Food plan, Way of life Come Into Focus for Managing Multiple Sclerosis: Rebecca Spain, MD

Although drug improvement and immune system analysis have lengthy dominated the sector of a number of sclerosis (MS), rising proof factors to the highly effective position that weight loss plan and wellness can play in bettering high quality of life for folks with the situation. In this interview, Rebecca Spain, MD, MSPH, FAAN, affiliate professor of neurology at Oregon Health & Science University and codirector of MS Center of Excellence–West on the Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center, discusses how vitamin, train, and mind-body practices might help handle signs, help total well being, and improve long-term outcomes. Spain offered a session on the Institute for Value-Based Medicine occasion hosted by The American Journal of Managed Care^® in Portland, Oregon, on October 21, 2025, titled “Management of Patients with Multiple Sclerosis.”

This transcript has been calmly edited; captions have been auto-generated.

Transcript

What do we all know concerning the position of weight loss plan and wellness in managing MS?

Well, we all know weight loss plan and wellness is extremely essential; it is extremely essential for all of us, however it might probably have actual impacts on folks with MS. It hasn’t been an actual focus of analysis for fairly a while. Researchers have been very centered on the immune system and drug improvement, however notably the National MS Society—and I’ll give a shout-out to them—has proven an actual highlight on the necessity for analysis and training round weight loss plan and wellness and the necessity for rigorous investigation of those. They have sponsored, and investigators have carried out some nice analysis into, weight loss plan and wellness approaches. These are tough research to do. As you may think about, it is laborious to manage weight loss plan, it is laborious to even document weight loss plan and bear in mind what you’ve got had. But there are a variety of research that actually have proven that weight loss plan improves high quality of life, notably improves fatigue, which is likely one of the hardest signs to sort out in folks with MS.

We do know that people who find themselves typically more healthy—so fewer comorbid circumstances like diabetes, hypertension, and coronary heart illness—they do higher with MS. They have much less incapacity; they’ve the next bodily perform. These ailments are additionally impacted by weight loss plan and way of life. We know it is essential. I feel behavioral change is tough to do, and that is an entire different science on learn how to take this data and transfer it into long-standing behavioral change. There are different wellness approaches as nicely to addressing signs of MS, perhaps even underlying pathology in MS. And a few of these are train, mind-body wellness actions like Tai Chi or Qigong, another practices like acupuncture, and different types of stress administration practices. I do know I’m lacking some others, however all of those actually have a task within the 360 care of an individual with MS, or actually any persistent illness that’s significant and helps them thrive in.