Exercise, nutrition, stress management are key to coping with MS

Milena Kaplan had just finished a spin class at Las Vegas Athletic Club in October 2012 when she knew something wasn’t right.

“My legs felt like they were so weak and fatigued — even going downstairs was kind of hard,” said Kaplan, a Las Vegas resident for the past 28 years.

”I started to go to my car and I was like, I’m not going to make it to my car, I’m going to go down, and so I turned around and there was a gentleman coming out of the gym and I asked him, ‘Could you help me get back in? I just did spin class and I don’t know what’s going on but I feel really bad.’ So we start to go in, and I can’t walk anymore, and I went down. I didn’t know what was going on.”

Kaplan, who had spent most of her life being active, would soon be diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Thinking that exercise would make her symptoms worse, she stopped.

But medical professionals at the Cleveland Clinic Luo Ruvo Center for Brain Health, where Kaplan is a patient, are showing her and others diagnosed with MS that exercise can actually relieve symptoms. They have created a 30-minute workout video and are helping their patients get into this good habit.

“Patients will ask ‘what can I do,’ and I will recommend exercise and they may or may not do it,” said Dr. Le Hua, director of the Mellen Program for Multiple Sclerosis at Lou Ruvo. “But if I have a great exercise program, then not only am I recommending it, I’m saying I can help get you started.”

BALANCED

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a demyelinating disease that occurs when a portion of the nerves in the brain and spinal cord are damaged. The autoimmune disorder, which has no known cause, roughly affects 0.1 percent of the population, translating to around 2,500 Las Vegas Valley residents diagnosed mostly during their 20s to 40s, Hua said.

Hua and physical therapist Jen Nash, manager of rehabilitation services, created the workout video, which includes sections on upper- and lower-body weight training as well as balance and flexibility work.

“MS patients have days that are good and some that aren’t as good,” said Nash, co-creator and host of the workout program. “When they’re not feeling as strong, hopefully the workout video gives them reminders of things that they can still do even though what they normally do doesn’t feel so good that day.”

Plans for distribution of the video are currently limited to events such as this month’s MS Health and Wellness Seminar series, a four-part event created to mark MS Awareness Month under the coordination of Dr. Carrie Hersh, a neurologist at Lou Ruvo. The series is designed to provide helpful tools for MS sufferers in areas such as nutrition, mental and spiritual wellness, as well as exercise.

“The vast majority of the time our patients feel lost — they feel like they have no control over their disease, and I feel that by participating in these health and wellness maneuvers, they can get a sense of that control back,” Hersh said. “Each of the programs is meant to focus on different aspects of the health and wellness umbrella.”

Kaplan, 51, knows what it’s like to feel out of control.

“We may look like we’re fine on the outside, but on the inside our body is fighting itself,” she said. “So our mind might be telling our body to do something, but our body is resisting.”

FOOD AS MEDICINE

During the free seminar series, attendees will learn a holistic approach to managing their illness and their lives. Wesley Holton, executive chef at Aria on the Strip, will provide a cooking demonstration as well as recipes that work well within MS guidelines for the last seminar in the series.

“I designed the recipes very carefully,” Holton said. “All the recipes that I’m trying to show participants are easy things that you can do at home, things that you can buy in the grocery store and that are easily applicable to any kind of food that you like.”

Holton’s seminar focus will be the basics of a Mediterranean diet — cutting out trigger food such as sugar, red meat and processed foods and emphasizing fresh and simple ingredients including fruits and vegetables cut fresh in the kitchen.

Holton, who has worked with the Cleveland Clinic in the past, is excited to share his knowledge and passion for food in a setting that brings awareness to the MS community.

“I know a few people who suffer from this, so it is kind of near and dear to my heart and anything that I can do to help, I’d be more than happy to,” he said.

Through the combination of the workout video and the seminars, Hua and the staff of Lou Ruvo are dedicated to changing the conversation on what MS patients can and can’t do, she said.

“It can be a devastating disease, it doesn’t have to be,” Hua said. “That’s really the message we are trying to highlight with our MS health and wellness program. It doesn’t have to disrupt you. If you work it in to who you are, it becomes powerful.”

Read more from Anna Williams at reviewjournal.com. Contact her at awilliams@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AnnaWilliamsRJ on Twitter.