BeewellwithMS discusses brain health and increased in prevalence neurological brain condition such as Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and how our brain works living with MS and what is the connection with our thinking, emotions, physical and general health.
5 July, 2026 Easy Explained MS by Dr Agne Straukiene
The episode explains MS treatments using a “train” analogy: immune cells travel toward the brain and spinal cord, and in multiple sclerosis some mistakenly attack myelin. Different therapies stop the process at different points by slowing new immune cell production, trapping cells in lymph nodes, blocking entry into the brain, or resetting parts of the immune system. It highlights that today’s treatments are highly effective at reducing relapses, preventing new MRI lesions, and slowing disability progression, but notes MS can still gradually progress even when relapses stop and scans look stable. The script emphasizes the need for new therapies targeting smouldering processes inside the brain and explains that regular blood monitoring helps ensure treatment remains safe, effective, and appropriate, encouraging viewers to subscribe to the Be Well with MS Podcast.
If you ever looked at their mistreatment and wondered how they actually work, here's the simplest way to think about it. Imagine your immune system is a train carrying immune cells towards the brain and spinal cord. In multiple sclerosis, some of those immune cells mistakenly attack myelin, the protective coating around nerve fibers. Different MS treatments stop that train at different points along the journey. Some slow down the production of new immune cells. Some keep immune cells trapped inside lymph nodes. Some block them from crossing into the brain, and some reset parts of the immune system altogether. The good news? Today's MS treatments are incredibly effective at reducing relapses, preventing new MRI lesions, and slowing disability progression. But here's the important part. MS isn't just about visible inflammation. Scientists now know that some people can still experience gradual progression even when scans are stable and relapses have stopped. That's why new treatments are being developed to target the deeper smoldering processes happening inside the brain, and it's also why regular blood monitoring matters. These simple tests help your MS team make sure your treatment remains safe, effective, and the right choice for you. The story of MS treatment isn't finished. But if we compare twenty years ago, we come a long way. Marriage is power. Monitoring is protection. And together, they can help us protect the brain for the future. Don't forget to subscribe to Be Well with MS podcast. Bye.
30 May, 2026 Guests Interviews and Charity events
On World MS Day, Dr. Agne Straukiene hosts BeeWellwithMS and speaks with Helena Jidborg Alexander, host of the MS Trust podcast, about the often-invisible burden of guilt and self-blame in multiple sclerosis. They discuss how people with MS may blame stress, lifestyle, diet, or effort for relapses and new lesions despite not knowing what causes MS, and how social media “cures,” restrictive wellness trends, and misinformation can worsen anxiety and costs. Helena shares her experience of stable years followed by new lesions, how documenting patterns, running, and seasonal awareness helped her manage MS symptoms, and how CBT tools (like addressing catastrophizing and the “worry tree”) improved sleep and self-talk.
Hello, and welcome to Be Well with MS. I'm doctor Agnes Strogena, consultant neurologist and host of Be Well with MS podcast. Today is World MS Day. For me, this is not so much a day of celebration as it is this day of awareness, understanding, and education. Multiple sclerosis affects millions of people worldwide. It impacts careers, relationships, families, dreams, and everyday life. Yet despite all the advances in research and treatment, many people living with MS still carry invisible burdens that are rarely discussed. One of those burdens is guilt. In clinic, I occasionally hear patients ask, did stress cause this? Did I work too hard? Did I eat the wrong foods? Could I have prevented this relapse? Did I somehow cause these new lesions? These questions come from a very human place. When something difficult happens, we naturally search for explanations. We want certainty. We want control. And in the world full of social media advice, miracle stories, wellness trends, herbs, and strong opinions, it can sometimes feel as though if we just lived perfectly, MS would somehow behave perfectly too. But life and MS are rarely that simple. Today, I'm delighted to be joined by someone many of you will know and admire. Helena is the host of the MS Trust podcast, passionate advocate within the MS community, and most importantly, someone who lives with MS herself. MS Trust podcast is one of the famous podcast in MS world. Today, we are going to have an honest conversation about self blame, uncertainty, social media, and how to be kinder to ourselves. Helena, thank you so much for joining today. Be well with MS podcast. Have you ever found yourself wondering? Did I do something to cause this? Well, thank you so much for having me on, Agne. It's a little bit strange to sit on the other side of the microphone, but I'm very excited to be here and, obviously, talking as myself, as a person with MS instead of just asking the questions. But to answer that question, I think I'm the kind of person who often ends up blaming myself for things. I I was talking to some friends about this before. If somebody walks into me and I was minding my own business, I'm the one who says, sorry. So I I feel like, naturally, I'm always the kind of person who tries to problem solve by saying that I caused a problem. I don't know I don't know really why. I've always been like this. And I think when I had my MS diagnosis, it was I think what you said there at the start is everything is okay uptick around you at the time. So you really kinda want to have a reason for something because it's problem solving. Right? And so you kinda wanna pinpoint it to something like, oh, what's what caused it? And I think, initially, when I first had the diagnosis, I tried to see if there was something else to blame almost because I've known about MS all my life because I grew up with a grandfather who had MS. Right. One of my first project works that I did in school was about MS in sort of biology because of my granddaddy picking. And And then when I went to university and I did my degree in film studies, I did something that also was about propaganda films and things, and specifically on a woman who had MS. Several years later, getting the diagnosis of MS was very strange and very shocking still even though I knew so much about MS. But we still don't know what causes MS, and you just kinda want to have some logic in the chaos. So I think I started thinking, like, what has happened? Have I done something? Have I been poorly? Genetics was definitely something that you start because I'm the kind of person that when something happens, I go online. And in this was back in 2006 when I first my symptoms started happening. So we didn't have all the social media that we have now, but we it was still very much online. We had all the search engines. We had, kinda online communities and all that sort of stuff. So you you even back in those stone age times, I was still online there trying to find the reason for things. Mhmm. But, yeah, I think very much so the first kinda idea was it's probably something that I have done to cause it. And I think that was why it was a good thing with the online world because I did come across a lot of the MS charities, like the MS Trust, but NHS pages as well and things to actually read that, you know, we don't know what causes MS. So at least that sort of calmed me down a little bit straightaway then to know that it wasn't anything that I had done to bring it on. Yeah. Thank you for sharing that. I think many listeners will immediately recognize those feelings. Every elbow person, if not everyone, felt the same. As human beings, we are naturally wired to search for reasons when difficult things happen to us. And sometimes that search gives some answers, but sometimes it gives us guilt. We start blaming ourselves, maybe environment, family, friends, work, you know, colleagues maybe. And guilt can become a very heavy thing to carry on in daily life. So I just wanna touch on the emotional experience. And what does that feeling of responsibility or self blame feel like day to day? Are there any particular moments perhaps after a scan, during a relapse, or when the fatigue becomes overwhelming? When it becomes stronger, there's kind of emotional impacts of blame, self blame day to day. I think, definitely, if there's something new that occurs that you start again, it's that mind going into trying to problem solve what had happened. So I think for many years, I was quite steady with my MS. It was I lived with fatigue. I lived with the sort of same symptoms for a long time. But then in the last two years or so, on the last scans that I've had some new lesions, I had to change my medication. So there were things that was happening. And even though I I feel like I'm quite well established in the world of MS, I have read a lot of research. I have read a lot of maybe a bit more than your average MS patient normally would come across. I'm not saying there will be people who know far more than me that that have MS, but I like to read. I like to keep myself informed. But still my mind went, oh, so I've had these relapses. What have I done? What did I do differently these past two years that I didn't do before? And the answer was, I didn't really do anything differently. Mhmm. I've been still trying to live as healthy as I can. I've been doing trying to eat well. I've been taking my medication, and it still happened. And I think that's when it's hard to not go, but there must be something else. What is there an external factor? Is it this? Is it that? And you spend so much time thinking of this, which actually makes things worse for you, really. You get more stressed, and we all know stress is really bad for MS. You sleep bad. You wake up in the middle of the night and think, oh, what's happened? What's going on? So I felt I became quite anxious around it, and I did have to really take a step back and try to sort of start practicing a bit of self compassion and learn relearn some of the these things that I've learned in the past. And, actually, I think one of the great advice when it comes to self compassion is to try and talk to yourself like you would talk to someone else. A friend of mine would say, oh, I had a relapse. Yeah. What did I do to cause this? I wouldn't say, oh, you did this. You did that. It would just be like, try and focus on getting over the relapse. Focus on feeling better now. Breath, eat well, sleep as much as you can if the relapse happens. So be kind to yourself during that instead of into this spurring of you know, a lot of people go probably on the media, check the forums, check with other people how they felt, how they overcome these. It's good to have that sense of their, community, you know, when something happens to you to get that help. But at the same time, there are some dangers, you know, online and on the media when you are very vulnerable, fragile, and lost feeling lost and blaming yourself and blaming your environment. And then you go and find similar people who are in the same their own shoes experiencing exactly the same, and you have 20 people moaning about the things. So instead of using that energy on, you know, dwelling on the what had happened, perhaps maybe using that energy of, you know, where can you now restore? Where can you find the nourishing good food? And where is there a possibility to have a seven, eight hour sleep to just get some rest? And I guess it's interesting that, you know, we can see lesions on the MRI scan. We can measure walking speed these days. We can measure steps. We can assess the cognition, but we can't see the blame and guilt feeling on MRI scan. We can't objectivize. We can't measure self blame in blood test. So, emotionally, those things can sometimes had a huge impact on our well-being. And how do we respond without reacting and control that feeling, you know? And as you mentioned, Helena, self talk, when you tell the story to yourself, like, the this story becomes a bit more colorful with the facts. And you can say, okay. Done all I could do. You know, it's not my fault. It's you know, we can control the disease with the lifestyle, with the disease modifying therapies, but sometimes we can't entirely control the underlying biology that shifts and changes. So and for that, we can't just turn to ourselves and say, hey. This is my fault. Right? So so I think let's move on to Helena and talk a little bit around how do you personally make sense of what is happening in your MS? Have you ever linked changes in your health to stress, lifestyle, or specific events in your life? How do you sense that, okay. I am okay. Now I'm tired. Now, you know, how do you bring that awareness living with MS? And maybe some people could learn from you. I think it's strange in the way that MS is so up and down. It is a roller coaster. But sometimes you can have it fairly flat as well. Like I said, I was quite stable for many years as well. So I I think a lot of people talk it's after COVID, a lot of people started doing things like journaling and taking a little bit of time and actually thinking about what's going on in your life. I'm really bad at actually sitting down and writing things. I have really horrible handwriting, so I was trying to start doing things like that. And I looked at it and I didn't like what I saw. But I do quite like taking pictures and doing little bit of films and stuff. So I quite often go on Instagram and write. I do a little document of my running. It's mostly to do with my I started running about ten years ago, and I was, like, not a sporty person at all. I really hated peeing school. I was always picked last. I was the one who tried to get out of every doing anything. I ended up ten years ago starting to do a run just because somebody basically convinced me to do a charity run. And we did these, and the program that's called the couch to five k. And I realized that at first, I hated it. I tried it running, and I ran too fast, and it was so tired, and the fatigue was so bad. And then someone said to me, you don't have to sprint running. You can run like you walk. Just you do it as slow as you possibly can run. Yeah. I started doing that. And then after a few weeks, suddenly, my fatigue felt better. And this was, like, ten years into my MS. And I suddenly I'd never felt better for my my my my my my my my my my my my my my my my my my my my my my my my my my my my my my my my my my my my my my my my my my the coolest thing I've ever put my body through, it felt like, apart from maybe childbirth. I was I had such a runner's high after those kilometers that I had managed to run. I was so surprised that I could put my body through something like that. So I started then doing this little document on Instagram on what I was doing and up and down. And I quite often talk about other things that isn't just running but just my MS and my symptoms. And I find it quite useful then because I can go back and see that there is a bit of a pattern in my MS. So I'm very affected by a bit, but, like, when it's light, like, this time of year, it's very warm. That can make me feel a bit tired. But at the same time, I feel more energized when it's light outside than in the winter when I feel really I always thought that maybe I'm a bear and I should actually go and hibernate during the time. But you can always see then that quite often from November to March, I whine a lot on there saying, oh, I'm so tired. This is really why is this draining me? Why is this coming so now I know, come November, that actually, this is the time where I might want to make sure that I get enough sleep, that I keep on doing what I can do, but also talk to myself a bit kinder because I know I'm gonna be more tired. I know I'm gonna need earlier nights. I know I'm gonna not want to go out and do things, and I need to not feel guilty about that because I just know that this is the way that my MS tend to move. So I think in that way, treating yourself a little bit like a lab rat and documenting what is going on up and down can help you with if you want to problem solve. But then things can still happen and can can surprise you a little bit along the way. But I think that can help to get some some baseline about what is going on with your MS. Knowing yourself, you know, knowing the patterns, identifying the many fluctuation and flare ups from the heat exercise program from certain foods, the spicy foods, heavy foods, organic foods, nonorganic foods, junk foods. And how does that make you feel? And perhaps initially documenting all that and then, you know, usually in our body, there is a pattern. You know, you can identify. And once you've done it, let's say, three months of the documentation and journaling or taking images and being creative or taking some videos of your daily routine, you can see how you felt during that video activity when you try to do this and that. You had that inspired you. Or taking pictures of yourself, you can easily see, oh, in this picture, I'm tired. In this video, I'm super energetic. What made me feel that energetic? And you can maybe write three things if your writing isn't compromised. You can say maybe eight hours sleep, maybe three times a day of food, maybe some fruits during the daytime, maybe some two liters of water that kept me going with for this. So so identifying, and it's individual for everyone, you know, that these kind of plans. And even though we all know that sleep matters, diet matters, exercise matters, whether you're a wheelchair user or you can walk and run, doesn't matter. Exercise can be in a sitting position. So all these things support the brain health and overall well-being. But supporting brain health is very different from causing or preventing every single lesion or relapse or symptom. You can do all these good things to yourself that it's important distinction that even, you know, following these rules, things may still happen to you. But it's not your fault. It's nothing to blame. It's just who you are, and you can't sometimes shift these cells that decide to become aggressive or you develop some opportunistic infection, you know, being immunosuppressed, you still have to live your life and socialize and be around people. And sometimes, you know, you get ill with the infection that that is across, you know, the community and spreads easily via air. But at least you do most of the things right, you know, and never go into these self blame episodes because it's really not your fault. And when things change in your MS, Helena, what kind of thoughts go through your mind? Just share these kind of inner feelings and deeper understandings. You know? What kind of inner dialogue shifted over time? You know? How did you initially responded to the changes and maybe experiencing relapses? And how are you after a year, now a decade, you know, how do you talk to yourself? I think one thing that I have learned is to try and quiet that voice in the back of my head that likes to be a bit too critical at times. I think I quite like I've said a few times, problem solving. Sometimes if I have a long list of things to do, I can feel a bit overwhelmed. But if something falls on my lap and I need to do it straight away, I quite often can handle that. So sometimes when you get a report, say, with a scan saying, oh, this, you got a lesion, that's when my mind goes straight in that, oh, what is going on? What's happening? What have I done? How can I make this better? The mind just goes a bit like, what? Yeah. And I just need to know that, look, this is just a report that came in. Five minutes ago, you were happily working away, and you weren't thinking of this. Nothing has changed just because this report happened to have come in front of you. Yes. Things may change in the future. You might have to switch your medication like I had to or but it's actually it is just words on a piece of paper, and you not just need to take a little step away from it and go, okay. We don't know what's there in the future. Nobody knows. We can't stop this. I think it's interesting what you're saying about we're so good at tracking and we're doing all these things. We I'm very happy running around with my my my watch looking at all the things and looking at my sleep and things. And sometimes I think we can get so stressed by the fact that we're not doing the good. We're not following this. Broke my diet, or I didn't get all my steps in. And we're doing this to optimize. I think everybody's talking about optimization and longevity. And I listened to someone on a reel the other day, and they were saying that people think that this optimization is gonna make them happier and live a longer life. But, actually, we're more disconnected from reality and more unhappy than ever. So, actually, I feel like you need to get the balance right here. We need to do all these things to build a better body, to cope with Emma's progression and all the things that are gonna happen in the future, but we need to have a nice life while we're doing it. We need to have connection with real people. We need to enjoy life. We need to be allowed to eat something that we want to eat. I read something else that was brilliant the other day. It said, eating a meal shouldn't be like taking part in a clinical trial. And I think it's true, isn't it? We want to eat stuff because it's nice and healthy and good for us. But if we do want a piece of cake at one point, we shouldn't feel like, oh my gosh. I've set myself back ten years now. My MS is gonna go absolutely rampant. I'm gonna feel really bad. Because I think we you mentioned at the start about online communities and online voices, and there's a lot of people pushing the the very much that you should restrict yourself, you should do all these things, and that will solve your MS. And it's just the undertones that if you don't follow these things, it is your fault. It's cut out or and they're always so contradictive. Yes. Either, like, you should be a vegan or you should be paleo or you should do that, then you should do this. And it's exhausting. Mhmm. Stress is bad for us. We should just turn off social media. Yeah. And then the cherry on the cake is that, you know, the horrible healer comes on your profile and comments below your picture or video to say, hey. I sold my I cured my MS. You know? This is so wrong. This is do you delete these posts? Do you how do you respond, you know, to these Yeah. Healers of MS? I delete them if they show up in my feed. And at at work, we always get rid of things like that because it is it's disinformation, and we need to fight disinformation online. I think it's so important. And I think this is another thing that I was out for a walk yesterday with a friend of mine who has MS as well, and we were talking about this. Because health professionals and researchers and charities, they're all anchored in research, and it needs to be Evidence based, all these things. So if I would ask you, for instance, say, I don't know, magnesium, you would probably tell me something like, oh, the evidence is this. And anecdotally, people take it and they say it helps with their sleep. But if I go online and I search for this, then suddenly I'm gonna get this in my feed and I'm gonna get this influence. I'm gonna look down the camera and they're gonna say to me, this changed my life. I sleep fantastic now. This changed the life of so many people, and here's a discount code. You can get this and you will sleep better. And, obviously, that's gonna sound so much more direct to me than someone's Having with Florian. The lines. Yeah. Exactly. Tread the lines of being evidence based because we can't say that this is gonna change your life. Yeah. So and I think it it's so difficult to because somebody is bringing you the solution, aren't they? And and then you take it, and then you don't get better. But you don't blame the solution, you blame yourself because you're probably not doing it right. And I think it's this vicious circle It is. Where we just and it can get so expensive as well because people go down the route of all these supplements and things. And I think it's so dangerous. So I really think we need to listen to sense, not listen to influences. And listen to your gut feelings. And, obviously, you know, there are a list of scientific articles around, you know, if you want to dive deeper and understand the evidence. Of course, I'm coming from the medical professional world, and we can't sell products or say about that this is going to be a miracle and solve all your symptoms and problems if it isn't. But we have people who tried the supplements and it really changed their lives, you know. I don't know how much of this is placebo, but I always say to people, look, even if it is a placebo, if it change your quality of life and you really don't respond to the supplement that you take, it's gonna really help and nourish your daily living. I can't tell to other people to do the same thing because maybe there is a no study or research to cover that topic. So but I think, you know, if we're talking about the supplements, it wouldn't harm if somebody is taking vitamin d three, high doses living in the countries that you don't have much of the sunshine. It's not gonna harm if you take omega three. It's nourishing your vessels and improving your your inflammatory processes in the body. It's not gonna harm if you take magnesium, which relaxes your muscles and your your cells that would supply the energy and help you to recover if you exercise, if you've done some other activities that affected and caused some muscle pain. So these things are real. And I think, you know, when you live with MS and long term condition, learning how to talk to yourself, like talking to a friend with a compassion, maybe one of the most important skills you develop or we develop as human beings. So I would like to reframe a little bit and talk about the growth and improvements in our lives and how you found ways to be kinder to yourself when these thoughts come up. You know? How do you talk to yourself? And, you know, we all get these demons in our minds that, oh, you're not good enough. And I listened to you, and I think I would like to work on your confidence, Helena, somehow. This is one professional, you know, who's talking now. So so I just kinda trying to understand your world and yeah. But how you found ways to be kinder to yourself? What helps to let even little small things, you know, of that sense of blame? I think the thing that helped me the most was, when I did CBT. I did, and it's called my severe therapy. Right? Yes. That's right. And I ended up doing it. It was a little bit strange because I have, for many years, struggled with my sleep, and I used to do a thing where I would wake up in the middle of the night, and I would feel like I couldn't breathe. And I thought it was sleep apnea. So I went to IMS nurse and then this got me referred, and I ended up doing a sleep study, which was fine. I don't have sleep apnea. And the doctor said to me, you should do CBT for anxiousness. This is probably what's causing it. It's probably anxiety. For me, I didn't get it in the start because I thought this is such a physiological I mean, it was it was literally like I I couldn't I just felt like out of breath. But I thought, okay. I'm willing to give it a chance because I've read so much good things about it. And I have had other friends who have done it, and they've fully really helped. So did an online course through I got referred via the NHS, so it was also within Hertfordshire where I live. And I liked it because you do get, like, little homework and you get pieces of information that you have to go and think about things. And she put several things in place for me that I should think about. And we talked a lot about catastrophizing. We did talk about confidence, and she did say that to me as well. I need to reflect on my confidence. I need to believe in myself a bit better. But I think for the anxious behavior, to actually note when you're doing things. So for instance, when your mind starts spiraling and you start thinking, oh, what about this? What about this? What about this? They look at something called the worry tree, which I've tried to put in place, like, with with my children when they like to worry about things before bedtime because it's always before bedtime thing where you look at it. We all do that. We all do that. Yeah. When you lay there in the middle of the night and you think, oh, no. I didn't do this. And then it's like, you just have to go, can I do something about it now? No. Because you can't call someone in the middle of the night and talk to them about this. Fine. Go to sleep. Go deal with it in the morning. And it sounds like such a simple thing, but, actually, a lot of the time, I don't think we are aware of when we are catastrophizing or trying to if you're worried about one thing I find guilt often comes with MS is that you feel guilty about that you're letting other people down because you're too tired or you don't have enough energy to play with the kids or you made a very simple dinner, but you actually wanted to make something really nice and elaborate. Or you want to go out on a date, but actually you just end up sitting at home in your pajamas. And I think, again, here, you And it's okay to sit in the pajamas. They're totally okay. There's nothing wrong here. There's nothing wrong. But I think a lot of the time then we mind try to mind read. You try to think about, oh, what's acne thinking when I said we can't do this or we can't but actually, instead of asking you, what do you think about me say saying no? I just try and think about and try and figure out what you're thinking in my mind, and nobody can read anyone's mind. If we could, we would be very rich, wouldn't we? But and so it's just simple things like that that CBT taught me that I actually thinks have made a big difference for me, and I think it calmed myself down a little bit when it comes to having my mind go spiraling. And then, again, come back to the self compassion of actually thinking, come on now. This is silly. Why are you talking to yourself, like, being this harsh? You would not talk to anyone like this. Not even a person you disliked would you talk to for this. Because self compassion isn't giving up. It's not about lowering expectations. It's about recognizing that at the end of the day, we are all human beings doing best we can in the given situation, circumstances we have. And if it is at nighttime that our mind is talking to us to perhaps, you know, talking back to yourself, calming yourself down, or maybe writing things down if you know that you're gonna forget it in the early morning, but you have some tasks to do and your mind is just busy and reminding of these tasks in at 3AM or 4AM. But so take a pencil, a paper, write it down, or take a note and type it on your phone. So in the morning, you're gonna deal with it. But you have to remind yourself that this is nighttime. I need to sleep is important for my brain health and carry on. So okay. I just wanna see, are there things, people, habits, or perspectives that help you feel more grounded and more in control? Where do you go when you feel a bit lost? What do you do? I love taking inspiration from the wider MS community. I think I have met so many amazing people with MS, and there have been people who have you get the superhumans that climb mountains and run marathons and things, but you also get people who are just so grounded in themselves and they know themselves so well. They can talk about their MS and they're we can't be in control over MS, but they learn to live beside it. I think a few different people with MS has said this to me that there's always this kinda, you should battle MS, or you should be a warrior, you should be this. But, actually, that's just exhausting. We should just live next to MS. We can't get rid of MS, but keep on fighting for the rest of our lives. We're gonna get exhausted. We just need to live with it. And I think I had not learned those things if it wasn't for talking to the MS community. And I think, also, sometimes when you have some really strange symptoms that you think, is this just in my head? Is this actually something that's happening to other people? Because even when you talk to health professionals, sometimes they they might not have Google. But you're almost in a big MS community where you can ask, have anybody else felt this? And they'll go, oh, yeah. No. This has definitely happened to me as well. And it just makes you feel like I'm not going crazy. It's this is so I think that's really nice. But then I also think we it's funny because I've worked in the online world. I even met my husband back in the nineties in a music chatroom. So So I've always been very online person. But as I'm getting older, I really value the fact that we need to go outside and we need to meet people in real life. And I think it's so important to have that connection. So like I mentioned before, I went for a walk with a friend of mine who has MS yesterday. And you put the world to right when you walk. Walk and talk, there's something about the movement forwards and think yeah. Nature and everything that just kinda even if you start to walk as feeling a bit pent up and angry or agitated, it just kinda gets out gets it out as you're moving. Yes. Yeah. Part of nature, I think it's healing property. Like, it helps everyone. You know, if you are feeling frustrated, stressed, even if you're a carer, you know, of somebody who lives with MS, go ask spend some minutes, you know, ten minutes, go for a walk, I think, that what Helena is telling us all. But then I also think one thing for me is always if you hear something and you think, well, that sounds interesting, always check it. I think that, like you say, it's so much crazy misinformation out there now. So there are also, luckily, a lot of good sources that you can go for information. So make sure that whatever you hear or whatever you think, check contact the charity or your doctor or your MS nurse or your GP or you may think, I'm guilty of enjoying a little bit of chat with the AI now and again. But if they say something that I think this sounds really good, I do still have to go and click on all the source material to make sure that this is not a hallucination or anything that they're selling me that they're Yes. Too good to be true. Because I think sitting with questions is really bad. No questions are too stupid to ask really, when it comes to your health. And if you are worried about something, you should really talk about it. So I think that is one thing that sort of always makes me feel better when I got something off my heart because I think if you turn the lights and you just walk around, you just become a bit like a hedgehog. It's just and I think finding answers to problems that is is so important. And I think in that way, we're really lucky that we have this amazing online world. We just need to take everything that's said with a bit of pinch of salt. Yeah. And one thing I often tell people is that while we cannot control everything about MS, there is still a great deal we can influence. We can influence how we look after ourselves. You know, waking up in the morning, maybe putting some makeup, brightening your day, putting on more colors. You know? We can also influence how we connect with other people. As Helena just explained, we can also influence how we respond to stresses and challenges in this life. And sometimes focusing on what we can influence is far healthier than blaming ourself for what we cannot change Yeah. Is really important. I I so agree with that because I was thinking of this the other day. There's a lot of talk about elections and things like that. And quite often when you see politicians on TV, they spend all the time somebody asked them a question, but instead of actually giving an answer, they just spend time arguing who caused the problem. But no party actually kinda goes, actually, let's do this to solve it, and I think that's a little bit the same. I try not to argue with my brain about what caused this or what happened. Let's just see what can we do to feel a bit better tomorrow instead. Totally. What would you say to someone with MS who's sitting and thinking, this is my fault. It isn't your fault. We don't know what caused MS. There's so many different factors that's flying around trying to explain what's caused it. And it's not your fault that you have MS, but it's also very understandable that you would end up thinking something like that because, again, it's coming back to that kind of problem solving. But I think it is okay to feel sad. It's okay to have all the feelings. I think it's really important not to push them away either, but go through them, talk to people, and inform yourself, learn about the condition, learn about you, write things down. I think that's one of the things. When it comes to things like supplements and things like that, people can try things. If it's not harmful for you, you know from the doctor that it's okay, do a little experiment and see if it works. If it doesn't make any changes, stop taking it. And I think that's sort of same approach to life. If you if you think that it's your fault, start documenting a little bit what you're doing. And are you pushing too hard at work? Do you need to maybe try and not to do the boom and bust kind of thing? Do you need to work on do you need to do a course in fatigue management? Do you need to do sleep training like I did? I changed my life a lot. I felt much better after I did the sleep training. So instead of just going, I'm doing everything wrong, try to then think if I am doing something wrong, let's try and document it and work out, be a little bit of a crime solver, and then, the solution for it. Thank you, Helena. I think many people listening today needed to hear all that exactly, you know, your own experiences. And before we finish today's conversation, I'd like to leave you with a image that has stayed with me for a few days now and probably forever moving forward. It shows a small monkey trying to desperately to save a fish's life. The monkey has got good intentions. He puts the oxygen mask on the fish's face. It care you know, it cares for that fish, but it doesn't understand the fish's world. And perhaps there is a lesson in that for us all. Social media is full of advice. Family, friends can offer also advice. Health care professionals offer advice. Most of it comes from a place of kindness. But before we try to change someone's life, we must first try to understand their world. The reality of living with MS is different to every single person. What works for one person may not work for another. MS is not a competition. It's not a moral test, and it's certainly not a disease caused by lack of effort. On MS World Day, let's replace assumptions with a curiosity. Let's replace judgment with compassion. Let's replace blame with understanding. And if you are listening today and carrying guilt and blame about your MS, perhaps it's time to gently put down the burden. Because some of the the heaviest things people carry with MS are completely invisible. They don't appear on MRI scans. They don't show up in their blood tests, but they can weight heavily on their heart and mind. Thank you, Helena, for sharing your story, your wisdom for everything today. And thank you everyone who's listening to this episodes. I think what I could say until next time, care of your brain, take care of your well-being, and perhaps most importantly, be kind to yourself always. Thank you. Thank you. Alright.
14 March, 2026 Guided meditation with Dr Agne Straukiene
Dr Agne Straukiene films a mindful walk in Cockington Village park in Torquay, dedicating the video to people who struggle to get out due to mobility difficulties, such as wheelchair users without ramps. Agne invites viewers to spend a few minutes listening to birds, noticing spring, and appreciating nature’s beauty despite background sounds like toddlers. The walk includes stopping by a small cafe to enjoy water and ice cream while resting and regaining energy, reflecting on nature’s therapeutic power and the idea that life is beautiful but often overcomplicated.
episodes
revealed subscribers
podcast listens
Show Host and Founder
Hi there! I’m Dr. Agne Straukiene, a neurologist, researcher, and MS specialist. As the host and founder of the #BeewellwithMS podcast, along with expert guests, I share knowledge to guide your MS journey. My commitment to MS care was recognised in 2022 with an International MS Brain Health Team award. I am a certified Brain Health Ambassador for the European Academy of Neurology (EAN).
I am co-creator of tools like the MS Infoflex database, MS Connect app, MS Patients Know Best, Augmented reality motor function assessment in MS (Strolll). I strive to simplify MS self-management.
By joining the BeewellwithMS community, you get access to exclusive advice, podcast updates, and you join our mission towards a healthier life with MS. Let’s take this journey together!
In this Privacy Policy (hereinafter – “Privacy Policy”), we provide information on how Agne Straukiene, is located at Haccombe Path st. 20, Newtton Abbot, United Kingdom (hereinafter – the Company) manages your personal data, which you can submit on the website www.beewellwithms.com (hereinafter – the Website) by contacting us by e-mail, by post or telephone or upon arrival at the Company’s registered office.
When you visit Company’s headquarters on the website, contact us by e-mail, by mail or phone, we may collect the following information:
A cookie is information that a web server sends to a web browser and is stored in a browser. This information is sent to the web server each time the browser asks to open the page from the server. This allows the web server to detect and monitor the web browser.
For more information on cookies used on the Website, see:
| Name of cookie | Purpose of cookie | Moment of creation | Expiry date | Data used |
| _ga | Used to collect statistical information about website traffic. | Entering the website | 2 years | Unique ID |
| _gat | Used to limit the number of calls to doubleclick.net. | Entering the website | 1 minute | 1 |
| _gid | Used to collect statistical information. | Entering the website | 24 hours | Unique ID |
We may disclose your personal data to personal processors who provide us with services or works (information technology, software maintenance and administration services, security services, document archiving service providers, etc.) and manage your data on behalf of the Company as data controller. Data controllers have the right to process personal data only in accordance with our instructions and to the extent that is necessary. Through our processors, we take all necessary steps to ensure that our processors also implement appropriate organizational and technical security measures for their personal data and maintain the confidentiality of personal data.
Please be advised that your personal data will not be transferred to a third country and / or an international organization.
Your personal data will be processed in accordance with the requirements of the Law on Legal Protection of Personal Data of the Republic of Lithuania and other legal acts.
We process your personal data only on the legitimate grounds defined in the legal acts regulating the protection of personal data – your consent and when personal data must be processed for the legitimate interest of the Company.
When managing your personal data, we implement organizational and technical measures that ensure the protection of personal data against accidental or unlawful destruction, alteration, disclosure, and any other unlawful processing.
We will protect your personal data within the terms set forth in this Privacy Policy. They will be deleted or destroyed at the end of the storage period.
In cases where your personal data will be in the texts of the relevant documents (contracts, orders, requests, etc.), we will archive them and keep them in accordance with the terms specified in the General Documentation Term Deposit approved by the Order of the Chief Archivist of Lithuania.
We promise that in all cases we will protect your personal data for no longer than required by the purposes of the data processing, or provided by law, if they contain a longer data retention period.
You have the right:
We will respond to the requests, complaints or claims received in writing in accordance with the procedures and terms established by legal acts and will endeavor to provide you with information as soon as possible, but not later than within 30 days of receipt of your request.
If, upon application, complaint or claim, we have suspicions about the identity of the applicant, we have the right to request the applicant’s identity document.
If we fail to provide you with the necessary information and / or have claims regarding the processing of your personal data, you have the right to apply to the State Data Protection Inspectorate for a complaint.
We may update or modify this Privacy Policy at any time. Such updated or modified Privacy Policy will take effect from its publication on our Website. You should check it sometimes and make sure that you are satisfied with the current version of the Privacy Policy.
When we update our Privacy Policy, we will notify you of any material changes we may have made by posting them on the Website. You can look at the “Date of update” date at the bottom to find out when the Privacy Policy was last updated.
If you have any questions regarding the terms of this Privacy Policy, please feel free to contact us by using the details below, by calling the phone below or by sending an inquiry. by post or registered mail:
Agne Straukiene
Address: Haccombe Path st. 20, Newtton Abbot, United Kingdom
Email: agne@beewellwithms.com
This Privacy Policy is governed by the law of the Republic of Lithuania. All disputes arising from these privacy provisions will be settled by negotiation and failing to do so in the courts of the Republic of Lithuania in Vilnius.
The latest Privacy Policy update was made in 2023 July 31.