[attach id=263060 size="medium"]Multiple Sclerosis is a difficult disease to diagnose accurately.[/attach]
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a difficult disease to diagnose accurately. A diagnosis is based on clinical criteria, such as scarring within the central nervous system, which can be detected by an MRI scan.
However, other diseases can also cause scarring. Lyme disease not only causes similar scarring, but also mimics the same symptoms as MS. In an analysis of 55 patients diagnosed with MS, three were found to have Lyme disease instead, which suggests that up to six per cent of all MS patients may be wrongly diagnosed (Med. Clin., 1990).
In a separate case study of a Brazilian woman, aged 45, she had been treated for MS for 15 years before doctors found evidence of Lyme disease in a blood sample.
Patrick Kingsley treated more than 9,000 MS patients; in almost every case, he achieved a dramatic improvement and often complete remission
An MRI scan of her brain revealed MS-like lesions (Arq. Neuropsiquiatr.,1994). Researchers from the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society point out that Lyme disease has now become a common infection, and one that mimics the symptoms of MS.
Patrick Kingsley treated more than 9,000 MS patients from his surgery in a tiny village in Leicestershire in the UK, until he retired a few years ago. In almost every case, he achieved a dramatic improvement and often complete remission.
He found that MS usually manifested in one of two possible ways: as functional MS, where the muscles do not perform properly; and as sensory MS, whereby the patient feels numbness and pins and needles. Some patients, however, suffered both types of symptoms.
As treatment, Dr Kingsley used two main approaches – dietary and lifestyle, together with intravenous infusions of high dose vitamins. He also manipulated his patients’ jaws on occasions with remarkable success. Sensory MS appeared to respond better to the infusions and to the removal of amalgam fillings than to dietary changes.
He believes MS may be caused by a range of factors, including food intolerance, toxic metals, pesticides, food additives and nutritional deficiencies (especially vitamins B12, D and magnesium). Other causes include infections, stress and hormonal imbalances.
The dietary approach would include detective work to determine which foods caused the MS. Foods to avoid were dairy, caffeine, alcohol, refined and white flour products, sugar, all foods and drinks with chemical additives and, possibly, all red meat.
Instead, the patient was asked to eat lots of vegetables, salads, nuts, seeds, wholegrains, fish (especially oily fish), chicken, bottled mineral water and herbal teas. Dr Kingsley is currently preparing his book, The New Medicine, which outlines his entire approach and treatment protocols across a range of illnesses.
Roy Swank, a neurologist at the Oregon Health and Sciences University in Portland, the US, was one of the first to identify a link between geographical location (where we live and the amount of sunshine we are exposed to), poor diet and MS.
Dr Swank, who died in 2008 at the age of 99, discovered that MS was rare in the coastal regions of Norway (where his first researches took place in 1948). He also found that MS was nine times more likely in the mountain regions.
Unsurprisingly, those living along the coast ate a diet that was rich in seafood, while those living in the isolated mountain region tended to eat more meat, milk, eggs and cheese (Trans. Am. Neurol. Assoc., 1950).
His assumptions were that MS could be reversed by eating a low-fat diet, a theory that was proven over the years in a group of 150 MS sufferers who agreed to follow such a regime. Swank stayed in touch with this group until the year 2000.
Charles Poser, a neurologist at Harvard Medical School, found that the MS rates in Hawaii vary wildly among the various ethnic groups living there. Caucasians who were born in California but who moved to the islands have three times the rate of MS when compared with Caucasians born and raised there.
Alternatively, Hawaiian-born Japanese have triple the rate of MS, compared with Japanese people born and raised in Japan (Neurology, 1971). Poser concluded that some people are genetically susceptible to MS.
Some never develop it, but those exposed to environmental triggers will do so. The trigger could be anything from infection, vaccination or a high-fat diet to inadequate exposure to sunshine.
Poser and Swank have established MS is not an autoimmune disease, but an autoimmune response. Such a response (which may include poor blood circulation) is likely to be triggered by a viral infection such a shingles or chickenpox, a high-fat diet, food intolerance, a nutritional deficiency or parasites.
Therefore, this means that MS is not progressive and incurable, but a response that may be stopped once the cause has been identified and reversed. Poser has also demonstrated that, on its own, simply having a genetic proclivity is not enough to trigger MS.
There could be further questions asked about other autoimmune diseases such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s instead of merely treating the symptoms.
kathryn@maltanet.net