This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Community: Knowledge & Support

I'm new to the website and I'm not sure this topic has been covered in any detail - if it has, please excuse!

This is about the research on serum uric acid levels in MS and the experimental animal MS models, the epidemiology of gout and MS, and (possibly) that a diet that is bad for people with gout might be good for people with MS. I am working off abstracts in PubMed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi, so anything I reference can be found there.

I'm breaking this into two parts.

The story:

Back in the 1970s, a German researcher (Neu, 1977) noted that out of 400 MS patients, none of them also had gout (a disease characterized by high levels of serum uric acid and arthritis). Neu thought this was unusual, because gout was very common in the population the MS patients came from. More recently in the U.S, Hooper et al. (1998) examined over 20 million Health Care Financing Administration records from 1995 in the U.S. and found far fewer MS patients with gout than expected. These studies indicate that some characteristcs of gout, which is a fairly common disease, protects against MS. Gout is also the mirror image of MS in other ways, being more common in men and older women, and less common in younger women.

There have been several articles indicating patients with MS and optic neuritis have lower levels of serum uric acid (Hooper et al., 1998, Knapp et al. 2004, and others); one recent study (Mostert et al. 2005) didn't show a difference in serum uric acid levels between MS patients outside of relapses and controls.

Hooper et al. 1998 and Scott et al., 2002 (same research team) showed that uric acid, and inosine, a precursor that is metabolized to uric acid, either attenuated or blocked development of the experimental "MS-type" disease in mice. Recently, Mattle et al. (2004) gave inosine to 10 patients with progressive MS, 3 of 10 patients improved and there was no sign of progression in the other seven. I don't have the paper, and can't tell the study duration - it appeared to be a pilot trial and the author was not yet ready to recommend inosine.

I have been surprised at how little attention the uric acid angle in MS has apparently gotten from researchers and drug companies, given the supporting epidemiology (more on that in my next post) and the positive data in the mouse model. I started looking in the gout literature for diets that are contra-indicated in gout that (who knows) might be helpful in MS. That is my next post!

LisaBee

I just posted yesterday on Anecdote's personal regime thread asking about taking Inosine as a suppliment. I'd seen the research and thought it looked interesting. I spoke to one of the researchers at Thomas Jefferson University. I'm new to this too, I just wanted to talk to someone directly and find out what they were thinking. Dr. Spitsin is the guy, he said the risks of Inosine were minimal (gout, kidney stones) they could be reduced (lots of water, not too much calcium suppliment). He said if he had MS he'd definitely be taking Inosine as a relatively benign and potentially promising theraphy. His current study is being delayed by getting enough participants. I suspect there may not be a huge amount of interest in this area because it involves an OTC drug. I'm going to work on getting a serum uric acid tets and if its lower than average I'll try this out. I'm already trying antibiotics, but I think this would support that approach. If you find out more, please post!!!

I just posted yesterday on Anecdote's personal regime thread asking about taking Inosine as a suppliment. I'd seen the research and thought it looked interesting. I spoke to one of the researchers at Thomas Jefferson University. I'm new to this too, I just wanted to talk to someone directly and find out what they were thinking. Dr. Spitsin is the guy, he said the risks of Inosine were minimal (gout, kidney stones) they could be reduced (lots of water, not too much calcium suppliment). He said if he had MS he'd definitely be taking Inosine as a relatively benign and potentially promising theraphy. His current study is being delayed by getting enough participants. I suspect there may not be a huge amount of interest in this area because it involves an OTC drug. I'm going to work on getting a serum uric acid tets and if its lower than average I'll try this out. I'm already trying antibiotics, but I think this would support that approach. If you find out more, please post!!!

More notes on diet and M.S epidemiology -

Hayes et al. 1997 noted in a paper on Vitamin D and M.S. that MS is more common in inland Norway as opposed to coastal Norway, where people presumably would eat more fish, that contain Vitamin D. Another interpretation might be that coastal residents, if they eat more fish (and less dairy, see below), may have a higher intake of purines in their diet. Purines raise uric acid levels. Dairy products apparently lower them.

Choi et al. 2005 in a large study of over 14,000 people, evaluated the relationship between diet and serum uric acid levels. Serum uric acid increased with meat and seafood intake (high purine content), and decreased with increasing dairy intake. These were statistically significant.

Speculating, this would suggest that high intake of meat (red meat, I would guess) and seafood would raise uric acid levels. and if this is contraindicated in gout patients, it might be helpful for MS patients. Conversely, eating more dairy seems to be helpful for gout patients, and may be contraindicated for MS patients. Some of the best sources of dietary purines are anchovies, herring and sardines, which I have been trying to eat more of.

Some of this fits in with diets considered to be helpful for MS, such as the paleo diet.

Lisa

Interesting stuff Lisa, keep it going.

_________________
John
I am what I am

I've also been using diet as an aid to prevent relapse in hubby. We started at the allergist to eliminate all foods that he has allergies to as well as the ones he has a low tolerance for. We also had the blood test done for gluten to rule that out as an intolerance. Each person of course would be different. Hubby has always had nut allergies and has now developed peanut allergy as well. Also corn,Soya,peas,squash. These are all huge families of foods by the way. Anyone who knows allergies would know that Soya and corn product as well as peanut are in a scad of foods. He is lucky he has no allergies to milk or night shade foods as well as meat or fish,rye wheat or oats. He has felt 100% better since we started his diet changes back in April 2005. He just started on copaxone and he is also on lipitor which we keep him on although his cholesterol is now normal due to diet changes. The reason for this is there is a trial going on in which they are trying lipitor and copaxone together. He is also on daily vitamins which is a long list as well as flax seed ground and kept fresh by freezing as it supplies your omega 3 fatty acids without the mercury that fish supplements tend to have. I'm also into probiotics but steer clear of these two:
L. casei Cheese Bacteria [Promote the formation of cheese due to their action on milk protein (casein).]

L. plantarum Pickle Bacteria. [A lactic acid bacteria used in vegetable fermentations to produce pickles and fermented cabbage called sauerkraut.]

As there is some research pointing it raising IL-12 levels which are heightened in people with MS.

At this point he is feeling great but as with MS you can never tell when that might change.

Not all cheeses are involved only the ones which use this specific probiotic which are:Brick also has these probiotics as well as a couple others I can't remember as we don't eat them. Cheddar is the one that affects us. Some of the links below will give anyone interested a better look.

L. casei Cheese Bacteria [Promote the formation of cheese due to their action on milk protein (casein).]

L. plantarum Pickle Bacteria. [A lactic acid bacteria used in vegetable fermentations to produce pickles and fermented cabbage called sauerkraut.]



4. Certain strains of bacteria (L-plantarum and L-Casei) strains of intestinal flora strongly increase Il-12 production along with gamma interferon thus increasing CD8 cytotoxic lymphocyte activity against most kinds of intracellular viral infections. Matsuzaki T found that mice given Lactobacillus Casei induced the production of several cytokines including IFN-gamma, IL-beta and TNF-alpha, resulting in the inhibition of tumor growth and chemically-induced bladder cancer. Matsuzaki states that L. Casei “has the potential to ameliorate or prevent a variety of diseases through modulation of the host’s immune system, specifically cellular immune responses.”(Int J Food Microbiol 1998 May 26;41(2):133-40).

Lactobacillaceae: Lactobacillus Family
[Also The Streptococcaceae, Propionibacteriaceae & Acetobacteraceae.]

Lactobacillus acidophilus Acidophilus Milk Bacteria [This bacteria converts lactose (milk sugar) into lactic acid, thus making it more digestible to lactose intolerant people.]

L. bulgaricus Yogurt Bacteria [A bacteria used in most yogurt and some cheese cultures; L. delbrueckii is also listed for yogurt.]

L. casei Cheese Bacteria [Promote the formation of cheese due to their action on milk protein (casein).]

L. plantarum Pickle Bacteria. [A lactic acid bacteria used in vegetable fermentations to produce pickles and fermented cabbage called sauerkraut.]

Streptococcus thermophilus in the Streptococcaceae is another yogurt-forming bacteria. Streptococcus species are also used in the production of sour cream, butter, buttermilk and cheese. The propionic acid which produces the odor and flavor of Swiss cheese comes from Propionibacterium freudenreichii ssp. shermanii of the Propionibacteriaceae. The unique flavor and odor of limburger cheese is produced by Brevibacterium linens of the Brevibacteriaceae. And the acetic acid of vinegar is produced by vinegar bacteria (Acetobacter aceti) of the Acetobacteraceae.



http://www.dairyconnection.com/culture-info.htm Culture info



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· cheeses





· hard - cheddar (Streptococcus lactis, S. cremoris, S. durans; Lactobacillus casei, L. plantarum), edam (S. lactis, S. cremoris), gouda (Streptococcus lactis, S. cremoris, S. diacetylactis), swiss (S. lactis, L. helveticus, S. thermophilus; Propionibacterium shermanii, P. freudenreichii)



meat products (salami, summer sausage) - Pediococcus cerevisiae and Lactobacillus plantarum

miscellaneous foods



· olives (green olives) - Leuconostoc mesenteroides together with Lactobacillus plantarum

· pickles (cucumbers) - Leuconostoc mesenteroides together with Lactobacillus plantarum

· sauerkraut (cabbage) - Leuconostoc mesenteroides together with Lactobacillus plantarum