This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Knowledge & Support Community

yum for sweet potatoes! might buy some tomorrow.
also, today i had a fairly good day. was able to walk a lot a lot without anything but knees-buckling. also whenever i stand i can't keep my balance right.
also bladder problems re-emerging.
but i can walk today and i can use my arms. so it's a good day~

i got enough energy to clean tonight and my only symptoms today were severe lack of balance and knee-buckling. yay me!

that's great! my knee buckling was very specific to b12 deficiency. here is a list of b12-rich foods so that you can compare to your current diet:

by % daily value:
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tnam ... t&dbid=107

by nutrient density:
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tnam ... oodsources

this is about the only one i've ever seen where the top 3 are the same regardless of outright amount vs nutrient density. either way, sardines, salmon (both 'excellent') and venison ('very good') are the winners! also shrimp, scallops ('very good'), and lamb, cod, halibut, and beef (very good) need to make an appearance, otherwise you get what happened to me -

Subacute combined degeneration of the spinal cord caused by vitamin B12 deficiency. Report of 11 cases
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15693200

thank you jimmylegs! i'm going shopping today. i'll be sure to pick up some of those foods.
also, i remembered that my aunt has MS as well as my mom. i don't know how i forgot that. so two people in the family with MS.

okay great! if you can afford to eat salmon 1-2 times per week (fresh or frozen is way better than tinned) it should do good on a few different levels, not just b12

i've come down with a cold. edgerhgetahe and awwwwhhh salmon sounds so good. i live in wyoming, way far away from any fresh salmon, but i'll definitely be picking up some frozen. so what i'm getting from this thread is i want to eat more -
-sweet potatoes
-salmon.
what else can i pick up at the grocery store?
(btw THANK YOU for these suggestions- along with more frequent exercise these food tips may help me lose weight.)

ew it sucks to be fighting a cold :S

for your immune system (supporting it is beneficial on so many levels!), one idea is to choose foods rich in zinc. zinc helps your body function on so many different pathways, it's amazing.

you'll notice some repeats here...

only calf's liver is listed as an 'excellent' source, but personally i have not found that in the grocery store yet. beef liver, yes. calf's liver, no.

other than calf's liver...

highest zinc foods by straight amount ie % daily value
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tnam ... t&dbid=115
(venison is 'very good', beef, lamb, scallops, pumpkin seeds, and sesame seeds are 'good')

highest zinc foods by nutrient density (not sure about bioavailability of veg sources)
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tnam ... oodsources
(crimini mushrooms, venison, spinach - all 'very good')

i will send you some more links in a bit - dark leafy greens coming soon

this isn't relevant to MS, but i'm breaking out in white bumps on my arms.about the size of a penny? the bumps vary in size, some are big like that, and some are small. they seem to break out in rash formation without a bite. (i'm paranoid about whether i have bugs biting me.) the bumps itch and turn red and eventually scab over and i can pick at them so they no longer itch. i should mention that some of them show up as blisters.
any ideas, anyone?
i would think bites if they had a bite site or if they happened when bugs were around but... i have about twenty white spots on my right arm right now of varying sizes and they are very itchy and kinda freak me out.
they also occur on my back and hips.

everything's relevant imho.. any possibility of your posting a picture of the bumps on your arm?

they've gone away mostly. my friend thinks they're shingles. i'll post a picture later tonight but i think they're all turning red. as soon as i can i'll take a picture of my hand.

shingles outbreak:


are they anything like that, at the start?

JL – I had shingles long ago. My case was not anything like the picture you show; I had just a couple blisters around my waist, and man, did they itch! Fortunately, after several weeks they went away. My good friend's mother had shingles near her eye; she was troubled for YEARS; I think her vision is STILL affected.

okay to clarify fg, can you find an online shingles image that looks like a match for your case? the above is one of many.

some of them are like that, yes. the bubbles look EXACTLY like that. but then some of them are just white bumps that turn red and look like bug bites and then scab over after i pick at them. i know they're not bug bites now, because they happened while i was with my friends tonight in their house just sitting around. big white bumps that turn red.
some of them are just like the picture, though , yeah.

ah ok. well, you can go on google image search and put in shingles herpes zoster, or shingles varicella zoster, and see all the different images out there (some of them look BAD!!). regardless, if it is in fact shingles, then antiviral nutrition would be a logical go-to from my perspective. selenium would be a good one, for starters:

Serum selenium concentrations in rheumatoid arthritis.
http://scholar.google.ca/scholar?hl=en& ... _sdt=1%2C5
"Selenium has been shown to have anti- proliferative, anti-inflammatory, antiviral, and immune altering effects"

High risk of HIV-related mortality is associated with selenium deficiency
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9342257
"Subclinical malnutrition (i.e., overly low levels of prealbumin, deficiency of vitamin A, vitamin B12 deficiency, zinc deficiency, and selenium deficiency over time)... were shown to each be associated with HIV-1-related mortality" "...selenium deficiency is an independent predictor of survival for those with HIV-1 infection."

right now i'm battling a cold virus, because i ate too much wheat recently at the same time as i was trying to cut back on supplements. i'm keeping it at bay with some success, using high doses of vit A, C, E8 complex, selenium, and zinc. plus lots of good whole food