Has anyone found a cure that will take away fatigue?

[palmtree]

Fatigue from the very beginning has been my most incapacitating symptom from the get go. I am so tired it hurts. Do any DMDs make it different? Lemtrada? Ocrevus?

I’m too tired to write more. Can anyone help!?

[JerryD]

Hi palmtree,
I have the same symptom of severe fatigue. ( Thanks MS! )
My neuro prescribed Provigil. My insurance plan changed it to Modafinil 200mg ! It seems to work reasonably well ! I've been on it for several years . Hope you find something that works for you ! Good luck !

[robert152]

My wife

Swears by concerta

[Tawanda]

Hi palmtree,
I have the same symptom of severe fatigue. ( Thanks MS! )
My neuro prescribed Provigil. My insurance plan changed it to Modafinil 200mg ! It seems to work reasonably well ! I've been on it for several years . Hope you find something that works for you ! Good luck !

I have heard of persons w/MS taking Privigil on a regular basis, but worry that you would have to keep upping the dose to get the same effectiveness (or that the drug stops working entirely)! It is my understanding that Modafinil is like time-released Provigel. I tried it on vacation and as I was nodding off to sleep, I suddenly felt the next "hit" kick in and it woke me back up.!

So Palmtree, for me it comes to the old standbys...coffee and exercise. Not even sure coffee is doing anything anymore, but I enjoy it. I do yoga, spin and walk my dog.

If I cured my fatigue, it would be like curing my MS. Fatigue is so disabling for me it's ridiculous. I think I could take to the bed and stay there until I died, do it takes a lot f mental energy to make myself move...but I do. One day it might not seem worth pushing myself so hard, but today is not that day!

Good luck. I always read the fatigue posts and keep hoping someone will report that magic bullet cure has arrived!

[MermaidOP]

I'm not sure this is actually a cure, but this is what I do. In addition to pain and a limping gait, I also would put fatigue as my most disabling symptom. Since limping is more tiring than smooth walking, and pain is exhausting, I feel it's all connected.

My foundations of self-care for MS fatigue are daily exercising 1 1/2 hours in the pool and drinking three or four cups of coffee (before noon). I take 4-amp, gaba, and baclofen every day, morning and night. Recently, my neuro gave me a prescription for generic adderal. I only take it on the days I have extra activity (choir practice, an evening event, Sundays, or some other thing), usually three days a week. It helps. I am tempted to take it more often, but I don't want to get habituated or to have to increase it to get the same effect.

Good luck to all of us with this debilitating illness.
Stay lifted,
Mermaid Susan

[gargantua]

My formula for fighting MS fatigue:

- 15-30 minutes of cardio per day, usually in the form of brisk walking on hills, but cardio does not have to involve walking. Barring my ability to do that due to exacerbation or injury, I try to not be sedentary for more than 45 minutes. Do small tasks, move body as able, go look out the window, walk across the office to visit a coworker...etc
- If I am doing a demanding activity (household task, carrying heavy groceries home over a distance, other extended physical activity) I get more tired than most people. I try not to get obsessed with how tired I am.
- I found that for focus-related/cognitive fatigue, listening to music in the background, strangely, really seems to help. I have no way of explaining this but it just does!

These last ones are more sleep related, but I find the two are so very connected...Which came first, the MS or the insomnia?

- minimum 7 hours sleep per night - If I can’t exercise that day I stretch right before bed
- No looking at screens 1 hour before bed (TV, computer, phone, tablet) unless using a screen dimmer (this is huge!)

[FlyerFan]

b12 injectable

Vitamin B-12 Injections subcutaneous 1 ml monthly. Works wonders for me. Oral supplements don't work at all for me.

[tl-tr3]

Unfortunately

None of the DMD's I've taken have helped my overwhelming life altering fatigue from MS.

I have taken Nuvigil though for years, and it keeps me functioning so I still have a full time job. Without it- most things are a no go. Even my concentration is off without Nuvigil.

[Mamabug]

None of the DMD's I've taken have helped my overwhelming life altering fatigue from MS.

I'm not surprised that they haven't helped.
DMD's are not designed to alleviate symptoms.

Their purpose is to reduce the severity of symptoms, reduce the frequency of flares, and delay the progression of the disease.

[palmtree]

I tried Provigil. Didn’t sleep for three nights. One sip of coffee and my heart starts racing and my hands don’t shake they flail around the room.

In other words stimulants don’t take away fatigue they just keep you awake. This is a distinction that even some health care professionals don’t understand. I need to keep my CNS in a depressed state so I can get enough sleep to function.

What I wish is to get this disease out of my system. The Tysabri prevents new plaques from forming on the brain by blocking the blood brain barrier from the disease. But the disease still rages.

[SNOOPY]

There is no simple answer for MS Fatigue and no cure. The best medication options out there are stimulants, Provigil and Nuvigil. If unable to use them, which I am not, then your options become rest/sleep when needed and exercise. Exercise has been shown to help some symptoms of MS including fatigue.

[Mamabug]

... If unable to use them [stimulants], which I am not, then your options become rest/sleep when needed and exercise. Exercise has been shown to help some symptoms of MS including fatigue.

Sometimes natural options are better, at least have fewer side effects, than stimulants.

Vitamin B12 and B12 Complex vitamins also help.

[Myoak]

IMO, the first thing to try for fatigue is Vitamin B12.

I really hate making specific suggestions because it can seem like I'm pushing something when I'm not.

That said, it does not cost much to try something like Jarrow's Methyl B-12 1000mcg combined in the same tab with Methyl Folate 400mcg.

Someone mentioned that oral B-12 does little for them, however, it does matter what form of B-12 you take. Methylcobalamin absorbs much better and costs only a little more than the typical and less expensive cyanocobalamin you find in most B-12. To be sure, shots are a highly effective way to get B-12 but an oral is worth trying first because it works for many people.

B-12 deficiency can cause problems, including fatigue. Excess B-12 is piddled out so there is not much concern about overdoing it.

IMO, oral methyl B-12 is worth a first try.

I'm sure there are several companies with products similar to the one I mentioned.

[SNOOPY]

IMO, oral methyl B-12 is worth a first try.

Tried it a few different times, didn't do a thing for my fatigue.

Blood work has always had my B-12 in the range of 748-900. I have never dropped below 748.

[KoKo]

IMO, the first thing to try for fatigue is Vitamin B12.

I agree with trying B12 for fatigue.

I take a liquid form of B12 and Complex B's that gets held or swished in the mouth, and is absorbed fairly quickly (buccal mucosa absorption).

Fortunately, I haven't had the sluggish, lack of energy, tired type of MS fatigue for quite a few years, thank goodness - it is truly very miserable. The fatigue subsided when I began the B12 Complex and also Vitamin D3, on a regular basis.

I do get motor fatigue, which is a different type of fatigue, that causes arm and leg muscles to tire easily (due to impaired nerve impulses). Stopping to rest awhile (not sleep) and cool down between activities is the primary way to recover from this type of fatigue, in order to be able to resume movements.

Hope you will find some relief from your fatigue, Palmtree.

Take Care