MS & Stress

[kwarendorf]

This article, from today's USA Today, seems to say that stress does not play a part in the progression of MS. Then at the end it seems to say it can. More clear scientific findings related to our favorite disease :-)

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/story/2012-08-26/MS-and-stress/57330354/1?csp=34news

[Lulu54]

I would say some people are better trained/schooled at handling stress, Alex.  And from yall that you have written, you are a champion of dealing with it all your life.

The study makes a lot of sense as some people can handle no stress at all while others let it roll.

[HVAC]

If stress caused MS to progress more rapidly I would have been in a wheelchair long ago. No one has had as much stress in their 47 years of MS and I have the slowest case of Primary Progressive MS I have ever heard of. Psychiatrists can't handle my life story it is so traumatic. I am the poster child for PTSD. One example is my mother cut her hand off with two razor blades because the first one got dull and my family put it in an ice chest at took her to the family doctor to have it reattached.

My MS is the best it has ever been with me almost dying two weeks ago from the bad cancer care. I am facing treatment for a whole different cancer after this treatment for stage III ovarian and my out of pocket expenses are now past $10,000 from UNC alone. If stress affected MS I would be bad shape right now. My cancer is even doing well with all this stress. Go figure?

Alex

[kwarendorf]

The last paragraph of the USA Today article says the same. A group of people were taking stress management and then stopped. When they stopped their # of lesions increased.

And yet in the beginning of the article there's this:

""In the past it has been felt, mostly without evidence, that stress can worsen MS, meaning life stresses can bring on attacks," says Ransohoff. "This doesn't seem to be the case.""

[anon07072023]

I think someone else on here (maybe Lulu?) posted a scientific study on those with MS that were going thru a stress mngmt program vs those with MS that weren't going thru the stress mngmt.

The ones not going thru the stress mngmt actually had more lesions over the course of time than the ones who were going thru stress mngmt.