- Early Treatment
- We now know that early treatment improves long-term health and wellbeing by slowing down the build up of irreversible damage and reducing the number of relapses people experience. However, the evidence also doesn’t mean that starting treatment later will not have any benefits.
- Experts used to think that when a person with MS had a ‘relapse’ it meant symptoms appeared and/or quickly got worse and then went away (or ‘remitted’).
Thanks to wider use of MRI scanning, we now have evidence that when symptoms get better, the damage that MS causes often doesn’t stop. So even when someone with MS is not having a relapse, MS may carry on attacking their body. This could lead to nerve damage that can’t be put right.
This new evidence has changed what we understand about MS and how to treat it. Rather than waiting to see whether more relapses occur, DMTs should be offered as close as possible to diagnosis, before damage to the body has built up.
- Disease modifying therapies (DMTs)
- do not cure MS but reduce how many relapses someone has and how serious they are
- Alemtuzumab (Lemtrada)
- two courses of treatment spaced a year apart from each other
- given through a drip
- Avonex (interferon beta-1b)
- injected into the muscle once a week
- Betaferon (interferon beta-1b)
- injected under the skin every other day
- Dimethyl fumarate (Tecfidera)
- take as a tablet twice a day
- Extavia (beta interferon-1b)
- injected under the skin every other day
- Fingolimod (Gilenya)
- take as a tablet once a day
- Glatiramer acetate (Copaxone)
- It’s injected under the skin using a pre-filled syringe once a day or three times a week.
- Natalizumab (Tysabri)
- natalizumab is given through a drip (known as an infusion), which takes about an hour. You need to go to hospital once every four weeks for the infusion, but you don’t need to stay overnight.
- Plegridy (peginterferon beta 1a)
- injected under the skin every two weeks
- Rebif (beta interferon-1a)
- It’s injected under the skin three times a week.
- Teriflunomide (Aubagio)
- It’s a tablet that you take once a day.
Exercise
- improves the overall health of people with milder ms
- help people with more severe ms to stay mobile
- help some people manage ms symptoms and decrease the risk of heart disease
- improve muscle strength and fitness, helping with mobility or weakness problems
- help manage weight control, especially when combined with a healthy, well balanced diet
Physiotherapy
- Physiotherapy is often recommended when there is a specific problem or ongoing symptoms that affect day-to-day activities, mobility and independence. It can help whatever your level of disability, but can be a particularly valuable when physical symptoms progress or you are recovering from a relapse.
- Physiotherapy might involve the physiotherapist working ‘hands-on’ with you – for example they may hold and move your limbs for passive stretching and range-of-motion.
Diet
- Certain diets are promoted as effective therapies for MS.Some people may find they help, though this hasn’t been proven conclusively for people with MS.However, a healthy diet is good for everyone, and many people with MS find it a good way to manage their health
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