If you have recently been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis or had a first time MS event, the question of how to treat MS should be primarily your decision. You may even want to decide how to treat MS before choosing your doctor or clinic. You may decide you want to explore one of the many drugs used to treat MS. You may decide to opt for one of the many Complimentary and Alternative treatment regimens shown to be beneficial to many. These decisions will play a factor on which doctor or team of specialists you use. The point is to have a good idea in your own mind on how to treat MS in your particular case and find a doctor that is a good fit.
This should all be done in a relatively quick time frame, however, as most research shows that MS does more damage in the early years than later years and the sooner you begin treatment the better your long term prognosis.
How to Treat MS – the two main approaches
The main ways that are used to treat MS are Immunomodulating therapies and Immunosuppressive therapies.
The immunomodulating therapies attempt to reduce the malfunctioning immune cells by regulating their activation. The malfunctioning cells are the ones that are attacking the nerve cells and the myelin sheaths. This treatment approach also reduces the number of these “bad” cells that are able to cross the blood brain barrier. The fewer that get to the brain, the less brain nerve damage can be done.
The immunosuppressive therapies try to reduce the number of immune cells circulating in the bloodstream. But this approach doesn’t differentiate between malfunctioning immune cells and healthy ones. The downside to this approach is fairly obvious. Since immune cells are a vital component to our body’s natural defense system, it is not necessarily good to reduce the healthy ones. So the side effect is that the natural defense of the overall immune system is weakened.
When deciding on how to treat MS, these are some of the general considerations you need to consider. Of course your doctor will help you with this but if you don’t agree with the general approach, you wouldn’t want to continue your relationship with that particular doctor.
Alternative treatments
Both of the general approaches mentioned above involve some combination of the many drugs to treat MS currently approved by the FDA or agency in the patient’s country of residency. When deciding how to treat MS, some patients decide they don’t want to use drugs for one reason or another.
There are many treatments currently being used that are known as alternative treatments. These alternative methods involve things like diet change, exercise, yoga, physical therapy, herbal treatment and many others. When you make your decision how to treat MS, make sure you educate yourself in these areas as well. And if you decide to use these methods alone or in combination, again it is important to find a medical team that will work with you. How to treat MS is a personal decision. But do treat it in some fashion. Left untreated, Multiple Sclerosis will almost certainly lead to disability.
