The MS Recovery Diet
Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2008 11:50 am
This book, The MS Recovery Diet by Ann D. Sawyer and Judith E. Bachrach, expresses many unconventional ideas.
On the general attitude toward MS by medicine and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society:
They credit Dr. Roy Swank, Roger MacDougall, Judi Graham, and Ashton Embry with the courage to pioneer their idea of diet in the face of the medical establishment and to share their ideas.
They offer basic facts about MS (no references though!); for example,
I found their descriptions of symptoms helpful. In fact, I found much info in the first 6 chapters interesting, but I find their diet too restrictive. With my focus on excess insulin, I'll stick with the Atkins plan.
As they wrote,
On the general attitude toward MS by medicine and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society:
The authors relate their recovery (and others') with diet (no dairy, no gluten-containing grains, no legumes, no eggs, no yeast) and offer hope of a return to normalcy to us.Contrast ours to the MS world of allopathic medicine and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS), where progress is defined as the slowing of the progressive downward spiral into disability. By their understanding, after the disease has developed to secondary progressive and symptoms remain constant, there is permanent damage and scarring, which can't be reversed, and abilities lost, which can't be restored. NMSS literature focuses on the best medications to help manage symptoms, showcases wheelchairs and other health aids, and offers advice on how to talk to your doctor. Scientific journal articles describe the irreversible nerve damage done by MS. They cite new drugs on the horizon that really promise no more than do the current offerings designed to slow the progression of the disease. The literature makes valiant efforts to put a happy face on the MS world by featuring people who have made the best of life despite their handicaps, but those articles usually fall short. The MS world of conventional medicine does not include any promise of recovery or control; indeed, it has delivered only spotty results in stopping the progression.
They credit Dr. Roy Swank, Roger MacDougall, Judi Graham, and Ashton Embry with the courage to pioneer their idea of diet in the face of the medical establishment and to share their ideas.
They offer basic facts about MS (no references though!); for example,
Then why is there the MAJOR preoccupation with the number of lesions?In a second, related disease pathway, recently identified and not well understood, the axons, which are the long fibers of the nerve, are destroyed within the normal-looking white and gray matter. This second process is the primary source of disability. It was previously thought that disability was caused by lesions on the spinal cord or brain.
I found their descriptions of symptoms helpful. In fact, I found much info in the first 6 chapters interesting, but I find their diet too restrictive. With my focus on excess insulin, I'll stick with the Atkins plan.
As they wrote,
Maybe diet is our ultimate answer.Over its history, MS has been referred to as a vascular disease, an infectious disease, a genetic disease, an environmental disease, an allergic disease, an inflammatory disease, and an autoimmune disease. There is evidence for each case.