Dr. Brett Fling

You know, for a long time, and this was not just specific to MS, it was similar in Parkinson's disease, falling into stroke, old age, et cetera, we would tell folks to take it easy.

You don't want to wear yourself out.

You don't want to get fatigued.

So the less you move, the better.

It turns out that is the exact wrong advice for anyone's nervous system, whether you're a healthy 18-year-old or someone with a neurodegenerative disease in your 70s.

The more you can safely move your body and activate muscles, activate those nerves, and communicate throughout your nervous system,

I think the better off you are.

So with multiple sclerosis for a long time, this was the approach we took was don't exhaust yourself, take it easy because you don't want to get fatigued.

Now I'm not saying that you should automatically go run a marathon, but the more you can move and movement slash exercise

is really specific to the individual.

So for some folks, that might mean running a marathon.

It might mean riding a bicycle.

It might simply mean getting up out of your chair more, being less sedentary, walking around your house a little bit more, walking to get the mail.

You know, exercise has a pretty broad meaning and definition.

And so the more that you can safely move, the better is our approach nowadays.

One of the things that kinesiology really sticks to and suggests that is through the American College of Sports Medicine, ACSM, which is a huge national body that sort of oversees kinesiology-based research.

Their motto is exercise is medicine.

And so our big picture approach is that the less sedentary time you have, the better off the body is going to be.

And we think that's very true for multiple sclerosis.