[MUSIC PLAYING] DOUGLAS S. STUART, MD: When we talk about symptom management in multiple sclerosis, we're really talking about the bulk of what we address in the course of a visit to our MS center. Yeah, we do talk a lot about medicines that treat the disease specifically. But mostly, patients have a variety of troubling symptoms that they want to control.

No two MS patients are the same. MS can get into virtually any part of our physical being. It can cause pain. It can cause memory problems. It can cause spasms or weakness or numbness. It can cause bladder problems. It can cause fatigue. And all of these are treated differently.

So when we say that no two MS patients are the same, it's really true. And that's the challenging part of treating this disease-- is trying to figure out the recipe that best helps to manage your symptoms.

We have medications that can treat many of our symptoms. We have medicines for bladder function. We have medicines for fatigue. But we also have a number of things that you can do that are more holistic that address the disease without medication, including exercise and appropriate diet and weight loss. Quitting smoking, for instance, is very important for MS patients.

Surrounding yourself with an appropriate care community, friends and family that understand things that you might need help with, people that you can talk to about concerns, anxieties that will surely emerge as you worry about where this disease is headed-- your physician can address many of these. But you need to develop the kind of relationships that you can count on over the long haul to deal with this.

MS affects more than just you, the patient. It affects all of the people who matter to you and who are part of your family and social unit.