How Active Logging of MS Symptoms Changed My Life

In 2015, my life turned upside down. After nine years of various signs and symptoms (body numbness, severe headaches, and sudden energy drains) here and there, multiple doctor appointments, MRIs, and medications, I finally got my diagnosis: multiple sclerosis.

I needed to take back control and here's how I did it

Since then, I’ve been on a quest to find a solution that would help me take my MS under control. I’ve tried everything: diet protocols, medications, supplements, etc. I've seen some progress, but I couldn’t figure out what helped me most with my main symptom—fatigue. Since I'm a tech nerd, I decided to log all those activities to see how they affected my symptoms.

For the last 6 months, since June 2022, I've been logging my symptoms and things like meals, water, supplements, and sleep every day for every 15 minutes and have noticed some pretty interesting connections:

• • (1) I used to drink only about 1 liter of water daily, but when I increased my intake to 2.5 liters, I noticed a significant decrease in fatigue throughout the day.
  • (2) Through logging, I have learned that certain foods, such as animal products and nuts (particularly macadamia), can impact my gastrointestinal tract and, as a result, my microbiome, which is home to much of the body's immune system.
  • (3) Contrary to what I initially thought, coffee does not seem to affect my fatigue. Initially, I noticed a negative correlation between coffee consumption and fatigue, but that relationship has since reversed.
  • (4) Another surprising discovery was that increasing the interval between meals did not significantly impact my fatigue, despite my initial assumption based on the principles of intermittent fasting.

It helped me understand "the where" of it all

The "log everything” approach helped me immensely. Although I’m still experiencing fatigue and other symptoms, I now better understand where they are coming from and what I can do to mitigate them. I feel extremely proud that I decided to do that, and honestly, I wasn’t sure where this logging routine would take me or if I’d be able to keep it up for so long. But I did it, and I finally feel at peace with my MS.

The insights I’ve learned inspired me to create my own methodology and launch a startup called SelfInsight. My team and I are just starting, and I hope that we’ll find a way to make my experience helpful to other MS warriors out there.