This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Community: Knowledge & Support

im 21 years old. I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis April 2010.

I'm not going to start crying on and on about how much i hate this countrys health care system. The doctors, the hospitals. Majority of them suck, most of them don't care, there looking for the cheapest, quickest answer and shoving me out the door.

I've chosen the natural route as my treatment. Diet, and exercise.

My mind is cloudy right now, just want to say hello and that i'd like to be a part of this community.




PS: My heart goes out to all the people suffering from ms. I feel your pain, because i have it too.

Information is the key to getting well. Get all the information you can and choose what makes sense to you. You are right about the medical establishment Paul. Our country keeps getting sicker and sicker so all the new drugs are not the answer. Dr. Swank has had success treating MS patients with his diet for over 50 years. The palo diet has shown success with treating disease. The doctors will not tell you this because they want you as a customer. According to the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in July of 2000 doctors were the third leading cause of death in our country. They do not have a good tract record. Most of the deaths were due to the drugs they prescribe. I have never heard of anyone getting better because of taking MS drugs but many people get sicker. There are many instances of recovery due to diet. According to Dr. McDougall you are following false gods when you listen to the doctors about taking the MS drugs. If you look at some to the statements of people who have taken the drug you wonder why would anyone do this? The doctors have scared a lot of people into taking these drugs. Best to look at the results of real people before making the decision to take their drugs.

http://www.healingdaily.com/Doctors-Are ... the-US.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJyQTTZr ... _embedded#!

http://www.facebook.com/notes/ccsvi-in- ... 1295097210

Welcome to ThisIsMS, Paul; you have found the right community for support, information, and inquiring minds. I think you will fit right in!

We do not always have the answers, but we invite your questions. Some of us are too far from the dating scene to answer your question about when to reveal your diagnosis; others will certainly jump in with their ideas. In general, I would recommend that you get to know the girl first, do not be in a hurry to lay out all your medical history details; I think you will know when the time is right.

I think you have made a wise choice to concentrate on diet and exercise. The Iowa City physician, Dr. Terry Wahls, has a dramatic story with diet and exercise (http://www.TerryWahls.org).

Sorry, but we can't find any clinical trials that show that diet has any affect on MS symptoms - other than the dubious claims of those who have some economic interest in selling their wares. We agree that the DMDs do little than delay the inevitable progression of the disease. The most effective treatment we've experienced to date was the CCSVI procedure - and even that had short-lived results (one year symptom free). We might try CCSVI treatment again.

Since being diagnosed i dont think iv met one person that doesn't call me stupid or insane for not taking the injections. Im just not going to do it, id rather deal with my current issues with my ms symptoms then deal with the side effects of killing my immune system.

bike and carol, THANK YOU. Even if it's the wrong choice, it's my choice! I think im going to really like this forum..

And i must say, with what iv learned about nutrition the past year and a half, i have a lot of hope

I dont need any clinical trials on diets and ms. I KNOW 100,000% that we can all benefit from good eating habits ms or not. There's a healer in all of us, my body is my friend, i'd like to calm and nourish my friend then bomb it with interferons! when and if my condition progresses i'll die with pride knowing i laughed in the face of ms and the doctors who diagnosed me with it.

disagree? look for me in the diet section of treatments, that's where ill be

This post might interest you...

diet-f9/topic17276-90.html#p174562


NHE

Hi Paul, and welcome! I've never taken any meds for MS or MS symptoms myself (my story and MRIs are in this link: general-discussion-f1/topic16335.html ) and I always advise people that you can't go wrong by optimizing your health with a healthy diet and exercise, no matter what other treatments you choose.

Although I know many MS patients believe that their choice of MS meds has helped and I can't really argue with that, I tend to go along with your take on the meds. I got a surprise dx 8 years ago after at least 30 years of weirdness, but at that point I had learned to accept my wayward body and treat it gently and healthily. And it had responded to me in the same way.

I believe I'm in the minority, but I was pretty shocked when I found after dx that the generally accepted idea in the MS world was that our bodies were being attacked by an evil entity and the only recourse was to attack our bodies (or "bomb" them) with powerful meds in response. Considering my own personal experience, that just didn't sit well with me. I've always been less concerned with whether one of the MS CRAB meds had a chance to "help" me in some way, than with the possibility that the drugs could just as easily "harm" me instead - especially with my nasty reactions to meds in general. And that's always a possibility.

So, follow your own path, but keep an open mind for new developments. I never say never when it comes to meds. Recently my neuro insisted that I finally try a med, including the new ones like Gilenya. I did some major research and presented her with a 4-page treatise why none of them are right for me at this stage. That doesn't mean they're wrong for everyone. This is a good site for both mainstream and alternative ideas.

Good luck to you!

_________________
Dx'd with MS & HNPP (hereditary peripheral neuropathy) 7/03 but must have had MS for 30 yrs before that. I've never taken meds for MS or MS symptoms except 1 yr experiment on LDN. (I found diet, exercise, sleep, humor, music help me the most.)

The effect of nutritional counselling on diet and plasma EFA status in multiple sclerosis patients over 3 years (Fitzgerald 1987)
http://ukpmc.ac.uk/abstract/MED/3692896
wish i had full text access for this one...

Multiple sclerosis: fat-oil relationship (Swank 1991)
http://ukpmc.ac.uk/abstract/MED/1804476 ... 4UalFN.133

Diet and multiple sclerosis (Lauer 1997)
http://www.neurology.org/content/49/2_Suppl_2/S55.short

Multiple sclerosis and nutrition. (Schwarz 2005)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15732263

Diet and multiple sclerosis (Schwarz 2005)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15580470

Dietary patterns in clinical subtypes of multiple sclerosis: an exploratory study (Ramsaransing et al 2009)
http://www.nutritionj.com/content/8/1/36
full text, beauty - but i wish they *did* have vegetarian, vegan and gluten free patient groups in there
this is really interesting and you can download charts comparing dietary intakes by various patient groups and compared to intakes in population controls. some differences stick out but even where the groups are similar sometimes they can be well below recommendations. for example wonder how the 50% of recommended zinc intakes might be affecting the controls. would be neat if the study had been designed to include another patient group controlled for perfect RDA intakes across the board.

_________________
my approach: no meds so far - just balanced whole foods (partial 'paleo', much less outright elimination), science, supplements, & bloodwork
my regimen - www.thisisms.com/ftopict-2489.html
www.whfoods.com, www.nutritiondata.com

welcome to the board.
i totally believe in a health diet

another thing i believe in is upper cervical care, please google it or head down to the chiropractic treatment forum and read a little.

I'm posting this, not to be argumentative, but because I'd really like others insight/experience.

My last exacerbation was during the most healthy time in my life that I've ever had. I was training for a marathon, practicing yoga and meditation daily, and eating a very healthy diet (gluten free, sugar free, processed food free). Basically chicken or fish and vegetables (not a potato fan either). I did consume legumes. I felt strong, grounded, balanced. In all feeling mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically AWESOME!

Then, out of nowhere, a severe exhaustion slammed me into a wall. A few months later, both of my hands went numb. Of course, I wasn't without stress. My husband had deployed 2 months earlier, which in and of itself isn't a huge stressor, we've been doing deployments every other year since 2005. But the daily household requirements turned into a huge burden as my fatigue increased, I was finishing my masters program with a full time practicum... Stressed - YUP!

Thoughts are welcome!

And I did go on Copaxone because I was scared and too tired to research anything. So, I just kind of went with the Drs advice.

_________________
Jessica
Supplements Vit D3 6,000 IU/Cal 1000 mg/Mag 500 mg/Tumeric 400 mg/Probiotics
Amalgam Fillings Removed/Chelated 10.10.11
Copaxone Tx Started 9.27.11/Off 01.13.12/On 01.18.12
Dx RRMS 08.28.11
Gluten Free 03.10
Sugar Free 02.02
Brother Dx RRMS 08.01

hi jessica i did not see this post until just now.

athletic exertion and stress can deplete magnesium which also tends to be low in ms patients. if the 500mg magnesium you're taking goes in at the same time as the D3, it's probably all getting sucked into D3 absorption and not leaving any magnesium for other important functions. you may already know that you need to take some mag with d3 and some well away. if not, now you do! either way, if you track back to when you started the D3 and mag, is there any tie-in with the onset of exhaustion?

also, even with a gluten and sugar free diet, the consumption of legumes and absence of red meat may have affected your zinc status. zinc is also low in ms patients.

magnesium is needed to transport ATP around the body - ATP is the body's 'energy currency'.

zinc should be around 18.2-18.4 umol/L in serum ('normal' range 11.5-18.5)
magnesium should be at least 0.90 mmol/L in serum ('normal' range 0.70-1.10)

if you choose to follow up on this input, dietary mods may be in order (eg red meat 1x/wk, and loads of kale etc). also, a therapeutic supplement regimen (ie big boost compared to any sort of regular multivitamin) may be needed in the short term to achieve healthy serum levels of these very important nutrients.

up to you! hope you're doing all right. any questions feel free

_________________
my approach: no meds so far - just balanced whole foods (partial 'paleo', much less outright elimination), science, supplements, & bloodwork
my regimen - www.thisisms.com/ftopict-2489.html
www.whfoods.com, www.nutritiondata.com

.

Well, Paul, I'm glad that some of the things I posted were helpful to you! The quotes in your post sounded really familiar (and brilliant, of course ), but it took me a few moments to realize they were all from me, and most from this thread, although my name wasn't linked directly to them. Good luck to you and keep laughing!

_________________
Dx'd with MS & HNPP (hereditary peripheral neuropathy) 7/03 but must have had MS for 30 yrs before that. I've never taken meds for MS or MS symptoms except 1 yr experiment on LDN. (I found diet, exercise, sleep, humor, music help me the most.)