My regimen

Tell us what you are using to treat your MS-- and how you are doing.
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Pastryrocks
Newbie
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Nov 16, 2011 9:54 am
Location: Toronto, Ont., Canada

My regimen

Post by Pastryrocks »

Since I’ve been diagnosis with RRMS late spring 2011 I’ve have been going weekly for acupuncture. This has been quite helpful for most of my MS symptoms except for the energy. My feet no longer tingle but are still cold; I can now slice a tomato which I could not hold a knife during my attack, I don’t mumble anymore and I can walk while holding my 17th month old daughter. Furthermore, the blood flow in my body is very good so much so that well, yea, well suffice to say that the blood flow is really good. I am not new to acupuncture, I’ve been going for acupuncture on and off for over 15 years, it has been quite helpful.

Now the acupuncture is done on my feet, chest, and hands while my head sits in a Centurion Pulsed Magnetic Field thing-er-bob. Then my back is done, along the waist, spinal cord, shoulders, neck, and head while my lower back sit in the Centurion Pulsed Magnetic Field thing-er-bob. There was an improvement with the results of the acupuncture after using this machine and so I continue to use the machine.

To help with the blood flow in my feet in the past I would fill two plastic containers, one with very warm salted water and one with cold water. Then I would place my feet into the one with warm water for 2-3 minutes and then the cold for 2-3 minutes. I would do this for 20-30 minutes and this would increase blood flow, the cold would rush blood into my feet and the hot would rush blood out. Always finishing with my feet in the cold water. I did this 4-5 times a week back in the summer when the MS was on the attack. After a week or two of doing this my feet did not look like road kill and they became nice rosy pink in colour. I have not needed to do this since the middle of August.

For breakfast I share a cup of steel cut oats cooked with an tablespoon of cinnamon, 1 apple, and finished off with a cup of wild blueberries and either two tablespoons of brown sugar or maple syrup with my daughter. Because of the steel cut oats I no longer pass bricks anymore. In the past I would at least 4 times a week rub a great deal of castor oil over my intestines and then apply a heating pad for an hour. This would soften everything up and enable me to pass something that would not break me or our plumbing. There has been a few times where I still do the castor oil/heating pad routine; it just helps to move everything out. This is quite important for everyone, not just people with MS. As for the other end, it is quite difficult to hold it. It seems that I have had to go since December 2010, so when I actually have to go, well I am about to go, thank god for alleyways. I guess I’ll need a second bathroom when my daughter becomes a teenager.

About a month or so into the MS I began an anti-inflammatory diet, which means no red meat, no dark chicken meat, no skin on chicken when cooking, no dairy, no legumes, no wheat, no red wine, no beer (quite sad!), and no fat except some good olive oil. Also, I am following the fat intake advice of Dr. Swank. I have lost about 40lbs following this diet. As a former pastry chef this diet has been quite troublesome for me to follow. Furthermore, I’ve read that chocolate is not good for those with MS, that all people with MS have issues with chocolate, again quite troublesome for me.

Had issues with sleep for many years and at times I still have issues with sleep. For the past 8-10 years I’ve been taking liquid melatonin to fall asleep, and it has been very helpful. Now if I don’t get enough sleep, 8-10 hours or so, I find that when I turn my head to the right that things are somewhat blurry. Without a doubt my right side is worse than my left side. So I try and sleep as long as possible.

For the past few months I have been taking enzyme’s to help with the MS. I take 4 Digestive Enzymes Plus by Vitazan with meals and 6 Bromelain Papain + between meals daily, two of each at a time. I have not had a relapse since the summer, so I assume/hope that these enzymes are helping. I was told by my first Neurologist that I would more than likely have a couple of good months and a couple of bad months, of course who really knows much about what I should or should not experience with this #$%^&*! RRMS!

Also I receive a B-vitamins injection about every other week or so. In the past I have done the IV of B-vitamins and a few other concoctions but not since the MS has been diagnosis. Daily vitamins consist of the following: Genestra Almond Liquid Vitamin (multivitamin) 1-tbs daily, Curcuma (turmeric) 500mg daily, Coenzyme Q10 60mg twice daily, Vitamin D3 1000mg 3 pills twice daily (6000mg daily total), Ginkgo 400mg daily, Alpha Lipoic Acid 600mg twice daily, N.A.C. (N-Acetyl-L-Cysteine) 500mg twice daily, SAM-e 400mg daily, Evening Primrose Oil 500mg twice daily, Natural Calm Magnesium Citrate Powder with Calcium 2-tsp twice daily, Nutra Sea Fish Oil HP-High Potency 3:1 EPA to DHA 1-Tbs daily.

Also I have had a “Comprehensive Stool Analysis” done recently and I have discovered that I am very low in beneficial flora in my intestine and I have a little yeast, which now I am drinking daily one Bio-K + Probiotics and taking Vitazan L-Glutamine 100mg x2 twice daily to replenish the beneficial flora. In the past I was taking almost daily HMF Fotre, but for some reason I am very low on the beneficial flora, very, very low. My ND will also prescribe a different probiotic next week when I return for more acupuncture.

The medical doctor who is supposed to be a ‘MS Specialist’ told me to take 1000mg of vitamin D twice daily and nothing else.

Without a doubt I don’t know if what I am doing is working or my MS is taking a break or both. What I do know is that I am physically almost 95% of my former self, 99% mentally of my former self, but am lacking a great deal of energy, not that looking after a 17 month old baby would leave any 48 year old man any energy! So until I relapse I will continue with the help of my Naturopathic Doctor and the above, hoping that I will continue to almost continue like I was before.
nooper
Family Member
Posts: 25
Joined: Mon Nov 07, 2011 5:03 pm

Re: My regimen

Post by nooper »

Thank you for sharing, and that is excellent that you are doing better and almost at 100%. I am also going to go the diet route as I know that my diet when I started getting symptoms was not good.

It sounds that the diet route is about as good as the drugs from what I have read, and will not have any negative side effects. Besides, I think overall health will benefit from a good diet, using the drugs or not.
kally
Newbie
Posts: 9
Joined: Sun Feb 12, 2012 5:10 pm

Re: My regimen

Post by kally »

I see you take melatonin. Is there any reason that people with MS would be recommended NOT to take it? Thanks
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jimmylegs
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Posts: 12592
Joined: Sat Mar 11, 2006 3:00 pm

Re: My regimen

Post by jimmylegs »

hi kally, if you take melatonin without addressing a potential underlying magnesium problem, it could be somewhat troublesome. ie, the body should be using magnesium to make melatonin, but if there isn't enough magnesium available, while at the same time an external supplemental source of melatonin is supplied, that outside melatonin could end up acting as a crutch of sorts.

ms patients tend to be lower in magnesium. to me, pastry's low energy levels and need for melatonin red flag a potential magnesium issue. i'd be inclined to up the magnesium intake in food and if needed in supplement form also. with complementary supportive other foods/nutrients to support absorption/utilization.

the normal range for serum magnesium is too wide by at least half - you definitely want to be in the upper half of the 0.70-1.10 mmol/L range.

there's plenty of info out there on good dietary sources of magnesium. also, just fyi, supplementing magnesium can be challenging. i have found magnesium glycinate to be the best form, so far at least.

a snippet of research:
Dietary magnesium deficiency decreases plasma melatonin in rats.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17172005
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