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Below is what I've collected on diet and MS. The real focus should be on getting the gluten and casein out of the diet.
- Roger MacDougall was a famous British playwright, who was diagnosed
with MS in the 1950's. The doctors felt it was best to keep the information
from him. They thought it was in his best interests not to tell him what he
had. It was not until he was bedridden that he learned what illness he had.
When he knew about it, he did some reading, and went on a gluten and casein
free diet. He recovered almost totally. MacDougall eventually wrote a
pamphlet. Edited for the web and now found here:
My Fight Against Multiple Sclerosis. [now in archive.org] Pamphlet published 1980 by Regenics
Inc, Rt. 10, 2660 Touby Road, Mansfield Ohio 44903, Telephone (419) 756-2994
(Cost $2).
- In the Oct. 5, 1974, Lancet, Dr. Norman A. Matheson's letter "Multiple
Sclerosis and Diet" was published on p. 831, wherein he outlined his having
been diagnosed with MS and subsequently reading Roger MacDougall's story.
He then described his return to good health and ended with: "I thank Roger
MacDougall, whose diet made it possible to carry out these observations."
- At Chet Day's site can be found two articles by Ashton Embry: Multiple Sclerosis and Food
Hypersensitivities and
The Critical Need for Dietary Research into the Cause and Progression of
Multiple Sclerosis.
- Betty Iams' site includes Suggestions for
the Newly Diagnosed, which starts with: "at the least eliminating
gluten, all dairy, animal fat and processed sugar." Then goes on with
more recommendations.
- Multiple Sclerosis, The Blood Brain Barrier, and New
Treatment by Timothy R. Stout says there are three related chemicals
which have been found effective in strengthening the blood-brain barrier in
animals. These are the anthocyanosides, proanthocyanidins, and procyanidolic
oligomers (PCOs). All three of these are variants of a common class of
chemicals called "flavonoids." Also see his MS Page. [now in archive.org]
- John Pageler has a description of The Modified Swank Lo-fat Diet. He limits less fats than Dr. Swank, and he uses absolutely no milk products.
- Linda tells her story My
Experience with MS and Route to being Symptom Free. She took supplements
and removed foods that she had positive ELISA tests to. [now in archive.org]
- Jacque Rigg used trial and error to find the foods that were bothering
her. See an
article in the National Enquirer, and the Amazon reviews on her book Curing the
Incurable.
- Wendy's MS site has Swank Diet Information, a brief summary of the diet.
- Canes Undercover has articles on Benefits of a low fat diet and vitamins for MS. [now in archive.org]
- Glenna's Tests and Methods for My Natural "Program" includes a diet component.
- W.J. Lutz, MD in "The Colonisation of Europe and Our Western Diseases"
(Medical Hypotheses, Vol. 45, pages 115-120, 1995) argues that there is a clear, inverse relationship between
civilisatory diseases and the length of time the people of a given region
of Europe have had to adapt to the high carbohydrate diet associated with
the cultivation of cereal grains that was begun in the Near East, and
spread very slowly through Europe. A quote from the first page of the
article: "In over thirty years of clinical practice, I have found, as published in
numerous papers and several books (3, 4), that diet works well against
Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, multiple sclerosis, heart failure,
acne and other problems." The webmaster can e-mail a copy of the article text to those requesting.
- An excerpt from: Cordain L, Cereal Grains: Humanity's Double Edged Sword. World Review of Nutrition & Dietetics, 1999;84:19-73. See full article here.
- In Researchers Determine That MS And Diabetes Are Closely Linked Diseases they point out the role cow milk protein plays as a risk factor in the development of both diseases for people who are genetically susceptible.
- The Neurology WebForum at Mass General Hospital had Ashtom Embry
posting on article on DIRECT-MS. See many followups. [now in archive.org]
- University of
Maryland Researchers Discover "Key" to Blood-Brain Barrier is a press
release on the identification of a receptor in the human brain that regulates
the interface between the bloodstream and the brain.
- Researchers
find increased zonulin levels among celiac disease patients is an alert
of a study published in The Lancet. Suggest that increased levels of zonulin
are a contributing factor to the development of MS.
- "MS-Something Can Be Done and You Can Do It." by Dr. Robert W. Soll
Dr. Soll's theory is that the body produces "endotoxins" when an "allergic
food is consumed (this can take as long as three days). These "endotoxins"
cause "myelin delamination/destruction".
- Multiple Sclerosis: The Evers Therapy discusses the success a German doctor had using nutritional therapy, mostly a diet of only unprocessed and mostly uncooked foods.
- Multiple Sclerosis discusses Dr. Klenner's vitamin protocol. He used unusually large quantities of nutrients, especially thiamin.
- Multiple Sclerosis - The Immune System's Terrible Mistake by Peter Riskind, M.D., PH.D. mentions the "molecular mimicry" theory, but fails to see a connection with food being a possible trigger.
- DIRECT-MS(DIet REsearch into the Cause and Treatment of Multiple
Sclerosis) is a foundation set up by Ashton Embry to study diet and MS.
The web site is Nutritional Factors
and Multiple Sclerosis. See many articles, including a comprehensive
essay on the value of adequate vitamin D supplementation for
persons with MS. A best site.
- Mac's Picks, a site in New Zealand, has What is DIRECT-MS and how can
you help? [now in archive.org]
- The Rocky Mountain MS Center has a site on Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM). There is some discussion of diet, mostly in the area of supplements.
- A page on MS and Milk from the Carbondale Center for Macrobiotic
Studies was available at one time. It blamed dairy for the distribution of MS. Formerly at:
http://commercial-directory.clever.net/health/msmilk.htm. This webmaster does have a copy.
- In Multiple
Sclerosis (By Appointment Only), by Jan de Vries in the UK, it
recommends absolutely no gluten and very high reduction
of dairy products, refined sugar, and saturated fats. He says that one of
his most successful case studies, confirm that 'absolutely not one pinch if
flour' i.e. absolutely no gluten at all... 'otherwise you are deceiving
yourself.'
- In
Can A Gluten-Free Diet Help? How? Lloyd Rosenvold, M.D. tells the
Roger MacDougall story and other anecdotes. Now out-of-print, but you can read the reviews.
- MS:
Something Can Be Done and You Can Do It: A New Approach to Understanding
and Managing Multiple Sclerosis by Robert W. Soll and Penelope Grenoble
connects MS with food allergies, and contains simple methods you can use at
home for testing allergies in your own diet. It was published by
Contemporary Books, Inc., Chicago, 1984. It currently is out-of-print. It
should be obtainable through inter-library loan.
- In Gluten
Intolerance Beatrice Trum Hunter writes about a Dr. R. Shatin in
Australia who "has suggested that an inherited susceptibility to multiple
sclerosis is from a primary lesion in the small intestine resulting from
gluten intolerance, and that the demyelination is secondary. Shatin
suggested that the high incidence of multiple sclerosis in Canada, Scotland
and western Ireland may be related to the predominant consumption of
Canadian hard wheat, which has the highest gluten content of all wheat
varieties. In contrast, the incidence of multiple sclerosis is low among
indigenous Equatorial Africans who mainly consume non-gluten containing
grains such as millet."
- Multiple Sclerosis: A Self-Help Guide to Its Management by Judy Graham has info on diet as well as supplements and alternative therapy.
- The Multiple Sclerosis Diet Book: A Low-Fat Diet for the Treatment of M.S. by Roy L. Swank is the classic for MS diet.
- According to Joe Murray MD (now at the Mayo Clinic) there is the
possibility that the MS patient suffers from a neurologic complication of
undiagnosed celiac disease. About 5% of celiac patients get nerve damage
that can vary from tingling and numbness in the feet to confusion, memory
loss, dizziness and loss of balance, visual abnormalities. This sometimes
happen in the absence of GI symptoms.
- The following is a list of articles in medical journals, which were
published at about the time that prednisone became popular in the treatment
of MS. They appear to connect MS with celiac-like intestinal morphology.
Cook, Gupta, Pertschuk, Nidzgorski "Multiple Sclerosis and Malabsorption"
Lancet; June 24, 1978, p. 1366
Fantelli, Mitsumoto & Sebek "Multiple Sclerosis and Malabsorption" Lancet
May 13, 1978 p. 1039-1040
Davison, Humphrey, Livesedge et al. "Multiple Sclerosis Research" Elsevier
Scientific Publishing New York, 1975
It is curious that the connection between malabsorption and MS stopped
at about the same time that prednisone and other such steroids became
the treatment of choice for MS. As is known, prednisone incites
the re-growth of the villi despite the ingestion of gluten, in the celiac
gut. Investigators who did endoscopies on MS patients admit that they have
not asked about the patients' use of such drugs.
- Some literature from the celiac view point:
Drs. Cooke & Holmes in Coeliac Disease 1984; Churchill Livingstone, NY
say that 10% of celiacs have neuropathic symptoms. Many appear to be
associated with demyelination. Fineli et. al. echo that figure in "Adult
celiac disease presenting as cerebellar syndrome" Neurology 1980; 30:
245-249.
Cooke & Holmes come right out and express some of their frustration with
neurologists for ignoring the potiential for neuropathic celiac.
In this article:
Beversdorf D, Moses P, Reeves A, Dunn J "A man with weight loss, ataxia,
and confusion for 3 months" Lancet 1996 Feb 17;347(8999):446
They discuss the neurological manifestations of adult celiac disease which
include cerebellar ataxia, sensory neuropathy, myopathy, hyporeflexis, and
seizures. These symptoms resemble those of Vitamin E deficiency. Patients
with abetalipoproteinaenemia, who lack the lipoproteins necessary to carry
fat-soluble vitamins, have similar symptoms. These patients respond to
water-miscible Vitamin E supplementation.
In this article:
Cooke WT, Neurologic manifestations of malabsorption. In Handbook of
clinical neurology, volume 28 (metabolic deficiency diseases of the nervous
system, part II), Amsterdam; North Holland Publishing Company, 1976;
225-41.
They discuss the many neurological manifestations that are associated with
coeliac disease, including ataxia, peripheral neuropathy, myelopathy,
myopathy, and dementia.
A new school has emerged, on the heels of the following report:
Hadjivassiliou, et. al. "Does cryptic gluten sensitivity play a part in
neurological illness?" Lancet 1996; 347: 369-371
They found that 57 percent of those with neurological problems of
unknown cause also had antibodies to gliadin, which is a component of
gluten. Sixteen percent of them had coeliac disease, a much higher level
than normally found. Most of the patients with the anti-gliadin antibodies
did not have other symptoms of coeliac disease such as poor absorption of
vitamins.
Hadjivassilou et. al. "Clinical, radiological, neurophysiological, and
neuropathological characteristics of gluten ataxia" The Lancet 1998;
352: 1582-1585.
The abstract summary reads, "Gluten sensitivity is an important cause of
apparently idiopathic ataxia and may be progressive. The ataxia is a
result of immunological damage to the cerebellum, to the posterior
columns of the spinal cord, and to peripheral nerves. We (the authors)
propose the term gluten ataxia to describe this disorder."
Patients with ataxia (a neuromuscular disorder) who attended a neurology
clinic were screened for celiac disease (biopsy and HLA). The authors
identified 28 patients with gluten sensitivity and ataxia with no other
predisposing cause. The neurological symptoms preceded the diagnosis of
celiac disease.
For more information on avoiding these foods see web sites listed on my home page:
Don Wiss's Web Sites: donwiss.com
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