The safest diet for MS

This morning I finally got un-confused after being utterly confused about diet and MS. What plan to follow? Fortunately, I have adhered to the Roy Swank, MD diet which is the basic no meat, no dairy diet, based on the fact which is coming out now -- persons with MS have trouble with fat metabolism. So, Dr. Swank knew a lot in the 40's when MS was starting to show itself in large numbers. 

This morning I went through a site that has been recommended to me for a while but I am just tired out from keeping up with all this stuff and more stuff -- current guidelines on top of it all! This is the site:

http://www.overcomingmultiplesclerosis.org/Recovery-Program/Supplements/

The person here is an Australian by the name of George Jelinek, MD. He was diagnosed in 1999. Sometimes we need medical professionals to be diagnosed along with rock stars, performers and potential first ladies -- i.e the drummer from Iron Maiden, Donny Osmond and Ann Romney.

Okay, so what Jelinek says is what Swank says with a new findings "twist" on things. Remember Dr. Swank was very successful in treating hundreds of MS patients on his diet but back in those days a few things were just not known. For example, Swank was very liberal with his sugar. There are a number of baking recipes in his Multiple Sclerosis Diet book -- I have made most of them but they are on the sweet side. Jelinek improves on this but adheres to the low fat aspect of our food. Also, Dr. Swank recommended taking a multivitamin supplement everyday along with fish oil. More current day research is quoted by Dr. Jelinek where some supplements can actually be harmful. Dr. Jelinek is big on whole grains, vegetables, fruit, nuts and is not all wigged out about gluten etc. I think a person knows if they have an intolerance and can make changes accordingly. Personally, I wonder if all the diet books out there -- gluten free, low carbohydrate etc. are meant for the authors themselves. It is just so hard to keep up with all of this.

Wow, this was news to me! I think he quoted a prostate cancer study with a high percentage of men who died because of a full weeks supply of multivitamins. After sifting through all this I finally got to his recommendations for supplements for persons with MS. He is big on the B vitamins, particularly B-12 and vitamin D3. He also said that now when people are newly diagnosed their vitamin D levels are tested and they are given infusions accordingly. Apparently vitamin D has the same immuno-suppresive  properties as current day MS medication without the side effects.

Oh, how I wish I was just diagnosed instead of 26 years ago! Who knew about diet and supplements back then??

Look at his site if you get a chance. Not only is it comprehensive, it is well written by someone who walks in our shoes.

So, I will be making a few changes myself. I will stop taking the multivitamin, look for the B complex and introduce the D3. I know my multivitamin had 1,000 mg of D3 and some calcium in it. I take magnesium supplements anyway because it really helps with the occasional migraines and headaches I get. This by the way is covered on the pubmed site linking magnesium as a successful supplement for migraines.

All this now gives me yet -- new hope! Not that I wasn't doing well, this just adds to my ever full arsenal!

I do hope this has been helpful. You know I always thought the medical people were trying to kill a mosquito with a cannon ball when it came to MS -- and the clincher? Dr. Jelinek links MS to our current, modern day lifestyle and diets. Some people may argue this but in my opinion, some people are more sensitive than others in this regard.

By the way, I try to avoid sugar as best as I can and have introduced a small amount of nuts and fruits as snacks. Do I feel different? I think it's too early to tell.