This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Community: Knowledge & Support

Hello everyone. My name is Dave. I am a 48yr old male living in PA. I was diagnosed with Relapsing Remitting MS on Apr-27-2012. This is after having Uveitis since 2003. I was tested several time over those years for any underlying cause of my uveitis, nothing was ever detected. I had countless steroid injections into my right eye, calming the uveitis and the macular edema, but causing a cataract, and glaucoma. I was on several medications, and in 3 clinical trials. The only medication that controlled my uveitis, was a new medicine developed specifically for my disease, called Luveniq. The FDA would not approve it, so on to CellCept, then into another trial. Then IV solumedrol and oral prednisone. Then to the HUMIRA trial, while tapering the steroids. This was in 2011 starting in July. Then in December I developed numbness in my abdomen and right foot. Test after test could not find anything. Then I was sent to a neruo-immunologist at Johns Hopkins University Hospital (that is where my Uveitis specialist is also). After 2 more MRIs and 18 tubes of blood and 14 tubes of spinal fluid, my doctor told me I had RRMS. I am in my first week of using Copaxone. I have no idea what to expect in my future. I wanted to introduce myself today, and look around for any useful information and see if I can get any advice. Thanks!
Dave

Hi, Dave,
Welcome to the club. The standard gretting to new people is to advise them to get on a good MS diet and take Vit D3 and other supplements that have some promise of helping control of the desease.

I am curious as to what made the doc finally give the dx - was it leasons in the brain, in the spinal cord, etc?

Take care!

It was a combo of brain lesions, spinal cord lesions and one of the spinal fluid test that nailed the diagnosis. The doc put me on vitamin D3 right away. Where is a good place to find about the diet?
Thanks.

if you like, check out the links in my signature below. there are lots of diets, but there's only one you. nutritional blood tests are a good place to start imho.
then keep a personal diet diary, so you calculate the degree to which your food and drink intakes are pro-inflammatory or anti-inflammatory. see if you can get your daily inflammation rating for all intakes up to 200 minimum on the anti-inflammatory side.
check out healthy food sources of nutrients commonly suboptimal in ms patients. boosting zinc-rich foods would be a good idea. you may need to limit certain foods which are known to deplete critical nutrients like zinc (fyi if you're anything like me, when your zinc is closer to a healthy level and further from an average ms patient level, you will absorb the vit d3 better)
my 'signature' links below have more info. they're best read in order. you can use whfoods to look at healthy foods for various nutrients, and nutritiondata is good for looking at pro/anti IF ratings.
there's a 'diet' section here on the forum with a few different approaches.
my personal angle isn't there specifically. i'd call my approach an orthomolecular, ms-specific (but applicable to everyone), klenner/reinagel/weil/mateljan programme, with added labwork to ensure efficacy.
http://www.townsendletter.com/Klenner/klenner4.htm
http://inflammationfactor.com/if-rating-system/
http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/ART02995/Dr ... ramid.html
http://www.whfoods.com
calculation tool: http://www.nutritiondata.com

hth!

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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