This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Knowledge & Support Community

My husband has had problems with bowel urgency for around 15 years. Onset probably occurred after a visit to a zoo, which resulted in severe sickness and diahorrea. Typical man never admitted that there was a problem. 15 years later he has now MS, in our quest for answers we have tried various different alternative treatments. Atlas realignment, which was beneficial, ACMOS which rebuilds energy levels and consultations with holistic practitioners who have suggested that he may be suffering from a 'leaky gut', he has since started taking very high doses of top quality probiotics and found a vast improvement. I have done some research on the association between leaky gut and MS and found quite a few interesting papers. I just wonder if anyone else has had a similar experience?

Have you looked into bacteriotheraphy/ fecal transplant? This is quite new but the idea is that there is a connection between inflamatory/ immune disesases and guts colonised by 'bad' bacteria. The procedure has been used with success at treating hospital infections such c-diff and also chrons. Some of the science behind it relevant to MS.

The patient takes a course of antibiotics to reduce their existing gut bacteria and they then receive a replacement, more healthy set of bacteria, placed directly in the colon. The new bacteria is an infusion from the stool of a healthy donor. Of course, there is quite a big yuck factor in this but helps to look at it as an ultimate probiotic! Also it is not yet widely commercially available.....

My feeling it that it could be particularly relevant where MS follows previous gastro symptoms or a life event that could have affected gut flora (e.g. treatments for other illnesses).

Have you considered he may have gotten something from the zoo? Has he been tested for a few things?

These thoughts have crossed my mind, I do wonder now whether he should have had more tests done x

I too have been wondering if this may have triggered my MS. 4 years ago I got really sick, my stomach hurt all the time and I would throw up often. I wasn't able to eat food without feeling sick. I was unwell for a year and the doctors weren't able to give me any answers. In the end they thought I had a bug that damaged my digestive system.

I have to say I have had ms for many many years and can't say I have had too many stomach issues. I have had many poyps removed. I have a big family history of colon cancer.
If I did have your history I would really follow up on it though.. best wishes with it.. it seems worth the path.......

For now the high dose probiotics bought online from a company called 'Neways' seemed to be doing the trick. My husband has also been attending the HBO unit and after the first visit we have all noticed a difference, his eyesight, balance and bladder have all improved.

My husband was diagnosed last September, by June our neurologist thought he had made all the recovery possible and remarked that it was inconclusive to whether he had reached secondary stages. When my husband told her he was still getting new feelings each day, she laughed and said, 'I don't think that is possible' You can imagine how he went home feeling.

Anyway heres October and we have seen a vast improvement, family, friends and neighbours have all made comments recently about how well he's looking!!

Has anyone experienced improvements a year past their last relapse?

I was diagnosed with Crohn's disease in late 80's with MS diagnosis in 2003. I am currently suffering from B12 deficiency/malabsorption even though I use injectable B12 twice/week and my serum B12 is sky-high. I've read that there is not one MS symptom that cannot also be explained by a b12 deficiency. I also think that I have some degree of gluten sensitivity. I have many, many questions!

Sorry to hear about all your problems 'Point North'. To understand my husbands 'leaky gut' I envisaged it as pouring water into a bucket with holes. All vitamins and minerals would not be probably absorbed, therefore deficiencies would occur. Foods would not be properly digested, pass through the wall gut into the BBB as toxins and cause problems in the CNS. The probiotics he has taken seemed to have helped repair the holes (I think?) his bowel habits appear to be returning to normal after years of problems. Therefore his vitamin levels may be stabilising. He has also started the HBO treatment and responding really well, for the first time in over a year I am starting to think he looks almost back to normal. As I said in a previous post his consultant was questioning whether in had reach secondary progressive in June.

I have read that probiotics may be beneficial in those with Crohn's and food sensitivities. The type he takes has 2.88 billion viable* cells per capsule, which is high strength. Apparently these cartons of Actimel drinks etc that you buy at the supermarket will have little or no affect.

I am not a trained medical professional so I may be completely wrong, but I don't care as something is working!!

Hi Donna,

I've used on Probiotic with some positive results. Not particularly cheap . . . It's called FLORASTOR. I like to use when I'm traveling.

http://florastor.ca/florastor-information/

PN

here are the results of a forum search on the terms +zinc +tight +junctions :

http://www.thisisms.com/forum/search.ph ... mit=Search

tight junctions hold the intestine together and when they fail you get leaky gut aka intestinal/membrane permeability.

zinc deficiency leads to broken tight junctions and from there leaky gut... optimal serum zinc levels are available via my sig links (below)

hth!

With regards to the 'zinc' my husband suffered from white spots on his fingernails during his teenage years!! An indicator of a zinc deficiency!!

i just did a quick lit review on this and the studies looking at this possible connection go back to the sixties. thus i found this recent study's assertion interesting:

Leukonychia on finger nails as a marker of calcium and/or zinc deficiency
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1 ... x/abstract
"Popular lay media claim that the aetiology of leukonychia (white spots) on finger nails is due to calcium and/or zinc (McKeith, 2008; Holford, 1998) deficiency. No studies are available in scientific literature to support or refute these claims."

i wonder if mckeith and/or holford cited any of the older research... regardless, the work is out there.

Zinc and Vitamin D seem to be synergistic and one helps the function of the other.
We often hear stories of those living in the far north having limited vitamin D due to lack of sunlight, however the zinc part is very much played down.
My husband an April birthday, brought up in the far north of Scotland, had Leukonychia on his nails during childhood, a leaky gut and then went onto develop multiple sclerosis. Is this all a coincidence or has anyone had a similar experience?

BTW studies suggest an April birthdate in Scotland is at the greatest chance of developing ms in Scotland.

searching serum zinc cholecalciferol together has not turned up much in the way of useful studies for me, to date. but the other day there was a post made here linking the two - finally!
Vitamin D supplementation modulates blood and tissue zinc, liver glutathione and blood biochemical parameters in diabetic rats on a zinc-deficient diet.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22410949

in my case i was looking at things the other way around - my d3 absorption tripled after correcting zinc deficiency. and it does appear that adequate d3 status can be protective against zinc deficiency effects.

zinc's benefits far exceed its interactions with d3... i think we're on the cusp of a huge upswing in mainstream awareness, re zinc's recognized importance in the scientific community. d3 is the perfect gateway, since it's on everyone's radar nowadays.