Triggers for Multiple Sclerosis 

Stress and anxiety are big triggers for me. I’ve had MS for 23 years. I found breathing exercises helps a lot.

MS is so tricky. Being mindful of temperature fluctuations is important. Often, the people around you will not understand this hypersensitivity. Thank you Dr.

My physiotherapist in Germany says MS means ‘Mach selbst’, meaning do it for yourself, meaning use it or lose it. I always keep that in mind

M S is the acronym for Much Stress!😱 Thanks 🙏 for your care, concern, knowledge, and understanding! 👍🎊❤️

Great info…I am really impacted by the barometric pressure changes and if I am worried or anxious…my diet impacts me as well…my body doesn’t like unhealthy food and it is a huge trigger for me!😊

Excellent video Dr. Gretchen! There are so many diet and lifestyle changes we can make to help support our bodies and manage our symptoms. Two big ones for me are stress and sleep!

Love the tip about sipping drinks slowly regarding urgency - really helps in terms of sleeping at night 👍🙂

Dr Gretchen : thank you so much for your talk about triggers!! It’s so good to see I’m not alone!!

Stress gets me EVERY SINGLE time. Due to heat intolerance, I stay inside when it’s hot, and don’t exercise too often because when I do, my core temp increases, which doesn’t help with sleep sleep apnea..

I drink manly iced coffee now too, because i was finding hot drinks were bringing on fatigue but cold coffee is fine. Something many people don’t think about. Showers too, luke warm or a cold finish again wards off fatigue i used to get showering.

Wow FANTASTIC info. Had severe change in mobility and weakness Oct. 10. Spoke to MS Nurse today who plans to share my sudden change with neurologist. She told me I have secondary progressive.... was not told before but was on my chart!😮😥. Your information so helpful! Thank you. Our system in Canada is so slow right now!

YES YES YES!!!! Absolutely! Thank you for sharing! I so love hearing this info all put together. Thank you.

Extreme weather events and weather changes flare me up. I can be asleep and then woken by my spasm’s going nuts and if i check the radar weather maps I will see a storm front moving in. It is very predictable. Yes to heat, i was able to demonstrate the effects of heat on me to friends on vacation. In the afternoon on our Caribbean vacation I would barely be able to walk to the pool, I would have to hold onto walls all the way. After 20 minutes in the pool I would walk out and back to our room 2 floors up with no issues.

I'm so grateful for your insights. Temperature especially high temp, but low temp has an extreme effect. Also increased barometric pressure, like before it rains. Thank you, because it is wonderful hearing someone acknowledge the pressure change as an issue and that it's not me exaggerating.

Thank you for this excellent video!

Great Video!!

Thank you very much, I'm sick for over 20 years. Very interesting lisen you lecture. I'm from Russia.

Yeah I got Ms when I'm stressed 😥 out my body will know about it my back hips balance ⚖️ and coordination I have trouble walking with these my hips can be really tight to move so I will do some exercise

Thank you! 😊

Your comments about heat are so true!

Great vidio

What happens when I get tactical x ab stimulator?

Facing each and every trigger from stress to menopause to uti ..almost all 😥

Hi Dr.Gretchen how are you? I have spinocebellar ataxi and everyday getting worse 😔😔

I was diagnosed with ppms last year and this was very insightful. Any advice for having zero tolerance to cold and heat? It use to be just the cold because I have raynauds as well. I have also been told that I have erythromyelgia (prior to my ms diagnosis, though I am starting to wonder if the erythromyelgia wasn’t just the MS all along, who knows) with raynauds can get extremely cold but over the last 2 years, my heat tolerance gotten worse too. I can tolerate most of my issues the heat causes but the tensing of my pelvic floor from it is the worst causing my gut motility to be insanely slow, causing air/pressure in my gut that leads to back pain etc. But after seeing different specialists it seems all roads lead to the pelvic floor but again the heat isn’t helping. When I try to do manual releases it will even feel very warm as well so definitely know the heat is playing a role. Another odd coincidence to note is ever since a MRI I got on my knee, no contrast, prior diagnosis my hands have not been a normal color. They will either be purple or red, depending on my temperature. During the MRI within 15 minutes I had a weird sensation in my arm and my feet went extra numb but I finished the scan later. I had another one done same sensation happened instantly in my arm and feet, but I finished the scan with my arms out of the machine and that is when I believe my heat tolerance got worse. I’ve never had any other reactions to any other MRIs. Before my heat tolerance got worse it used to just be extreme temperatures that would turn my hands/feet red and since that last knee MRI, it can be 70° out and the sun is shining on me and my hands will go red. I am not saying it’s a result of the MRI that irritated something, one of my neurologist stated it could be possible, but they don’t know. But I just think it’s a very interesting thing to note. Along with when we had the northern lights that could be seen from Wisconsin not too long ago and all the electric storms and stuff, since then that knee specifically because I had surgery on it for a torn meniscus has been sore and it’s been even harder for my body to regulate temperatures. I apologize for the long and interesting backstory, but sometimes I figure overexplaining and additional information is better than no information at all. But thank you for your video. I’m glad I found it and I subscribed and if you have any tips for someone who cannot regulate any temperatures that would be wonderful. Thank you.

Also add MS symptom of numbness and cog fog.

Thanks for the tips Dr Gretchen. For me it's not so much of the triggers you've mentioned here. I've had HSCT in 2019, and I've gotten so stiff and experiencing a lot more spasms over the years. Also I can't follow some of your exercises as I think my disability has advanced a lot more since then. I can no longer walk nor move my legs anymore and it's a combination of spasticity and weakness which have gotten worse. I'm heading towards paralysis and I'm so devastated. 😢

I am a 32 years old male who was diagnosed 3 years ago with ms 14 lesions + thyroid cancer + covid and pulmonary embolism + Crohn's disease + alveolar ecchinocosis in pancreas and liver, spleen with kysts and lesions, all in 6 months time. Late analysis show residual cancer cells which present some risk. In short my therapies are messed up. I believe I only partially know my triggers. Recently my health is goin down I have cognitive loss ; eyes perception and ears comprehension along with memory issue. What would you advise me to better coordinate all the diseases at the same time ? Any tip I havent thought about ? Thanks alot in advance 🙏