Last week we looked at the triggers for multiple sclerosis (MS) sufferers.
Having discussed what foods should be avoided, let’s take a look at the foods that could help the condition. Once again, the list is full of healthy options: lots of vegetables (raw if possible or steamed); lots of fruit; salad products; nuts, seeds and some spices; wholegrains; fish, especially oily types such as salmon, mackerel and sardines; chicken, turkey and wild game; quality water (filtered or bottled in a glass); caffeine-free herbal teas; soya, rice, oat and nut milks; and organic food.
For MS sufferers, the damage to the central nervous system could have been long term. When you change your diet and your habits, don’t expect immediate results.
The changes you may find are a better night’s sleep, more efficient bowels and niggling headaches will become less and less. Skin will improve over a matter of months and your face will look healthier.
Some patients might notice improvements in MS symptoms shortly after changing their eating habits. However, if no changes are seen within a three-month period, then it is possible other major lifestyle changes may need to be made. Food changes are always subjective. Your body will tell you if the food you’re eating is suitable and it is important to note the symptoms.
On a positive note, the muscles may become less stiff, or don’t spasm so easily. You may walk better and in a straighter line and some sensory symptoms may diminish.
As with any major changes to diet, there may be evidence of caffeine withdrawal, usually in the shape of headaches. You may feel more tired than usual, which could be due to toxins being flushed out of the system.
All these symptoms are temporary and should only last a few days, a week at the most. Counteract with drinking plenty of good-quality water.
Withdrawal headaches can be due to the tissues releasing acidic chemicals and half a teaspoon of pure sodium bicarbonate in a glass of water can neutralise the acid.
Certain supplements can help. These include vitamin D3; probiotics (especially if you have taken antibiotics over a period of time), which will replenish the friendly gut bacteria killed off by the medication; a good-quality multivitamin/mineral; omega-3 essential fatty acids, which are anti-inflammatory; vitamin B12, which is important for nerve tissue; magnesium, especially necessary for functional MS patients; antioxidants, especially if free radicals have influenced your condition; and, if you suffer from a low thyroid, there are supplements for thyroid and adrenal glands.
There is more information in Patrick Kingsley’s book The New Medicine: A Modern Approach to Clinical Illness (SureScreen Life Sciences). Kingsley has treated MS sufferers for many years and has written this book based on his patients’ experiences.
There is a further connection to be considered, and that is the amalgam connection. Amalgam dental fillings could be the cause of MS and they could contribute to the worsening of symptoms. These fillings (which include mercury, a highly toxic metal) can affect a MS patient’s mental health, making them more depressed, hostile, psychotic and obsessive-compulsive.
When researcher R. L. Siblerud at the Rocky Mountain Research Institute in Colorado, US, assessed the mental health of 47 MS patients with amalgam fillings and compared them with 50 patients whose fillings had been removed, those with amalgam fillings had 43 per cent more symptoms compared to those who were free of such fillings (Psychol. Rep., 1992).
As a possible cause of MS, when researchers did a systematic search of the literature and pooled a range of relevant studies published between 1966 and 2006, they found a slight but consistent association between amalgam fillings and MS (J. Public Health Dent., 2007).
Gaining information and changing lifestyles can only be a good start towards a positive change
There are many other research theories regarding the cause of MS. The prevalence of MS was sometimes almost twice as high in places with low levels of sunlight in one research trial. A professor in vascular diseases, Paolo Zamboni, whose wife began to suffer from MS, also found that most of the studies he had researched revealed very high levels of iron in the brains of sufferers.
More significantly, the veins that carry blood away from the brain were twisted and obstructed in up to 90 per cent of MS patients.
These blockages caused blood to flow back into the brain, leaving behind iron deposits, which might possibly be a cause of the associated inflammation and autoimmune reactions.
Therefore, MS may fundamentally be a vascular disease, argued the professor. His wife became a guinea pig, undertaking pioneering surgery to unblock the veins near to her brain.
Astonishingly, her symptoms disappeared immediately, as have hundreds of other patients who have undergone Zamboni’s surgical technique, which he calls ‘liberation treatment’ (J. Vasc. Surg., 2009). Following a refining of the operation, some had relapses, while others were relapse-free. This procedure is ongoing and still being refined in the US.
Ultimately, there are so many triggers, lifestyle changes and offers of information and advice that it can be difficult for MS sufferers to decide how to proceed.
Gaining information and changing lifestyles can only be a good start towards a positive change.
kathryn@maltanet.net