This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Knowledge & Support Community

Want2bike, I am glad that there are people out there that actually agree with me regarding my theory of something happening when people hold their breath and that too much acid is evil to human body. I remember once I was reading about somebody selling water that is supposed to alkalize your body, I thought it was funny. Now I might just buy some myself.
When Jimmy mentioned zinc I thought what is he talking about? What is zinc? All I knew is ABCDE and Potassium. Finally when I started reading about zinc and then magnesium I realized I have to start at the end of the alphabet. I can’t add too much magnesium because we are eating a lot of spinach, almost every day so I don’t know if we need more. But zinc was the missing piece. And zinc supplementation is used to cure stomach ulcers. Who knew.
Rick, have a blood test so you know how much you really need of each mineral. This way you won’t take too much. You might need to take zinc and magnesium but you can start now and see how you are feeling. I would like to see how other people are feeling, I have probably half of my acid gone because of the changes in diet so it may be easier for me.
Jimmy, I have a question for you about calcium. When they test for calcium and we know that every time the body needs calcium it just takes the calcium from the bones. So if your body takes the calcium from bones your test may show calcium levels are okay while they may not be. I am interested in the low levels of vitamin D in people with MS. Since vitamin D mostly aides calcium absorption if vitamin D is low shouldn’t the calcium be as well?

I just found out there is more to my theory of acid reflux than just meets the eye. It turns out that many divers are experiencing acid reflux episodes while under water. Some of them when they come up are very sick and/or vomit. We are not talking here about old ladies, we are talking about young, athletic individuals who have never experienced acid reflux before. Divers are breathing under water, when you dive or swim 2 feet under water in the pool or even ocean you will experience different reflux. Since divers are getting brain lesions and my daughter after swimming in the pool got one too, I believe there is much bigger connection with acid and the autoimmune diseases than we think.

Another thing is calcium and vitamin D. I used to have low vit. D two years ago. The doctor didn’t give me supplements but told me to buy them but I didn’t buy any pills. At that time I didn’t think anything about it but I spend 2 hours/day outside. I walk my dogs every day and then myself. I live in California where we have 350 days of sunshine. It would be impossible for me to not to have enough vit.D. At the same time I was taking lower doses of acid reflux medicine and started developing issues with my muscles. I started eating more bananas and kiwis and surprisingly all that went away. Now I know that the symptoms could have been related to the low levels of vitamin D. And here is the kicker. I had minor surgery at that time so I remember when all this was happening and I have all prescribed meds. After surgery I got sick and vomited and the doctor prescribed me higher dose of acid reflux meds so before I took another vit. D test I was taking the meds for maybe two and half months and my vitamin D level came back normal. And it has been normal since. How could that happen?
No supplements, no special diet for vit. D and the levels went up by itself? And that brings me to calcium. I think the calcium levels in the body are responsible for vit. D levels. If calcium is up the vitamin D will be down, the calcium level goes down vitamin D goes up and so forth.
Yesterday, I have read that calcium causes brain lesions in elderly. More studies are needed on the subject but it makes sense that if there is enough calcium in the body the system will lower vitamin D to prevent absorption of calcium. The doctors push calcium and vitamin D supplements in the elders and that causes them more harm than good. And since calcium is responsible for buffering the acid inside your body if you don’t control it in the stomach, that creates more demand for calcium, the body takes calcium from bones, the levels are coming dangerously close to high, the vitamin D levels are being lowered and eventually the system crashes. Some people will develop arthritis, some MS, some others lesions from diving, some from age, but all roads lead to acid in the stomach and most people don’t have symptoms, they don’t feel it so they don’t control it.

just an fyi.. higher calcium intake interferes with zinc status. if you have low zinc your body doesn't produce as much of the vit d3 form that typically gets measured in tests.

Thanks Jimmy, I make sure it doesn't. We don't take any supplements in pill form, now it's only food.

Well, we are back to square one. As of yesterday evening we both got our acid back. It appears like is much less effective though. I only had puffs of acidic air or gas not the usual burning and my daughter had a little bit of cough but it is back and I had to start taking the acid pills and also give my daughter hers. My eczema was so booking good but yesterday I was squeezing a lemon and the juice spilled on my finger. It was horrible but this morning that finger looks good but the finger next to it is burning itchy.
I have no choice with the acid medicine; I get rid of it for a while and it always comes back. Even though our diets are incomparable with our diets in the past. This is not something to get rid of easily. My next step is to plan things according to their nutritional values. Beef liver party to get some cooper and selenium before the zinc destroys it, seaweed bash for iodine, oyster luau for zinc, nuts gala for everything they have to offer and bean feast to get some molybdenum, after that we’ll have seafood buffet and meat banquet. Of course all main dishes will be accompanied by all the needed vitamins and minerals and trace minerals and antioxidants not named here. If this is not going to work I don’t know what will.

ugh bad news. any chance of measuring some serum nutrient levels?
also, i don't recall whether you already have whfoods.com on your radar, for helping select nutrient-dense healthy options? the nutrient rating charts are excellent. i like that you can see mgs per serving of the various choices.

I am still here, still breathing and busy experimenting with foods and I have new discovery that might help many of you. It is FAT.
It is unbelievable but by adding fatty chicken broth changed our lives. This time I waited 2 weeks before chirping about it. My daughter has weak teeth and nails so I wanted to help her with that and I stumbled on dr. Price’s therapy with beef/chicken broth and added fats from butter which was a big no no in our diets. So I started cooking the heavy broth with the skin, meat and bones, then I would discard the skin and use the meat in our or our dog’s meals. The broth goes to the fridge and we sip it every day. I don’t understand how but our acid issue stopped dead. I have not taken my acid pill for the last 14 days and I have no discomfort, burning, pain absolutely nothing. I sleep like a baby. I continue to lose small amounts of weight and I am doing it being full all day long. I have never felt better. After years of living in pain and discomfort I am finally free of it all. And what’s more important, if I miss the broth one day, nothing happens, I am still symptom-free.

My daughter finished her Prednisone with zero side effects. She has even more energy now than after eating oysters, no inflammation of any kind, no hives after showering but she still has the problem with her eye, so I am thinking of giving her grape seed extract and see if it helps. She hasn’t coughed or felt uncomfortable at all for the past 14 days so I know we are doing something good and I am going to slowly reduce the amount of her acid reflux medicine. I don’t think she needs the medicine at all but I am not taking any chances.

So to all acid reflux sufferers out there, your pain is history! Cook some broth, drink it and start enjoying your lives again. It starts working immediately and it lasts long time. And of course it tastes great.

I have a question re: grape seed extract for optic neuritis. Can I give it to a 13 year old and how much, and since red grapes are not helping her is there anything else that I could give her instead of the supplement?

glad you are having success! fat has been so demonized when the fact is, so many of our essential nutrients are fat soluble, and we need those fatty acids too..

I don't know about grape seed extract but.. it could be VERY useful to do some blood work on a few things, to find out which levels are up satisfactorily and whether you still have a ways to go on anything.

measuring is important to any regimen b/c there is the danger of striking the balance but then continuing on past it and ending up on the other side of the teeter totter as it were.

I still can't believe that fat could actually get rid of acid problem. We are seeing the doctor this week and hopefully we'll get all the tests done. But I am going on vacation next week so I will have some results in couple of weeks. I had to get rid of so much food and now I have so much space in the pantry, I don't actually need the pantry because we are not eating anything packaged. Everything has to be prepared fresh and at home. I like the new way of cooking, it's much simpler than before, and we don't feel hungry like before. Right now we go from breakfast to lunch without snacking and we don't miss it. In fact when I eat too much fruits I don't feel good. Two servings of fruit each day is enough for me. My daughter made huge progress too. She doesn't miss her chips anymore and she also doesn't care for snacking between meals. But she is full of energy and she is visibly healthier.
So, as soon as I get the test results I will post them. Wish me luck in Vegas, I'll try to hit the BIG one.

glad everyone is feeling better! have a great vacation

Jimmy, I would like you to make a list of all the vitamins/minerals that my daughter should get tested. The doctor told me to prepare the list and they'll order it. Can you tell me what should be on the list? Believe it or not when she was at the hospital and they were drawing her blood every day, they have never tested for vitamin B12 or any other vitamin/mineral. I am so mad! They only tested vit.D. Since you are going to analyze it all for me then I thought you should decide what needs to be tested. Her vitamin D was on the low side -25. I was giving her 4000IU's then I started giving her cod liver oil so I lowered it to 2000. We are going to re-check it. Other than that the doctor has no idea what other vitamins or minerals my child is deficient in. Her PCP also said they were missing a copy of her last blood test. I am not surprised, they just test the hemoglobin. What a waste of money!

sure thing! fyi ran into a hangup recently, someone had 'spectracell analysis' done, but I can't use that. checked the methodology. it still compares one's values against other *patient* 'normals' ie not healthy controls. and I can't find any healthy spectracell data in the research. none. so, I will defs need serum tests in order to assess the results. just so you're aware.

re a list, can you check over the info in this post?
www.thisisms.com/ftopict-2489.html
it might have what you need. let me know if it doesn't.
while you're doing that i'll go back and read over your daughter's history again, see if there's anything else that should be added.

update?

Sorry, I was a little busy, then vacation and today we finally have done some tests. I won't have the results until the end of this week or maybe even until next week.
But I do have a question today, last year my daughter started feeling some crackling in her right knee when she bends it, no pain. I think she'll maybe have arthritis in that knee. Anyway, the doctor decided to wait and see. And now everything that is happening to her is happening on the right side of her body. She had tingling on her right side, the optic neuritis in her right eye and the right knee crackling it seems like all this is somehow connected. Do people with ms experience knee problems like this as well? Any ideas? I am going to ask the doctor to order a scan on that knee and see what's going on but the crackling appeared first last year at the end of the Summer. Could this be part of ms or something else?

I can't quite get my head around how this sidedness thing could be particularly scientific when it comes to nutrition .. one of these days i'm really going to have to dig through acu cell and see where it comes from exactly .. so much of the content on this site makes perfect sense so when it comes to the sidedness concept, i'm very curious about it..

but either way, this is the only thing that readily comes to mind re 'sidedness' of issues and nutrition:

Left-Sided Headaches vs Right-Sided Headaches
http://www.acu-cell.com/dis-hea.html#sided

How does one prevent left-sided or right-sided Muscle Spasms?
http://www.acu-cell.com/dis-mus.html#05

The effect of high doses of Vitamin C on Copper, Zinc, Manganese, and Calcium
http://www.acu-cell.com/vitc.html#copper

Thanks Jimmy for providing me with the new literature. I think that everything that is happening to my daughter is connected to fat or luck of it. Because my daughter was fat deficient in her diet I have to look at fat soluble vitamins. Like vitamin D, A, E and K. She has problem with the eye, low vitamin D, weak teeth and nails so I am sure luck of fat has something to do with this. And this is why she feels so much better now because she has to eat fat before anything else. Why is all that is happening to her only happening on one side, I don’t know but I will find out somehow. For now I am hoping it will end soon.