This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Knowledge & Support Community

Hey, guys. One of the symptoms that I find most irritating - the constant fatigue - has been a bit overbearing lately. I was on Amantadine for a time, and it seemed to help, but it lost its effectiveness after a while. I take several supplements, including B12, and was wondering if any of you had positive experience with other vitamins or medications that assisted with fatigue.


Thanks,

Caleb

I have not started taking it yet, but I am seriously looking at MitoQ - http://www.mitoq.com/

I have heard a few good things about it and this article really has me interested in it.

http://www.science20.com/science_20/the ... _of-136215

What kind of diet are you following? Do you exercise?

That looks pretty interesting, I'll have to look into it some more! Pretty decent diet; lots of green vegetables and a good bit of protein. I try to avoid breads, especially enriched flour, and drink mostly water, tea, or coffee. I exercise twice a week. I am a student teacher at a local martial arts dojo, and usually get a pretty nice workout during class, though I feel like death the next couple days afterwards. Lol

I find the more exercise I do, the better I feel and the more energy I have. But I am careful not to do exercise that gets me hot because when I do, I get tired.. I walk daily and when it is hot out, I wear a cooling vest. I swim daily which I find to be the best exercise overall as I can get a great workout and not get hot.

I did marital arts for about 5 years and loved it (before I became sick) and frankly could not imagine doing it now unless the dojo was in a large refrigerator! How do you feel after doing other forms of exercise where you don't work up a sweat and get really hot?

I'm not sure, honestly. Anytime I work out my goal is to get my heart rate up. My legs disagree with me afterwards, but it gets better eventually.

Most people with MS experience weakness when they get hot, which is what you are describing.

Yeah, it is. Weakness in the legs is one of my most common symptoms. I don't know about others, but really cold weather does it to me too.

mct814 wrote:Yeah, it is. Weakness in the legs is one of my most common symptoms. I don't know about others, but really cold weather does it to me too.

This absolutely happens with me, too.

Glad to know I'm not the only one! I didn't know if others had this problem as well, but my neurologist told me that extremes of either hot or cold weather tend to cause more MS symptoms.

In winter I can't put my gloves on because my fingers are all stiff. When I am too hot I am weak. They seem to be different symptoms to me. Cooling, regardless of what you might read, is definitely effective for the overheating. I can't go out in the hot sun without my cooling gear, but with it, I can do 10km on the tricycle.

Warming loosens up my fingers when they have become stiff from cold.

In the case of cold problems, it seems to be at my extremities. With heat, my head is directly affected, and core heat quickly spreads the weakness everywhere, but if I let my feet get too hot that is also a problem.

Fatigue seems to be one of my most consistent and annoying symptoms for me. I too took amantadine but found that it made me really jittery and didn't help too much. I now take modafinil (alertec, provigil..) and it has really helped my fatigue. I hear that some people build up a tolerance but so far I haven't. I was prescribed to take one pill in the morning and one at noon, but I usually just take one in the morning. Some days when I wake up feeling good I will skip it all together, and days when I'm not doing so good I'll take it as prescribed. May be worth looking into. I've also heard of people taking L-Tyrosine to promote alertness but I haven't tried it or looked much into it.

Hope you find this useful

Thanks for the response! My mother took Provigil and loved it, but sadly our insurance won't cover it. I would have loved to try it, though. I think I'm going to do as pushingForward recommended and look into MitoQ. I'll let you guys know if I notice any changes.

mct814 wrote:Thanks for the response! My mother took Provigil and loved it, but sadly our insurance won't cover it. I would have loved to try it, though. I think I'm going to do as pushingForward recommended and look into MitoQ. I'll let you guys know if I notice any changes.

Another drug which lifts fatigue but is a little more serious but MUCH cheaper is Ritalin (trade name in Australia, used mostly for kids with ADHD). I use it specifically to help me exercise longer, so I get the quick release, but I know they also have slow release as well.

For 100 10mg quick release tablets of Ritalin (Methylphenidate Hydrochloride) its about $AUD27 while for Modafinil (ie Provigil) its about $AUD194 for 60 tablets. Both of these are private prescription/unsubsidised prices. So its almost 12 times cheaper (NB: I take about the same number of tablets of each when I use either of them).

If you decide to try it, post here again and I will give some suggestions from my experience on dosing.

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Edit: corrected tablets from 10x10mg to 100x10mg in a pack of Provigil.

Thanks! If I do ever decide to try it, I'll definitely let you know. I ordered some of that MitoQ, so I'll see how that works out. If I don't feel any difference, I'll probably end up trying the Ritalin.