At Overcoming Multiple Sclerosis (OMS), we are committed to determining what lifestyle factors contribute to the progression of MS. We have commenced a major international research project to examine this, and need your help. The study is approved by St Vincent’s Human Research Ethics Committee in Australia. We hope to enrol many thousands of people with MS (PwMS) in this study from our OMS website, Taking Control of Multiple Sclerosis Facebook page, and our Twitter followers.

PwMS who consent to the study will fill in an online questionnaire about factors related to their lifestyle (eg. diet, exercise, sun exposure, vitamin D, Omega-3 supplementation, stress reduction) and their health-related quality of life, among other questions. Over time, we intend to follow this group at yearly intervals to see if there is a relationship between changes in these lifestyle factors and the health of the group. We will analyse this information to determine which factors best predict the health of PwMS. Potentially this research may answer some of the most vexing questions in MS related to consumption of particular foods and fats, vitamin D and sun exposure, and the influence of meditation on disease progression, among other important findings.

We would be very grateful if you would consent to completing this survey, which should take around 30 minutes, and commit to doing this on an annual basis for five years. This may be the opportunity for the MS community to provide real data on some of the more elusive questions about the disease, potentially affecting the health of hundreds of thousands of PwMS in the future. If you have been diagnosed with MS, and are over 18 years of age and would like to find out more about this important research, please follow the link:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HOLISM

http://www.overcomingmultiplesclerosis.org

source:   http://www.overcomingmultiplesclerosis.org/News-And-Events/Our-News/Detail/Calling+people+with+multiple+sclerosis+%28MS%29+to+take+part+in+a+large+international+research+study+on+lifestyle+factors+in+MS/