This is the 3rd of seven blogs
What makes healing and recovery different from treatment and cure? A treatment describes something that is done to the body; a cure implies that the problem is gone. Healing and recovery are processes, calling on the body to make the trip back to health.
In the case of MS, it is always the balance of the strength of the disease and the strength of the body that determines how well the person can function. In early MS, the disease is not at full strength so that the body can more easily gain dominance again and the symptoms abate. Then the disease strengthens so that the body can’t heal and symptoms remain fixed, we call that secondary progressive. You can even see this phenomenon on a daily basis. There were times when MS was still active in me when I could walk pretty well and I tended to push myself. As time went on, my walking became worse, slowing until I could go no more. Or I noticed that after a meal, my symptoms would flare a little. Why? Walking and digesting take energy away from the body so that the body can’t keep the same level of functioning in the face of the pressure from the MS.
From this it is logical that if we give our bodies more access to energy, through good food, rest and less stress, it will be able to use that energy to heal. By healing I mean repair and restore. Daily life take energy, stress drains us of our energy as does sickness. We need rest, not just a good night’s sleep, but extra energy from resting time during the day to really supply the body with this needed energy.
The usual lifestyle in this country does not allow for time out to heal. We go to work, sick or not, it does not matter how we feel. If you want to recover from MS, you can’t continue in this usual manner. Your lifestyle, at least while you are healing, needs to change. Stop the world and get off, at least for a while each day. Once you have healed, you can go back to the fast paced life. It does work, I will attest to that. However, I doubt I would have recovered so effectively if I had not taken the time to heal. Of course, I was so disabled, I had no choice. I couldn’t work or function anymore. Time out for healing was a gift. Give yourself this gift as well.