Multiple Sclerosis Fatigue is one of the number one symptoms and complaints of multiple sclerosis. And unfortunately one of the #1 reasons that many people with MS end up on disability. Multiple Sclerosis fatigue is real, and a prominent symptom for as many as 85-95% of those with MS.

Here are 15 ways to fight against fatigue. Just the little things that you do each and every day can make a difference.

1. Be aware of medication side effects. Anti-depressants are well known to have a side effect of fatigue. Talk with your doctor and determine what side effects each medication your on has.

2. Drink a sufficient amount of water: Dehydration can cause fatigue and many people with MS don’t like to drink water because they suffer from an over active bladder.- I’m guilty of this one. Our bodies need water for energy and to remove toxins, so don’t scrimp on this one.

3. Improper breathing: Shallow, short breathes will reduce the amount of oxygen coming to your cells, therefore making you feel fatigued.

4. Not exercising: Ok, so you’ve heard this one a number of times on how exercise increases energy. There’s no excuses regardless of what level you are at with your MS.

5. Depression: Not accepting multiple sclerosis, being depressed about your current life will cause depression and the by product fatigue.

6. Too much heat: Heat increases your disabilities and fatigue and just makes you feel bad. Anytime out in warm weather I can go from walking normally to barely walking at all. Stay out of the heat, use a cooling vest, and look for activities that keep you cool like swimming.

7. Avoid Simple Carbohydrates: White bread, white pasta, and sugar slow you down and fatigue you. Keep up on a diet of whole foods consisting of fruits and veggies.

8. Vary Routine: Toss up your normal daily schedule. Each one of us needs some variety each day.Plan something for the future that you can look forward to.

9. Experiment with aromatherapy: Peppermint and jasmine essentials oils are known to be energizing. Put a few drops on your collar of your shirt to smell during the day, or take the container of peppermint with you and take a sniff when your feeling fatigued.

10. Go to bed at the same time every night Most people don’t get enough sleep, and leg spasticity may be keeping you up at night.

11. Reduce your weight: Being overweight will make you feel fatigued. Watch what you’re eating and exercise to maintain a healthy weight.

12. Not Pacing, Planning, or Prioritizing Your Life: It’s important to have balance in your life. It’s important to balance fatigue and rest. Devise a plan on what needs to be done and organize your tasks so that they are manageable.

13. Eating Breakfast Everyday: When you first wake up your blood sugar is low, eating a proper breakfast is an energy booster. Skipping breakfast drains your energy contributing to fatigue.

14. Check out your iron levels: If you’re not getting enough iron that you may feel fatigued. Eat fish, eggs, fortified cereals, and beans to fight against multiple sclerosis fatigue.

15. Last but not least: Fatigue is a symptom of MS and you should not feel bad when asking for help. Spend your energy on what matters and determine what you can ask others for in helping you conserve your valuable resources.

Robert Groth is the author of “Conquer Multiple Sclerosis”. To receive a FREE ebook on reclaiming your life and conquering Multiple Sclerosis go to http://www.ConquerMS.com

It’s an issue for all of us diagnosed with multiple sclerosis- a disease that changes our lives forever. Touching everyone and everything in its path. And what I’ve found is that there are no rules and who and what you decide to disclose is based on various different factors.

Telling Your Employer You’ve Got Multiple Sclerosis

There are no easy solutions or answers on whether you should or shouldn’t tell your employer but I think that there are concerns you should have. If you are extremely dependant on eyesight in performing your job and you’ve just been hit with a bought of optic neuritis then I would be very selective in mentioning anything.

Folks, discrimination is out there and I’ve been discriminated against by my employer who is also my parent. People will think that you are not good enough or that your disability affects the performance on the job.

My opinion is that you should not speak of your diagnosis or symptoms of multiple sclerosis.

Employment can be difficult enough with out disclosing a disease that effects the way people think about you. I suggest mum’s the word at work.

Some of your friends will embrace multiple sclerosis and others may not.

Some will treat you as a delicate flower who can’t do anything or others my forget you even have a disease. It’s entirely your discretion who you tell, and what symptoms you tell them you have.

And the general reception I receive from everyone is, boy you’re a trouper and a fighter, I’m proud of you. You can’t imagine how important that is to me, thank you friends.

When I first met my wife over 13 years ago I told her I had MS right away.

It was never an issue in our relationship and she was never concerned about me.

But her lack of concern was more so denial that anything else. People who have MS go through denial and so do their partners.

I urge you to be honest with your loved ones and I also urge you to tell you’re loved ones that they are on a journey with multiple sclerosis as well.

People change, circumstances change and lives change and people with MS and their loved ones must realize this and adapt together.

Everyone must adapt to their new life and doing so involves emotions such as anger, denial, anxiety, depression, loss, frustration, and pity. Feel these emotions, realize their presence and move on. Not moving on will only hold you back from what is rightfully yours. Love, happiness, peace, and progression of life.

Robert Groth is the author of “Conquer Multiple Sclerosis”. To receive a FREE ebook on reclaiming your life and conquering Multiple Sclerosis go to http://www.ConquerMS.com

The forums are laden with people who have MS and are in relationships where they doubt the love of the partner and ask why would they want to be with me?

Here I am, sick with MS. I don’t know what is going to happen to me and why would you want me?

Common question for us who choose partners who have multiple sclerosis. Or better yet stay with partners who have multiple sclerosis. And again we all here stories like this one in a previous post. A woman who was cheated on because she had MS and was no longer the vibrant young thing she used to be.

First and foremost, I truly believe that people choose to react a certain way to their disease. And the way they act can either attract people or simply drive them away.

I have empathy for people in bad situations diseases far worse then MS (and I’m not trying to discount the seriousness of MS).

Currently we have several clients/and close friends who are suffering and close to death with cancer. Robert and I feel great sadness for these individuals who are as young as 30 years old.

Robert and I believe that you can live with this disease in dignity or you can choose to be an ass. An ass defined as someone who is angry and mean to everyone who tries to help them and simply drives everyone away. Its self suicide: hatred for yourself and your situation and you push everyone and everything away from you that is good.

And the same applies to multiple sclerosis.

People with MS can choose to live a life of dignity, and not- self pity. Partners who have MS who whine, complain, and act overly needy for attention drive people away. And I’ve so much as heard other people who have MS complain about fellow MS’s who are whiners and how they hate to listen to the BS.

Yeah, we’ve all got MS so why do you have the right to whine to me?

The reality about whining, complaining and pity is that no one can help you except yourself. People can lend a open ear, but if you complain and do nothing to help yourself because you think your helpless than friend your just wasting your time.

There are answers and solutions if you choose to open your mind and ears.

From the wives point (I don’t have MS). My husband has never been a whiner, but I will be honest with you, he has put himself down on various occasions.

A number of years ago he would say to me.

Why would you want to stay with a cripple like me?
My response would be, well dumb ass I love you. (such a compassionate wife I am).

With all the challenges we’ve had over the last 13 years together I’ve ALWAYS seen my husband as a winner. He was always searching for answers and solutions for conquering MS. Never did he complain or give up even though he had many a time to choose to. He believed in himself and it was contagious. How could you not believe in this man who a year and a half ago crawled to the bathroom and today walked over 1.5 miles around the neighborhood.

Many of us partners see those who we love with MS and realize that it’s no one’s fault and we love our partners for who they are not for what they may not be able to do.

In the scheme of things we love people for who they are and their personality and how they treat us- not for MS.

Individuals with spouses with MS remember these points:

We remember why we joined up with a spouse with MS in the first place and realize that they ARE NOT MS. A spouse remembers daily the wonderful traits that they were initially attracted to.

An individual with MS does not try to drive away people who are trying to love them because they don’t feel worthy. They accept love from others regardless of what MS is and has in store for them.

Spouses and MS diagnosed realize MS is a journey and forever changing their lives and both spouses accept this and work together in unity and love.

The spouse is dedicated to their spouse with MS and lives in the present and see their spouse today for who they are. Not judging them, but enabling them to live a plentiful life.

Robert Groth is the author of “Conquer Multiple Sclerosis”. To receive a FREE ebook on reclaiming your life and conquering Multiple Sclerosis go to http://www.ConquerMS.com

If you’re like me, than you couldn’t wait to watch Oprah Winfrey yesterday and watch and see how Montel felt and reacted to his diagnosis of MS.

Each and every hour someone in the world is diagnosed with the life sentence of multiple sclerosis. Today, we see some 400,000 people with multiple sclerosis. And the shocking truth is that the victims are becoming younger and younger.

Montel, once a navel officer like many of us tried to hide his diagnosis with MS, but once a newspaper writer threatened to expose his truth Montel decided to publically announce his diagnosis with MS.

On the set, Montel conducted his interview with poise, but when he discussed how he wanted Oprah to remain on her show past 2011 he became emotional. During the interview Montel cried behind the scenes and then would regain his composure to reenter the stage.

Montel stated that his primary symptoms of multiple sclerosis were pain, shooting pain up and down his body and in his face. Montel stated,It felt like someone was stabbing me in the face with a fork. Then he was asked, how do you deal with this? You get a grip was his response.

Montel then leads on to how he REALLY deals with his pain and anguish.

It’s called Visualizations.

During the show, Montel had all people in the audience close their eyes, and then visualize a moment in their life where they were happy, a moment of joy.

A moment where no one or no disease can take away your peace and happiness.

A place where all problems, and concerns were gone.

The word visualization doesn’t accurately describe what you do in your mind when you create change. When you picture what you want in an empowering way, a way that changes your state of mind and pushes your emotional pistons- all you’ve really doing is REMEMBERING something from the past- and adding what you IMAGINE for your future.

What this is called is Psycho Cybernetics and it was created by Dr. Maxwell Maltz in the early 1960s.

I often tell my patients, If you can remember, worry, or tie your shoe, you will have no trouble applying this method. The things you are called upon to do are simple, but you must practice and experience. Visualizing, creative mental picturing is no more difficult that what you do when you remember some scene out of the past, or worry about the future. Acting out new action patterns is no more difficult than deciding, then following thought on tying your shoes in a new and different manner each morning, instead of continuing to tie them in your old habitual way, without thought or decision.
I often visualize myself walking, because like Montel one of my greatest fears was ending up in a wheelchair.

Today I do realize that if this were to happen- my life would be fine. But honestly, it’s something I don’t want to see happen. Therefore I visualize myself walking each and every day.

Robert Groth is the author of “Conquer Multiple Sclerosis”. To receive a FREE ebook on reclaiming your life and conquering Multiple Sclerosis go to http://www.ConquerMS.com

Sickness and stress is all around me, its tax season and as you may or may not know I’m a senior accountant for an accounting firm here in Wisconsin.

March is my low time, a time where my health and sanity are pushed to its outer limits. A time where there is no sun in Wisconsin and everyone is becoming very impatient about the weather and wishing for spring to arrive.

With over 1200 tax clients I’m exposed to a lot of germs, people coming in with their tax information sitting across from me, coughing and wheezing.

So how do I ward off all this sickness, no sunshine, and stress? And how exactly am I doing this tax season compared to other years?

Lack of sunshine and lousy weather doesn’t bother me, I’m getting comp time which means for every extra hour I work I will receive back during the summer. So I’m very happy about this, so far I’ve got 9 weeks of vacation time banked up for the summer. Lots of camping, hiking, fresh air and sunshine. I know this overtime won’t last forever and indeed it WILL be over in April. Besides the weather outside sucks so might as well work anyways.

Here’s what does bother me.

A number of years ago I had a reputation for being ill in March. It seemed that every March I became ill, so ill that I ended up in the hospital for a week. One year I had a kidney stone that caused barfing, fever, and flaring up my MS symptoms. I was in the link for 10 days including a surgery to get the blasted stone out of my. It’s was ugly I tell ya.

Other March’s I would be finishing up tax season, and be so stressed, tired and worn out. By the end of March I would have a MS flare-up and end up hospitalized on prednisone. One week later leaving the clink yellow from all the drugs.

Our home this year has been hit hard with the flu, Christine and Caroline being first and now my daughter Alex. All of them went through high temps with body aches, and runny noses. You can imagine what I’m thinking. They get the flu and get over it. IF I GET IT I END UP IN THE HOSPITAL. Fevers for me mean I’m bedridden. The increase in temperature causes my legs to give out until the temperature is gone.

How I Have Conquered the Month of March

So there are my worries. But here is my true reality.

I’m having the best tax season I’ve ever had. And to be perfectly honest with you it’s hard to believe that April is right around the corner and I’m almost done.

So what changed this year?

The removal of stress. I’m no longer taking public transportation which means I don’t have to wait outside in the rain and cold. No more waiting for late buses. I love being picked up and dropped off each day in front of my home and office.

My Dad no longer own’s the business. There was great debate regarding my dad and whether I would take over the firm. It’s finally over- no more stress.

Meditations, Affirmations, Vitamins, Whole Food Diet: I’ve been eating great, meditating, exercising, taking my vitamins and eating no meat and all veggies and fruits. This has made a big change in my life. All of these things have warded off sickness, the flu and colds. I haven’t had one little sniffle.

Conquering multiple sclerosis is about making changes in your life and realizing that it’s an all over approach. Not just one thing will help you but many things attribute to conquering multiple sclerosis. This is our mission: There is no cure for ms, but you can improve the quality of your life taking you’re from a 10 in severity to maybe a 3 or 4.

Robert Groth is the author of “Conquer Multiple Sclerosis”. To receive a FREE ebook on reclaiming your life and conquering Multiple Sclerosis go to http://www.ConquerMS.com

Many of you already know that I have a childcare center in my home. Back when I was a new mom and had given birth to our twin daughters I had decided I wanted to stay home. It was important to me to be there for my daughters and witness everything in their life. A career was not really my thing and at the time I had worked as a bank teller, not exactly your high paying career. My thought was my mom stayed home with me and I want to do the same.

But there was just a small problem in this equation. We couldn’t afford to loose my income, and Robert was just starting out in accounting. Money was tight as is with many new families just starting out.

Pregnant with twins and working at the bank I had a discussion one day with a fellow bank teller. She explained to me how she ran a daycare in her home and did this for many years while raising her children. This conversation planted the seed for the future.

Six months later I was a new mom and had started my childcare center. I placed an ad in the local newspaper and one week later I had 3 children which replaced my income from the bank. And that’s how it started 12 years ago this year.

Since then I have hired on an employee and have 8 children who come to my home daily. Robert and I own a ranch style house with a finished basement. In the basement is my daycare along with an office.

Childcare for us has been a wonderful business, one where I been able to afford the time and luxury of staying home and establishing a career that has allowed us vacations and some of the better things in life.

Childcare has also allowed me to see and understand how other people think about themselves and their children. Which at many times can be interesting, frustrating, and plain strange.

This morning is a perfect example of what I’m talking about, and you may be wondering what does this have to do with multiple sclerosis? Isn’t that what I’m supposed to be reading about? Hold on partner we’ll get to that part.

This morning I had one of my parents enter my home, he’s the father of a 2 year old little boy named Tyler. The father announced to me, we are going to send Tyler to school next year; he’ll be in a 3K program. My response was thank you for giving me so much notice of your impending change and decision.

Seems innocent enough, right? Lots of parents enroll their children in 3K or 4K programs. Besides, never leave any child behind’. Educate our children from a young age and they will become fine and productive citizens.

Folks, here is where I want to challenge you.

When did we (adults) stop educating ourselves the minute school was over with? Why are we choosing to accept television over books? Tabloid magazines over real life biographies of people who are achievers and have triumphed in their life.

At some point we become adults and stop nourishing our minds with positive educational information. We bombard ourselves with the nonsense we are spoon fed on T.V. on how we are supposed to live our lives and what we are supposed to believe.

Back to that question what does this have to do with multiple sclerosis? Everything.

Folks, never stop accepting what you have and that there is no hope for you, no improvements in your disability, no plans for the future. If you have decided to stop educating yourself and stop searching for answers and information than you’ll get just what you have. No options, no solutions, and little hope.

You’ll continue to be depressed, frustrated, and anxiety ridden. There are no excuses anymore there are only solutions, answers, and hope. Start educating yourself and realize that it doesn’t have to stop and shouldn’t stop at the high school level. Start reading and I suggest you start with: Healing Multiple Sclerosis

Robert Groth is the author of “Conquer Multiple Sclerosis”. To receive a FREE ebook on reclaiming your life and conquering Multiple Sclerosis go to http://www.ConquerMS.com