Diet for MS/Neurological Disorders

[wakeflood]

I know many of us in this region either are afflicted with or know someone close who has been diagnosed with MS or other degenerative neurological disorder. These diseases are so insidious!

There’s a Dr. with MS who is suggesting a diet plan that positively affected her health and is looking for help to do more research on her mitochondrial-based ideas.

Just read about it and thought I’d pass it along for folks who want to look into it.

Blessings to all on the solctice. :-)

http://www.terrywahls.com/

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[JoB]

wakeflood..

if i had a nickle for every dietary cure i have tried..

better yet, if i had a permanent cure for even one symptom for every dietary cure i have tried..

i will admit that this may be THE one

but MS ..like other invisible diseases… is a very unpredictable illness which makes double blind placebo controlled studies difficult at best.

you can’t tell if the latest remission was due to treatment x until the next relapse is cured by the same treatment :(

maybe this is the Christmas miracle so many have been looking for

but have known too many on too many diets to hold out much hope

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[LisaSecord]

Gerson Therapy.

Watch “The Beautiful Truth” streaming on Netflix for more info.

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[JanS]

Lisa….coffee enemas? seriously?

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[mae64]

At least you wouldn’t burn your tongue…

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[JanS]

mae – hahahahaha

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[JoB]

what is old is new again..and again.. and again

and if you only committed yourself to it you too would be well again

it’s that last part that makes me sigh every time a new newer diet cure is evangelized..

and no wakeflood i am not saying that you did so

although we do have an evangelist for transcendental meditation in our midst who won’t be satisfied until each and everyone of us is converted

because it’s not THE way until everyone signs on:)

seriously, i have seen an incredibly diverse range of diets work wonders for individuals…

some for a short time and some seemingly permanent.

i am all for anyone who can find their own little corner of a solution

but i am more convinced than ever that there is no one THE solution for anyone who has lived with any chronic illness for any length of time because what may start as a simple disease process becomes incredibly complex as the body attempts and fails to adapt to it.

i think i have tried nearly everything

but i admit even i draw the line at coffee enemas

i don’t even drink that stuff :(

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[elma]

I saw a TED talk video by her at the start of 2012. (a google search will find it.) I bought the book Minding My Mitochondria (expensive).I do not have MS, but have been struggling with my health since 2010. Since February I’ve followed a gluten free, dairy free and soy free diet for about 95% of the time. It takes a lot of time to do the cooking and she is definitely a fan of organic which translates to $$$. Reading the book was worthwhile. She gives scientific evidence when it is available and is very clear when it isn’t. I’ve found many great recipes in her book, although the directions are sometimes not clear. So, has it been effective for me? Yes. With using this diet and seeing an acupuncturist, for the past year, I am doing so much better than a year ago. Bottom line– try to find a copy of her book, read it, and decide if you think it would help.

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[JoB]

elma..

I have lived with chronic illness for the past 45+ years in a debilitating recovery/relapse cycle. my latest recovery was well over 20 years ago

we too have gone organic and make our diet heavily dependent upon vegetables.. growing as many as we can.

We eat whole grains and limit processed foods…

We also choose to eat local…

the exception being fruits in wintertime.

I am weak… I haven’t been able to make myself give those up.

We take vitamins and exercise.

I learned long ago to listen to my mind/body connection and use more than one new age trick to manage the stress of chronic illness on my system..

including a few that make even me shake my head.

What can i say? they work.

Is this the reason I am the only woman my age in the group of patient education advocates i worked with 10 years ago who has not had either a stroke or a heart attack or died of cancer?

i am well enough educated to make a case for that.

but i could also make a case for genetics.

i come from a long line of exceedingly stubborn women.

or it could just be luck?

my number hasn’t rolled around yet.

it’s a shame i can’t claim a cure, isn’t it.

do you think a book marketed to the chronically ill on persistence would sell?

because persistence and moderation are what i have come to blame my continued existence upon..

and trust me.. there are days when i do blame.

there are also days when i wake up eager to see what the world has delivered to my door.

i don’t mean to sound as sarcastic as i am sure i come across to you..

and possibly to others who are reading.

but i have seen the bank accounts and hopes of too many friends bankrupted chasing the various cures that have surfaced in the last couple of decades to remain silent.

I have literally lost friends to suicidal despair when they “didn’t follow the protocol” or “forgot to mention THAT to the practitioner” or “didn’t hang in there long enough”.

it still amazes me, but people actually have the nerve to say those things out loud.

I am the first to tell anyone to try any therapy that speaks to them …

you build the persistence that keeps us alive with one small victory at a time…

in the long run.. feeling a little better.. managing your life a little better

offers a whole lot more hope

than holding out for a false promise of cures…

expensive books and tapes and protocols for cures for illnesses we are only now beginning to understand don’t give me much reason to hope for anything but the financial prosperity of their marketing team.

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[Speedy]

I had a friend forward me the TED link earlier this year. He suffers from an autoimmune disease… luckily I don’t… but found with the Paleo diet he could resume athletic activities he long ago gave up on.

In an effort to improve my athletic performance I tried a similar diet (Paleo for Athletes). Bottom line… I saw amazing results… I was faster and had more endurance and had my best triathlon season ever. My blood tests were the best they’ve ever been. I was leaner than when I was in college. I slept better and my cognitive abilities improved.

The diet was pretty simple. Most meals were meat and vegetable. Grass fed beef, wild salmon, organically raised chicken. Kale, broccoli, cauliflower, lettuces, onion, nuts, olive oil. No corn, beans, potatoes or peanuts… and most importantly no grains. I consider the bakery in the grocery store the “Poison” section.

I really believe this is the holy grail of diets.

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[wakeflood]

Thanks Speedy, for the “actual user” feedback. I only posted it as an interesting thing I ran across, knowing full well that many folks have been trying all sorts of solutions to this difficult health issue. (As seen by the responses to date!)

I don’t have a neurological disorder but I’m sure that I have “diabesity” so I’m in my third week of Dr. Hyman’s “no sugar” diet that I’ve been sorta’ blending with “eat right for your type” and the “immunity diet”. I add or delete some things from my diet based on what makes me feel better or worse. I feel better and have lost 10lbs. so I know that diet can at least help some things.

Good luck to all who suffer, may SOMETHING work for you!!

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[JoB]

I am glad this diet is working for you guys..

but here’s the truth. What i eat is basically what Speedy described as the Paleo diet… although i do allow myself potatoes and beans…

i tried eliminating them. i didn’t feel better and i missed them so i put them back.

On occasion i really live it up and eat corn too…

if all it took was a diet to restore those of us living with neurological disorders to full function i would’t be sitting at home getting my social contact from WSB.

What works for you may or may not work for someone else…

i think it’s cool that you share…

but have to remind you that this isn’t going to work for everyone… and that your one diet fits all brands those it doesn’t work for as failures…

in this case.. the despair of failure can literally be fatal. the health diet craze can be every bit as dangerous as the weight loss diet craze. I have lost friends to both.

Being blamed for your inability to magically become well is not cool… whether the blame comes from what others perceive as your habits or your diet or your personality…

that blame is the inevitable flip side of the enthusiasm shown for the latest “holy grail” of diets… if it is indeed the holy grail then it should work for everyone..

i so wish we lived where should was true

but we don’t. At least, i don’t.

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[wakeflood]

Wow, Jo, I feel chastised by this post. It felt really judgmental, as if I was suggesting that any particular thing was the solution or that I was inferring that anyone who didn’t try it wasn’t invested in their health. I am not, nor would I wish to be a heralder of false hope.

I never implied that anyone would be cured by anything. I was just sharing a personal experience and I EXPLICITLY noted several times that this was just about offering a thought to those who hadn’t yet noticed that particular diet.

And I even mentioned that I don’t subscribe to any one diet either. I mess around with what makes me feel better.

Based on your thoughts, it might be better that this thread be deleted altogether.

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[JoB]

wakeflood..

I am sorry that you felt chastised.

i did my best to soften something i feel very passionate about.

i am all in favor of people finding a personal diet that works for them

it’s the marketing of those diets using the word cure that i object to

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[wakeflood]

Jo, your passion is obvious but you still sound like you DO think of me as heralder of false hope. That just ain’t the case.

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[amalia]

When I was (mis)diagnosed with MS, I drove myself absolutely crazy trying follow every unsubstantiated but sworn-by (by someone!) treatment I came across. I ended up in such despair because I just couldn’t follow them all – they contradicted each other, there was a new one every day, they had components I had to travel far and wide to find, I felt like I couldn’t eat anything without risk, and you know what? There was no evidence any of them did anything (with the exception of some omega 3 oils, for which there was a bit of evidence). I became much happier when I resorted back to my normal lifestyle of healthy food and lots and lots of exercise.

.

So all I want to say is: address your own contentedness first – if following every fad makes you unhappy or stressed, don’t bother. After all, it’s widely agreed that STRESS aggravates MS! Chill and treat your body and mind well!

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[JoB]

wakeflood..

no, i think people who sell remedies/protocols/therapies with the word cure are heralders of false hope…

i think you are a nice person who means well…

who knows? maybe they mean well too.

.

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[JoB]

amalia

“So all I want to say is: address your own contentedness first – if following every fad makes you unhappy or stressed, don’t bother. After all, it’s widely agreed that STRESS aggravates MS! Chill and treat your body and mind well!”

funny.. that’s what my doc says :)

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[mom2boys]

If you flood your body with meat and toxins you will be sick. If you flood your body with organic plant based nutrients you will not…pretty easy to live by. I have a genetic caused cancer I treat with a plant based diet after watching my mother and aunts die in their 40s and 50 s after years of poor diet and chemo. The SAD : standard ametican diet, is to blame for MOST of our so called disease.

After dumping the SAD, going veggie and juicing several times a week im in remission. That’s something generations of women in my family never achieved with conventional medicine.

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[meg]

m2b,

So glad you were able to fight off your cancer. And I agree that the SAD is pretty bad. But, unprocessed meat is NOT a toxin. And the SAD is not unprocessed meat, it’s a very processed diet. So generally, meat is healthy and the human body needs meat in order to repair and maintain cells. Yes, a cancer-compromised body, depending upon the cancer type, would need specialized and targeted nutrition, as a method to try & drive down cancer cells. Overall tho, eating meat and other UNprocessed animal foods should be thought of as a good diet for most people – most of the time. Many people have healed their own diseases just by including unprocessed animal foods in their diet.

Job,

“i think people who sell remedies/protocols/therapies with the word cure are heralders of false hope…”

LOL! I think Conventional Western Medicine – which sells potions & remedies, er… pharmaceutical drugs, surgeries, & MD visits – are definitely heralders of false hope, and further CWM protocols often cause additional symptoms, compounding the deterioration of someone’s health and not solving their underlying health problem(s).

Furthermore, conventional medicine is expensive, in the maximum. At least with a nutritional protocol like Dr. Wahl’s, you don’t need to take out an insurance plan to be able to pay for it. Her “expensive” book is $35. Wow, not too bad. And if you don’t have that $35, her plans are mostly glean-able on the internet if you search for it. She’s not making off people’s purchase their foods at the grocery stores or supplements at the health stores.

Any money she’s getting from this, is almost entirely being funneled back into her research effort on MS, not to some big-pharma or big-healthcare or big-insurance Wall Street corporations, stockholders, lobbyists and corrupt politicians’ pockets. (I’m wiping the spit off my lips!)

Let’s see what are the differences between spending, say $35, and buying nutrient-dense foods & supplements at your grocery store, getting exercise, preparing your food in a simple manner, reading & eating? What’s the cost of that, versus spending some ungodly sums of money (even if you bought a good insurance policy) for MD visits, tests, pharmaceuticals, conventional treatments or hospitalizations, etc? Thousands of dollars? And, after that, you STILL have to buy food to eat.

I recently got a laugh over a big-pharma ad. Bristol-Meyers-Squibb has this blah-blah new drug for RA, right? And, OMG Hooray! the lady can now pour pancake syrup over that stack of pancakes she’s gonna eat!! But there’s a warning of possible serious side effects too, for this “miracle” drug. Side effects too numerous to list. Things like serious infections, dizziness, headaches, fatigue, skin rashes, stabbing chest pains, oncologic side effects and malignancies developing (yikes!) and on, and on.

So, I agree with the OP of this thread, that people who prefer to try something with very low side-effects, possibly cheaper, and more holistic, should look around. Don’t take anyone’s word for anything, including conventional medicine’s word.

In 460BC, Old Hippocrates said this wise thing, “Let food be your medicine.” He also said, “All disease begins in the gut.”

Amen, Hippocrates.

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[meg]

Dr. Wahls has her Minding Mitochondria book available for FREE! downloadable in PDF for free, if you want to read the book ,but just don’t want to spend any bucks on it.

http://medicine.free-books.biz/Minding-My-Mitochondria-2nd-Edition-How-I-overcame-secondary-pr-PDF-54.html

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[JoB]

meg..

meet a 62 year old real life hippy who didn’t drink or take drugs and was likely eating a macrobiotic diet when you weren’t even a glimmer in the glimmer in your grandfather’s eye…

because i had kids.. and this illness that has never gone away

and quite frankly gets more limiting every year in spite of my enthusiastic efforts to live and eat “right”.

i won’t tell you how many “gold standard” diets i have seen come and go in the last 50 years…

or even how many of them seemed to work well for a while or worked well enough one time but not the next… or worked for me and not for someone else or worked for someone else but left me deathly ill… or worked until ….

because i can tell history doesn’t interest you.

you seem to assume that the choice is between this diet.. whatever that diet is.. and blindly following the path of pharmaceuticals.

for most of us survivors, the illusive path to the best health we can have right now lies somewhere in between… and may change daily.

if only your assumptions had anything at all to do with our health…

and i meant that…

if only …

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