To medicate or not to medicate?

[AshNight]

I am having such issues with this question. Do DMDs even help? Who's to say if youre doing well its due to the DMD and not other factors in your life?

Dont DMDs have other adverse effects on you? Like affecting other organs and flu like symptoms? Has anyone ever tried alternative meds here?

Someone help me out any info would be GREATLY appreciated!

[ActiveMSers]

This topic was one of the main features in the AAN's Neurology Now magazine released just this week, "The benefits of Early Treatment in MS and Parkinson's."

http://journals.lww.com/neurologynow..._early.15.aspx

Also the interview with Dr. Timothy Vollmer, neurologist, MS researcher and Medical Director of The Rocky Mountain MS Center, is an interesting read and gets into the technical and scientific guts of this disease.

http://www.mscenter.org/images/stori...er09lowres.pdf

I know some folks who don't take meds and appear to be doing well, and others who took them religiously and are in nursing homes. But I also know many in the reverse. Let's just say I've never in my 5 years of running ActiveMSers met anyone who said they regretted being on therapy. Statistically, science says you will do better on meds than without. But as you know, stats don't guarantee that you personally will do better. It just puts the odds in your favor.

To be honest, Ash, this topic is more appropriate for your neurologist. Posing questions of medicating on internet forums can get preachy responses (to be fair on both sides) from people who, for better or worse, didn't go to school for over a decade training to become a specialist in multiple sclerosis.

I feel none of the members here at ActiveMSers want the responsibility of giving a 23-year old medical advice that could influence the rest of her life. And I believe you already know the answers to your questions. I think I speak for most here when I say we just want people with this disease to do better. If you choose not to medicate, that's your call. Forgive me, but I'm going to lock this thread so it doesn't get out of hand as these topics often do. Good luck with your decision.