Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Alternative Treatment

(4) Other Contributions to the Plan

Address emotional trauma (especially from childhood).  MS patients often have a precipitating traumatic/stressful emotional event that causes an immune system crash, leading to the disease. A study followed over 300,000 parents with no suspected MS for an average 9 ½years and found that twice as many parents who had lost a child (considered the worst form of stress) developed MS compared to those who didn't lose a child; it has been noticed that many MS cases have experienced an emotional wounding, almost always before the age of 7. Known or unknown traumatic events can be addressed using the Meridian Tapping Technique

Meridian Tapping Techniqiue (MTT)

Attend to malabsorption problems / Boost good intestinal bacteria

• One study f ound ~40% of the people tested with MS to be suffering from malabsorption problems - which would obviously lead to nutritional deficiencies.
• Malabsorption may occur from a wide variety of causes - one known cause of malabsorption is a lack of beneficial intestinal bacteria needed to digest food.This can be corrected by taking a quality probiotic with at least 50 billion CPU and a variety of good bacterial strains

Probiotics

Progesterone

• Progesterone has been show n in animal studies to promote the formation of new myelin sheaths

Human Reproduction 2000 Jun;15 Suppl 1:1-13, J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol 1999 Apr-Jun;69:97-107, Mult Scler 1997 Apr;3:105-12.

• Progesterone promotes regeneration and myelination of axons (myelin forms around neural axons, allowing nerve impulses to travel faster) - influences growth, differentiation and increases expression of myelin-specific proteins in oligodendrocytes, and potentiates the formation of new myelin sheaths by Schwann cells in vivo; antioxidant effect in injured nervous system; multiple effects on glial (Neuron support) cells;
• Progesterone is concentrated in brain cells to levels 20 times higher than that of blood serum levels;
• Progesterone.    Induced "blocking factor"directly blocks T-cell activation; reduces the expression of pro-inflammatory genes and their protein products;
• Progesterone is an essential building block for the stress hormone CORTISOL.   Under stress, most of the Progesteroneproduced is converted into the corticosteroid hormones to deal with the emotional stress or fight or flight situations;
• Adrenal exhaustion from aging /poor nutrition reduces adrenal Progesterone production.    Also reduces anti-inflammatory cortisone.

Progesterone- Precursor to Androgens, Estrogens and Corticoids

Estrogen Dominance

People with high uric acid levels (a sign of Gout) do NOT get MS / Lower uric acid levels associated with MS

One paper reviewed 20 million patient records and found high uric acid levels/gout and MS to be almostmutually exclusive.    People with gout don't get MS, and people with MS don't develop gout.

• Lower serum values of uric acid have been associated with MS.     MS patients found to have serum levels ~194µmol/L, with patients in relapse averaging ~160µmol/L and patients in remission averaging ~230µmol/L. Serum uric acid in healthy controls was ~290µmol/L. Conversion factor: 1mg/dL=59.48 µmol/L
• Accumulated copper and low vitamin B2 can exacerbate low uric acid levels.    This in turn is hypothesized to lead to myelin degeneration seen in MS.
• Contributing to higher uric acid levels are foods high in purines and impaired excretion by kidneys, but today, it is fructose consumption that is having a potent effect on raising uric acid levels.    Purine-rich foods include anchovies; aparagus, beef kidneys, cauliflower, game meats, herring, liver, sardines, scallops, but moderate intake of these foods is not associated with an increased risk of gout); By far the greatest influence on uric acid levels today is coming from fructose in sodas and processed foods;
• People with MS have low levels of uric acid.    So found studies in the U.S. and Hungary; uric acid has been successfully used to treat experimental allergic encephalomyelitis, the mouse model of multiple sclerosis; interestingly, if uric acid levels are too low, uric acid loses its antioxidant/ life-longevity benefit,and if too high they become pro-oxidant and cause health problems associated with oxidant stress, such as gout, stroke, metabolic syndrome and atherosclerosis; (note the similarity to vitamin C, which reflects C-deficiency health problems at low levels, antioxidant benefits in the ideal range, and has an oxidant effect at high levels)

Dr. Johnson, professor of medicine at the University of Colorado and an expert on the subject of uric acid levels has determined that uric acid takes a lead role in creating health problems when it reaches levels in your body of 5.5 mg per dl or higher, and has an ideal range of 3 to 5.5 mg per dl., which today, can generally be maintained by lowering TOTAL fructose intake to < 25g / day

(E.g. 1 apple=~10g, 1T honey=8g, 12oz can soda = ~22g of fructose);

• The essential trace mineral molybdenum is part of the process to convert purines to uric acid.   Thus it is a causative factor in gout and uric acid production; Perhaps molybdenum/raised uric acid levels would be desirable to raise low levels into the normal range for people with MS?

▲  A connection between molybdenum deficiency and MS was reported in the 70's;

▲  Higher incidences of MS reported where the soil is lower in microelements, including molybdenum;

▲  Menstruating females rarely get gout - which occurs primarily (90%) in males and post-menopausal women; women of child bearing age are the group that has the highest rate of MS

Vitamin B12 anomalies/deficiencies

• Vitamin B12 needed to build myelin sheath
• Vitamin B12 anomalies.    Linked to people with MS in quite a few studies;
• B12 deficits.     Considered to be a prime factor in MS by some researchers.
• Malabsorption problems have been noted in MS patients - specifically mentioning B12 malabsorption;
• B12 may need to be given by injection to be effective;
• B12 raises uric acid.   Uric acid therapy has successfully treated mice with MS symptoms; studies in the U.S. and Hungary show that people with MS have low levels of uric acid (discussed elsewhere on this page)

Potential neuroprotective properties of curcumin (found in turmeric spice)

• Curcumin, confirmed as potent inflammatory agent, and believed to interrupt immune system attack on myelin sheath.    Nashville researchers believe curcumin may interrupt the production of IL-12, a protein that plays a key role in signaling immune cells to launch their assault on the myelin sheath.
• Mice with EAE (experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis - an immune condition used as a model for MS, since it results in myelin erosion) recover movement after curcumin injections.    In a 30-day study injecting mice with curcumin doses 3 times/week at doses roughly equivalent to the amount eaten in a typical Indian diet (E.g. in curry); In Asian countries, where spicy foods, including yellow compounds like curcumin are eaten quite regularly, reports of M.S. are rare;

Annual Experimental Biology 2002 Conference New Orleans, LA April 23, 2002