This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Community: Knowledge & Support

Hello all,
No symptoms since 2006 (Stone Age diet) but now I have difficulty sitting up straight at my desk, my legs are tired all the time and I just want to lie down. Worsening incrementally for many months. Does this sound familiar to anyone? Is it characteristic of the time when you realised you had to give up working? I have always been open with my employer about my MS diagnosis, but like everyone else I am horrified at the prospect of losing my income.
(80% of people with MS are unemployed within 5 years of diagnosis: I am now at 8 years and was feeling smug!)
Jules
Scotland

Hi Mackerel,

Sorry to hear about your fatigue issues. I also have similar symptoms, thought the severity varies from day to day. Some days i can barely get out of bed. I would urge you to be strong and fight through it. I've been fighting through it for 16 years. (I still work and don't plan on stopping anytime soon. Probably helps that I really enjoy my job). Also the doc can prescribe you something for the fatigue. And good ole caffeine works great too.

Good luck and never give up!
-b

Welcome to ThisIsMS, Jules.

Every case of MS seems to have a unique collection of symptoms. And every member here has his own unique ideas about the disease. MY suspicion centers around excess insulin, which causes insulin resistance in the smooth and skeletal muscles.

I suspect you have difficulty sitting up straight at your desk because your core muscles are affected and weakened by excess insulin (insulin resistance), I encourage you to ask your GP to order a "fasting blood insulin test." (With your mention of "Scotland" you may be interested in the following BCG info.)

I am on the mailing list of Dr. Denise Faustman, a Harvard University researcher working on a cure for type I diabetes. She has triggered increased insulin production from trial participants with previously non-producing pancreas. In her fall letter were links giving more information on her work: http://www.myfoxboston.com/story/192352 ... t-diabetes

Here is a Bloomberg article with more details: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-0 ... or-tb.html

Dr. Faustman is also doing research on MS and thinks the BCG vaccine will help, but I do not agree – because of a friend's experience. My friend grew up in Ireland where she moved around often and attended several schools; a BCG vaccine was required at each new school (the BCG vaccine is required of school-age children in the UK)– she thinks she has received the BCG vaccine four times. She now has MS.

I think the increased insulin Dr. Faustman has found to be triggered by the BCG vaccine will make MS worse. This vaccine uses attenuated (weakened), i.e., live bacteria. Is it possible that BCG (bacillus Calmette-Guérin) continues to live in the body and is NOT eliminated by antibodies, OR that the bacterium changed the pancreas into chronically overproducing insulin? I think this BCG vaccine could be responsible for many cases of MS because it increases insulin production.

_________________
My hypothesis: excess insulin (hyperinsulinemia) plays a major role in MS, as developed in my initial post: http://www.thisisms.com/forum/general-discussion-f1/topic1878.html "Insulin – Could This Be the Key?"

Bananana - excellent; cheered me up as I slumped into my workstation at 06:00 today! I think you nail it with the "enjoy my job" comment: motivation is everything. If I could only find a job that suited me AND paid well... in the meantime, as you say, high quality coffee is the best medicine. ("The Doc" - in whom the people of the USA seem to place so much faith - has nothing in his bag that will improve fatigue long-term without causing damage in other ways, I am sure of that.)
16 years: well done, you are an inspiration...

Lyndacarol - very, very interesting, and I have had some intuitive suspicions along these lines for some time. (My wife has been an insulin-dependent diabetic since childhood, so I am no stranger to the biochemistry.)
Although my diet is no grain, no dairy, no industrial meats, I eat too much rice, potato and dried fruit. This is a weakness, and I sometimes feel I am exhausting myself by working my GI system/pancreas too hard. Intermittent fasting is something I know I must try, although it is awkward at work.
I will follow some of your links as soon as I get a spare hour.
Thanks...