can do that. It's important that you keep the conversation open with your doctor. Here today, I just want to invite you to take a breath and take a moment to ask yourself a few questions.

Step back from the pressure and the overwhelm for just a moment. It's easy to allow our emotions to get the best of us in times like this. So what if you just took a step back to do a little evaluation? So I want to share a few questions with you that may be helpful for you to consider now. The first is, what is the current state of your disease progression? Understanding the current status of your disease progression is critical. It's not just about what symptoms you're experiencing, but how aggressive are they? And what about the frequency of relapses and any changes on your MRIs? These all together help give you a snapshot of how active MS is at the moment. While some people may have progression that is very slow or almost non-existent, others may experience rapidly progressing forms.

So, you need to understand the current status of your progression with MS in order to make the best informed decision on your treatment plan. The next question you might want to ask yourself is, is it significantly impacting your daily life? This question delves deep into our quality of life. Even if the disease is progressing slowly, it might be causing debilitating fatigue, cognitive issues, or mobility problems. Think about tasks or activities that you once did with ease, but they've now become really difficult or maybe even impossible to do because of symptoms. If that's the case for you, remembering that a treatment plan's main goal is to enhance your quality of life. So understanding how it's impacting your current day-to-day life can help you prioritize what is most important with your treatment plan.

You also want to understand how quickly does it seem to be progressing. An aggressive progression might call for a more immediate and possibly aggressive intervention. Remember, it's not just about the physical progression, but it's also the cognitive and emotional changes that you're facing too. Are you finding that symptoms are popping up more frequently than before? Or are the gaps between relapses shortening? Knowing the pace of your disease progression again can help you determine how urgent your treatment plan should be. Another thing to ask, are there immediate and significant risks to one decision or another? Listen, all choices and decisions come with risks. There's no way to eliminate that. If you choose a particular medication, are there potential side effects that could be detrimental to your health? Or on the flip side, if you opt for a diet and lifestyle routine, is there a chance that

In my opinion, in my personal opinion, it's not a good one. I do find so many people who feel caught between these two worlds or maybe just really indecisive and not sure which decision to make. So they delay the decision. And it's understandable because it is a big one. And I get that. But part of this discussion here is to help you have the most collaborative and productive conversations with your doctor so that you can make a decision. Because again, not making a decision is a decision and it leaves you in kind of a pretty vulnerable place. Now if you want to explore diet, something you need to ask yourself is are you willing to fully commit to it? No cheat days. Diet and lifestyle changes require a significant commitment.

You literally have to treat it as your medicine. This isn't an occasional healthy choice here and there. It is a major shift in your diet and your lifestyle. Some dietary approaches can suggest that even a single cheat could have irreversible damages. So you want to make sure if you're choosing this, are you going to be getting all of the right nutrients into your body? Are you willing to let go of some of your favorite foods? A half-hearted attempt might not be only ineffective, but it could also be incredibly discouraging if you're not seeing results. And that's one of the challenges that I see so many people experience. They're doing it kind of, but not fully. And therefore they're kind of getting results, but not fully.

And it only plants a seed of doubt as to whether or not this whole diet and lifestyle thing is really going to work. Because you feel like you're putting in effort, because you are. But if you're not fully committed to it, you're not going to get the full results. Take some time to consider these questions and discuss them with your doctor. Remember, the journey with MS is personal. And what works for one person might not work for another. The goal is to make an informed decision based on your unique circumstances. So again, take a minute to reflect on some of these questions and then bring them to your next doctor's appointment and discuss them with your physician.

Because we know that MS, again, is so unique to each person and the greatest value your doctor can give you is perspective on your personal status with MS. They are the one who can really help customize this plan for you. Now, if you're experiencing a lot of disease activity and significant symptoms, or you simply want to throw everything at this disease, talk with your doctor about finding the medication that matches your current activity or progression of MS. And here are some of the questions that you might ask in this conversation. First, how long has this medication been on the market? The length of time a medication has been available can give you a sense of long-term effects and long-term safety. You want to know how effective is this medicine and what are the potential long-term risks or side effects. Older medications have a longer track record and more data is available.

Newer medications, they have the appeal of advancements that older medications don't have, but there's less long-term data available. So asking questions about this can help you determine your comfort level with the knowns and unknowns of a specific medication. And you may want to dive a little bit deeper into those known side effects. Every medication has potential side effects.

May be minor and manageable, while other ones might be more severe or even outweigh the benefits of the medication. This is why we're having the conversation with our doctor so that we're factoring every aspect of you, your health, and your lifestyle into account. And of course, you also want to know what are the benefits you can expect? This question addresses the core purpose of taking the medication in the first place.

At all, that's going to set you up for disappointment and frustration. But if you can have this conversation early and be able to decipher between what you can expect in terms of benefits, that's going to be really helpful and key into making a decision. Knowing the potential positive outcomes, i. e., the benefits, that will help you weigh them against the possible risks or side effects. And then, of course, the next obvious question is,

amount of time to work. Or if you're pregnant or planning to come pregnant, or if you're breastfeeding or planning to breastfeed, this is definitely something you want to talk about with your doctor. Medications can have varying effects on pregnancy and breastfeeding. It's important to understand any potential risks or complications to both you and your baby. This question is critical to have with your doctor before you become pregnant.

This idea here is understanding the commitment level of the medication. Some drugs require a long-term or even lifelong commitment, while others may be used temporarily or in cycles. There's also the question of what progress looks like if you decide medication isn't working for you now. Can you simply stop taking it? Often no. Or is there a weaning process? Personally, everything I've seen from both conventional and functional medicine has major alerts. Don’t ever stop your disease-modifying drugs abruptly and without the help of your doctors. That is one thing that has been very clear from both sides.

Not what this is. This is to support you in having a collaborative and productive conversation with your doctor to make the best possible decision for you, and one that you feel comfortable with moving forward. Now, I hear many of you saying, but what if my doctor doesn't have time to answer these questions or explain all of this to me? Don’t worry, you always have options. There are other medically trained professionals that can be a great resource for you. Some of my personal favorites are pharmacists. They are medication experts. They are trained extensively on how drugs work, their interactions, side effects, and how they act in the body. If you have questions about how a medication works or how it may potentially interact with a medication you're already taking, or even just practical questions about how and when to take it, connect with a pharmacist. They can be an excellent resource for you. You may also find great success talking with nurse practitioners in the office. Nurse practitioners, in my opinion, are often more accessible than the doctor and they can be a wealth of knowledge. They tend to work more closely with patients, monitoring their interactions to medications and answering questions about them. They are trained to provide both medical care and education.

And on a similar path is a MS nurse specialist. Some medical practices or MS centers have nurses who specialize in MS care. These professionals are well-versed in the specifics of MS treatment, and they can provide more specific details and answer all of your many questions. So again, check with pharmacists, nurse practitioners, and any MS nurse specialists.

Now, what if you are relatively stable and you really are curious about this whole diet thing? Let's talk about diet. If you find that you're stable, and you have been for several years, and you're really curious about what diet and lifestyle can do for you, maybe you talk to your doctor about the opportunity to explore this first. Do they feel you would be at any significant risk if you went all in on diet and lifestyle for the next couple months and then reevaluated to determine a long-term plan for you? This helps to chunk it down because it's not suggesting that this is going to be your one and only treatment for the rest of your life. You're basically asking for a little experimental time here.

Your doctor may or may not be on board with this, but try to listen to their response. Try not to get caught up in proving or disproving one theory over another. What are the facts that are being shared with you? And remember, choosing the best of both worlds, conventional medicine and diet, is an option too. It doesn't have to be an either-or approach. Again, this is not medical advice. My intention is to help you have the most productive and collaborative conversations with your doctor so you can come to a decision that you feel confident about. And that brings me to my final point here. Whatever decision you make, once you've made it, try to stick with it and shut down any doubts that tries to make you second guess yourself. That is not helpful. Make a decision, follow through, commit to it, and track your results with your doctor over time. Give yourself a period of time, whatever is appropriate for whichever treatment plan you decided upon, and then check in, reevaluate. Has it delivered the expectations that you had for it?

And again, if you need help prepping for doctor's appointments so you can get the answers to questions and concerns that you have, download my appointment planner at Alenebrennan.com/ planner. Okay, guys, I know this was a big topic to discuss today, but I really hope that it helped to give you a little bit of clarity and really helped you in, again, just setting yourself up for success to have collaborative and productive conversations with your doctor. They really are there to best support us.

With the information that we have available to us at any given time. So know that you are doing your absolute best. Move forward with confidence in reclaiming your body, mind, and life from MS. Well, my friend, we've reached the end of this episode. Pick one lesson from today's discussion and put it into action now. It's time to reclaim your body, mind, and life from multiple sclerosis. And for more resources, events, and programs, head over to AleneBrennan. com. See you on the next episode of my MS podcast.