This is a tough one for me as I find it hard exercise without a ‘purpose’ – swimming is arguably the best exercise for people with MS – the nervous system can stay cool while the muscles get a work out – but I hate swimming laps.  I enjoy snorkelling or scuba diving because that’s swimming with a ‘purpose’.  Unfortunately the snorkelling and diving in Toowoomba is lousy.  When I’m feeling okay in the leg department I do try to walk more than I do on the ‘bad’ days, simply following the rule, “if you don’t use it, lose it”.  The important thing is not to overdo it.

With any exercise, Nursie Mel says there is a ‘two hour rule’ – if you do exercise and two hours after feel as good as before starting, that exercise was good for you – if you feel worse after two hours, you’ve overdone it.  Here are a few tips I whipped off another website:

• Always warm up before, and cool down after exercise
• If you allocate 30 minutes for regular exercise, start with 10 minute sessions and work up from there
• If balance is an issue, exercise near a rail or bar (I don’t think they mean one in a hotel – that could result in a literal ‘pub crawl’)
• Avoid slippery floors, areas with poor lighting and rugs or other things that might trip you up
• Choose an exercise that you enjoy – swimming, water aerobics, tai chi, yoga etc
• If you begin to feel sick or it starts to hurt, STOP!

Some people with MS are sensitive to heat and, naturally, body heat will rise when exercising.  A few tips on overheating:

• Exercise early morning or late afternoon to avoid the hot time of the day
• Drink lots of cool fluids
• ‘Listen’ to your body – if symptoms pop up that weren’t there before you started exercising, slow down or stop until you cool down
• Again, swimming and water aerobics are good exercise options but be careful of slippery floors near the pool or in the change rooms 

SUNBAKING

While trolling around the web I found a site that recommended sunbaking for people with MS.  And that lack of exposure to the sun (Vitamin D) could be a cause of MS.  This was based on statistics that more people in Tasmania are diagnosed than in warmer parts of the country.  I grew up in Gundagai, a town that can have hot, dry summers.  We had our annual holidays at the beach in Sydney and I lived in Sydney from age 11 to 45 (before spending three years in Vanuatu).  So the cooler climes have no bearing on my diagnosis. 

And because I grew up in sunny Australia, I had a nasty squamous cell carcinoma removed (in 2009).  Sunbaking may be fine in Scandinavia, but in Australia it can be deadly.  I’d rather have MS as abbreviation for Multiple Sclerosis than a Melanoma Sentence.

Having said that, here’s a link to a calculator that tells you healthy levels of exposure to the sun.  You need to enter the time of day, day, month, latitude & longitude (you can get this from Google Maps), the sky condition (cloudy etc) and your skin type – and voila!  For me to get the required dose in Cairns on a sunny day could be 2 minutes while in Melbourne on an overcast day it would be 39 minutes.  http://nadir.nilu.no/~olaeng/fastrt/VitD-ez_quartMED.html

To donate to MS Research, you can call 1800 CURE MS (1800 2873 67) or just click here.