An award-winning nutrition researcher and leading dietician said nutrition played a huge part in his recovery from MS.

Doctor Conor Kerley told Alive and Kicking with Clare McKenna that his journey with multiple sclerosis began when he was just fifteen-years old.

“I was a keen basketball player, and just after Christmas, I had what I thought was a dead leg,” he said.

“It got worse and worse, to the point where I couldn’t really walk – and I was quite a fit, young, 15-year-old.

“I ended up in a brain scanner at midnight on New Year’s Eve in 2002 and fast forward eight months, lots of tests, lots of cans and lots of time spend in hospitals, lots of school missed.

“I was eventually diagnosed with MS in August 2002.”

A busy hospital ward with nurses and a trolley, 21-4-16. Image: Mark Thomas / Alamy

Dr Kerley said that while MS can cause a wide range of symptoms, his speech and mobility were more heavily impacted.

“I had to learn how to walk again, how to talk, how to tie my shoelaces, how to hold a knife and fork, I spent some time in a wheelchair,” he said.

“MS can really affect everybody differently and someone may not look disabled but may have severe fatigue issues or severe mood issues.

“Thankfully I’m relatively symptom free and medication free over 22-years after diagnosis now.”

Lifestyle

According to Dr Kerley, lifestyle choices can be incredibly important for preventing and managing MS and other autoimmune disorders.

“We know that we’re all getting more stress, we’re all getting more busy, we know that lifestyle factors are deteriorating where people aren’t exercising well,” he said.

“We’re kind of facing into this perfect storm of low-grade inflammation all the time, which is going to cause increased autoimmune diseases on a population level, and that’s exactly what we’re seeing.”

Dr Kerley said that consistency is key to experience the full benefits of a healthy lifestyle, but also said that no one is perfect all the time.

Main image: Cropped shot of an unrecognizable woman in a wheelchair visiting the doctor's rooms for a consultation