Multiple Sclerosis Part 1

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Multiple Sclerosis

by Phillip Day

Excerpted from his new book, The ABC's of Disease

 

Profile

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a condition arising out of the immune system

apparently destroying the myelin sheathing which surrounds nerve tissue in the

brain and spinal cord, which makes up the central nervous system (CNS). Lesions

or patches of damage occur where the fatty myelin sheathing protecting these

nerves has been damaged. Nerve function is thus severely disrupted, resulting in

obvious signs of motor dysfunction presenting a whole spectrum of symptoms. No

two cases of MS are exactly the same. The damage and resultant effects are as

unique to each patient as their fingerprints.

 

The disease is almost always restricted to young and middle-aged adults, with an

approximate 60%/40% spread across females and males respectively. The

geographical spread of incidence is also quite telling with MS, with the disease

more prevalent in northern latitudes, with 50-100 cases per 100,000, compared

with 5-10 per 100,000 in the tropics. The exception to this spread is Japan,

where the disease is rare. The Faeroe Islands (the Danish islands north of

Britain) had never experienced any signs of multiple sclerosis until the British

Army landed there during World War 2 with all its supplies to set up a garrison.

 

Symptoms

Early symptoms include clumsiness, weakness, heaviness, tingling and electrical

sensations, blurring of the vision, haziness, eyeball pain, sensation of

drunkenness, incontinence, numbness, loss of sexual function. More severe

symptoms include shaky movements of the limbs (ataxia), speech impediment

problems (dysarthria), involuntary rapid eye movements and other motor

coordination problems. 'Attacks' of symptoms occur usually followed by periods

of remission.

 

MS symptoms vary in intensity and duration, depending on which of the many

different manifestations of the disease the patient has.

 

Causes

The cause(s) of MS are officially unknown, but, as with the disease-spread

information above, tantalising clues lead us to zero in on the chief areas of

action. MS is on the increase, medicine bringing a vast array of drugs

(steroids, etc.) to bear with very limited success on what is generally regarded

in many cases as a degenerative 'auto-immune disease' - that is, that the

patient's immune system has apparently been triggered to attack and destroy key

cells in the body (see also Diabetes and Arthritis).

 

If we review the following key factors about MS, we can begin to build a profile

of who's at risk… and where:

 

· The disease mostly occurs in young to middle-aged adults

· It marginally favours women

· It is more prevalent in the northern latitudes

· Japan is an exception

· It does not occur in non-industrialised, agrarian societies

· It appears as though the immune system has acted dysfunctionally to destroy

key cells

 

From this short summary, we may surmise that:

· Sunlight, enzymes and vitamin D appear to play a role in avoiding MS

· There's something in the Japanese diet and lifestyle that appears to restrict

the deployment of MS

· MS appears to be a disease of industrialisation, wherein foreign proteins

(antigens) have challenged the immune system

· The immune system, which, by the way, does not act dysfunctionally (there's

always a good, underlying reason why it does what it does), has been given a key

motivation to attack myelin cells in addition to the invaders

 

Commentary

Many hypotheses have been offered to explain how MS is caused: viral infections,

food intolerances, leaky gut, all of which may provoke the immune system into

reacting in a 'dysfunctional' way to attack specific cells - in this case,

myelin. But what precisely is the mechanism that may cause the immune system to

do such an obscure thing? The answer may well be 'molecular mimicry.'

 

Molecular Mimicry

…Molecular mimicry is a theory, under research since 1985, whereby invading

foreign proteins (antigens) appear to have a very similar amino acid chain

make-up to certain healthy cells in the body, thus 'fooling' the immune system

into destroying not just the invading protein, but also the healthy cells

appearing to be very similar to it. Important to note: most of the evidence so

far researched on MS (which, by the way, is considerable) does show that the

immune system has wreaked the havoc on the myelin sheathing.

 

Problems with the immune system will occur when healthy proteins existing in a

person's body (i.e. myelin basic protein) correspond very closely to

trouble-making proteins that make up bacteria, fungi, yeasts, etc. One MS site

explains the proposed mechanism this way:

 

" To understand how molecular mimicry works in the induction of autoimmunity, one

must understand the basic mechanisms of an immune response to a foreign invader

in the body. The immune system recognises a part of the protein portion of the

invader. It does this with T cells which have receptors which bind to short

segments (up to 10 amino acids) of a foreign protein. It is helped in this task

by so-called antigen presenting cells such as macrophages.

 

A macrophage will engulf a foreign invader (e.g. a bacteria or food particle)

and break it down into fragments. A special molecule in the macrophage then

carries a protein fragment (peptide) to the surface of the cell and 'presents'

it to the millions of circulating T cells. A T cell which has a matching

receptor locks onto the presented protein fragment. The T cell then becomes

activated and stimulates other portions of the immune system to begin an immune

response against all proteins which contain a similar-looking amino acid string.

The details of what constitutes a similar-looking string are beyond this

summary, but suffice to say it has been found that a variety of similar, yet

somewhat different strings, can be recognised by the same T cell. "

 

Dr Roy Swank

Dr Roy Swank, Professor of Neurology at the University of Oregon Medical School,

has done much research into MS. He found that diets heavy in saturated fats are

implicated in those exhibiting MS symptoms. The patient's ability to neutralise

oxidation (free-radical components) in their body was also seen to be severely

compromised. Swank proposed a diet for MS sufferers, which is remarkably similar

to the Food For Thought and Anti-Candida regimens discussed in this book. Swank

found that this diet retarded the disease process and reduced the number and

severity of attacks.

 

Also up for discussion is whether the chicken comes before the egg. Do food

intolerances cause MS, or are food intolerances the result of an MS-compromised

immune system? Do fungi provoke the immune system into destroying not only the

fungi, but healthy myelin cells also, which may have a similar amino acid

signature to the fungi?

 

Medicine uses immune-suppressing drugs in the belief that MS is the result of a

dysfunctional immune system and therefore, by reducing the effectiveness of the

immune system, one may retard the spread of the illness. This is what I term a

'scorched earth' policy, where the only cunning plan you have come up with to

halt the advance of the enemy is to burn and destroy all the land in the path of

his advance in the hope that you will starve him into submission. Not such a

great strategy, in my humble opinion.

 

Critters

What we do know from testimonies and other reports on successful treatment of MS

is that the disease, if caught early enough, may be halted and even reversed

using a combination of lifestyle and dietary factors outlined below.

 

Gerald Green is a herbalist who lives in Sussex, England. His grandfather was

Nobel laureate Professor Fritz Huber, a leading German scientist who died in the

mid-1930's. An elderly gentleman experienced in healthcare, Gerald submitted

some of his MS case histories to me, with the permission of his patients, which

showed the benefits of an anti-Candida regimen, along with sensible

supplementation and changes in lifestyle.

 

Gerald Green works on the premise that ALL MS patients have a microbe problem,

and that it is pointless trying to combat the disease unless you addressed the

underlying causes first. He suggests patients adopt his strict anti-Candida

diet. This diet, I had found, was cropping up in various permutations in highly

successful cancer treatments all over the world, from the Gerson Therapy

pioneered by the famous Dr Max G, through to clinics in Mexico and the UK across

to physicians prescribing it in one form or another to their patients as far

away as the Philippines and New Zealand. The diet itself may also explain why

Japan escapes the full brunt of MS, unlike other industrialised nations of

comparable latitude. Many Japanese citizens still adhere to their national,

alkalising diet of rice, vegetables and lots of fish, although, it must be said,

the fast-food monster has now taken its grim hold on those islands, with

unfortunate, if predictable consequences for the future.

 

It is my conclusion that fungi are suspected of playing the key, primary role in

this disease and may well contain the amino acid chains mimicked, in which case

the immune system may be correctly attacking fungal infestation while its attack

template is also destroying healthy cells in the body - in this case, myelin

sheathing cells intrinsic to the successful operation of the central nervous

system.

 

Clearly not everyone, who has overgrowths of yeasts/fungi/ parasites, is getting

MS. The disease in my view must have a certain number of factors working

synergistically to bring on the problem. The following may be such a profile:

 

· A western, industrialised diet rich in refined, processed sugars and grains -

aspartame may be an implicator

· A diet low in polyunsaturated fatty acids

· Lack of regular exercise

· Low intakes of Vitamin D and other vital nutrients

· Other, non-defined stressors predominant in young to middle-aged adults

· Leaky gut syndrome brought on by yeast/fungal damage to the gut lining, thus

allowing MS-triggering food/foreign proteins to gain access to the bloodstream

via a permeable intestinal lining

· The immune system creates templates for the invading proteins which

inadvertently take out the healthy myelin cells also

· Drugs prescribed may weaken the immune system, giving the appearance of

retarding the disease

· Halting the disease at source will therefore necessitate addressing the diet,

lifestyle and fungal issues of the patient

 

Take action

An MS sufferer will usually have other, sometimes minor symptoms, which may not

seem connected to their disease, i.e. acid reflux, athlete's foot, jock itch,

thrush, digestion problems, bowel gas, etc. Patients should also be aware of

foods to which they are sensitive, which should be eliminated. Ideally a diary

should be kept keeping track of problem foods and any observable effects of

eliminating them from the diet. The following will be of benefit to the multiple

sclerosis sufferer:

 

· DIET: COMMENCE THE ANTI-CANDIDA DIETARY REGIMEN, ensuring that the Foods to

avoid and supplementation are rigorously adhered to

· DIET: See Foods to avoid section of THE FOOD FOR THOUGHT LIFESTYLE REGIMEN

· DIET: Avoid all animal foods, except cold-caught oily fish (no farmed fish!),

which should be consumed daily (salmon, mackerel, herring, etc.). Normal protein

intakes

· RESTORING NUTRIENT BALANCE: COMMENCE THE BASIC SUPPLEMENT PROGRAM, ensuring:

· ANTI-CANDIDA/FUNGAL SUPPLEMENTATION, including wormwood, Essiac, fennel,

peppermint tea, etc. Physician may also prescribe anti-fungal, anti-mycotoxic

drugs in addition to the above, as directed

· Vitamin E, 800 IU per day

· Flaxseed oil, 1 tbsp per day

· Brain/CNS supplementation (ideally 'Ingenious' - see A Guide to Nutritional

Supplements)

· Pancreatic enzyme supplementation, two capsules taken three times daily away

from food

· Selenium, 200-400 mcg per day

· Vitamin B12 supplementation, as directed by your physician

· Vitamin C complex (ascorbates plus bioflavonoids), 4-5 g, twice per day (in

the event of diarrhoea indicating threshold level has been exceeded, reduce

intake to just under threshold level)

· Gingko biloba, as directed

· Hawaiian Noni Juice, as directed

· TIP: Those with mild MS symptoms should exercise in a gym four times a week

both with weights and on a stationary cycle or 'Stairmaster' with arm movement

extensions. Those with more severe forms of the disease should try assisted

movement exercises and massage to improve comfort and circulation

· TIP: This regimen is a long-term lifestyle change and, once again, must be

adhered to strictly

 

Extracted from Phillip Day's new release, The ABC's of Disease, published by

Credence Publications (English language only at this time).

 

Release Dates:

UK, Ireland, Europe and Russia: 5th September 2003

USA, Canada and South America: 15th September 2003

Australia, New Zealand and Asia: 1st November 2003

 

More information is at: www.credence.org

 

 

 

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