Stress and anxiety | Multiple Sclerosis Society UK, Is Multiple Sclerosis Caused By Emotional Stress? – Reset.me, Study Shows That Stress Can Lead to MS Flare-Ups, Study Shows That Stress Can Lead to MS Flare-Ups, It’s unclear if there is a direct link between stress and MS flares. Stress can cause a variety of physical and emotional changes that can affect how you feel. You can’t get through life …
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is not only physically overwhelming. The effort it takes to live with and manage the disease is taxing and can cause emotional stress. Some of the practical consequences of MS (like missing work or getting behind on important tasks) can make you feel overwhelmed as well.
Studies have found that continuous emotional stress, rather than short-term stress, can trigger an MS relapse in people with RRMS. Long-term, continuous stress keeps the immune system on hyper-alert, is very pro-inflammatory and creates a lot of wear and tear in the body, otherwise known as allostatic load.
People with MS often find that stress impacts on their condition in some way. It’s impossible to avoid it completely, but stress affects a body’s ability to fight disease – so it’s important to learn ways of managing it as much as possible. Anxiety is also common, affecting about a third of people with MS.
