The MS Recovery Diet by Ann Sawyer and Judi Bachrach

I have never done a food allergy test myself as I preferred to use an elimination process to determine which foods were my personal triggers. We continue to encourage you to rely on your own body as the ultimate judge as no test is 100% accurate. I continue to be acutely aware of food as my sensitivities have changed over the years I have been on the diet. However, as many people write in to ask about testing, I include the following information for your benefit.

We recently received a link for an article about MS and food allergies that included this link for ‘the most reliable delayed food allergy kit, which is the IgG ELISA food intolerance kit’. Apparently you prick your finger, put the blood sample on a pad and mail it in a provided envelope. You should get your lab results back in 1-2 weeks rather than waiting at least a month for the other kind of ELISA test. We would love to have your feedback if you decide to use this particular one. Do you feel it is accurate? If you have done other tests in the past, can you compare the results? Then we can more confidently spread the word about how well you think that it works.

http://www.allergizer.com/50226711/igg_elisa_food_intolerance_test_kit.p...

It is wonderful that there are now several more books on the market that support the idea that dietary and lifestyle changes are the best way to stop, reverse, and control MS. The more voices who are out there spreading the word, the more likely the message will get into mainstream thought.
Since the specifics to recovery are unique to each person, these books add more thoughts, hints and methods to the general knowledge about the diet approach. It is probably a good idea to see what these other authors have to say about what they have discovered that works best to recover from MS.
Hopefully over the next through years, through the efforts of us all, the nutritional approach to MS will become the first choice treatment, especially those newly diagnosed. I applaud these new books.

More and more, science has proven that our state of mind greatly affects our health. When we are overtired, we are more vulnerable to the kind to thinking that starts “I’ll never…” (get better, have what I need or want, reach my goal) or “I’ll always…” (be ill, lose out, get hurt) and so on. That kind of all or nothing attitude can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. To have hope, to keep on trying, to reach out for positive change, is never wasted or foolish. Wanting to be healthy is not the opposite of being in reality about what is not in our power to change.

We can learn to be grounded in reality and to wish for something else simultaneously. When we hold both together in our hearts, then the tools we have available offer us the opportunity to work in our favor. When we invest in change, then the diet, visualizations, affirmations, prayers, meditations, exercises, and support from others become benign and powerful forces.

If we are exhausted and not sleeping well, when we push against the nurturing rest we need, then the best tools in the world give way to fear and despair. Please make sure to give yourself time to recover and heal from any stress after the holidays. Usual patterns including diet may have been disrupted while spending time with family and friends. Now is the time to settle back into your own rhythms that nurture and heal. Become your own advocate and care for yourself with tender and firm care. Resting and healing go together.

My family always celebrates the holiday festivities with good friends. Together we all decide the menu. This year, we wanted to have a number of dishes but plan to make and serve them in small amounts. Many cultures do this: as in Tapas (Spanish), Dim Sum (Chinese), Meze (Middle East), Zazuska (Russian), Antipasti (Italian), or in other words, ‘grazing’ on a whole meal consisting of appetizers. This way, each of us can have a small taste of foods we would other wise avoid in any quantity suitable for a main dish. It accommodates the vegetarians, the Weight Watchers, and those among us who are on the MS Recovery Diet. Rotation and moderation are already built into the concept.

On our menu so far:
Christmas Eve- rice linguini with green pesto (our own frozen basil and garlic), salad (our own dried tomatoes)
Next Day Main Meal:
Squash, apple, leek and turkey bacon soup (our own harvested squash)
Steamed wild caught Salmon with pomegranate sauce- those tart red seeds are very festive
Potato pancakes (our own harvested potatoes) fried in small amount of oil, with applesauce
Vegetables, nut and rice casserole (our own harvested onions, carrots, celery root, broccoli, etc.)
Salads- shredded kale (our own harvested kale), red onion and sunflower seeds;
a cucumber, shredded carrot salad and probably one more…
Homemade frozen peach, raspberry, (our own harvested fruits) and banana sorbet
Chocolate Cake- from our Bosnian friend’s recipe that I posted some time ago
Sparkling fruit juices

We will come up with other additions- raw veggies and various dips, cheese and flax seed crackers for those who do eat dairy, home made pickles and dilly beans, etc. but you get the idea- small amounts of a variety of foods we can pick and choose from.

Whatever you eat over the holidays, the main ingredient is sharing affection, love and good times with your friends and family. Rest well, play well, and try not to stress. Above all, please enjoy the festivities as the earth turns back towards the light.

As Ann points out in her last blog, MS is indeed a whole body disease.

For me, the 2nd CCSVI procedure again gave me a great boost in symptom recovery but- it also showed that my left jugular had already become blocked again. I had felt this to be so about 5 days after the first procedure because I had reached a plateau. When the doctor opened the right jugular for the first time today, he went back in to look at the left side and had to reopen it ‘more aggressively’. 42 years of MS has interacted with my venuous situation and nobody can explain why I felt immediate relief after both procedures (tremendous energy, elimination of all neuralgic pain and spastic muscle tension, acute mental clarity, a lessening of numbness and an “I can take on the world’ attitude) or why it may all go away again should my veins re-close. For me, veins and symptoms are clearly connected but it is not the whole story of why and how MS manifests in me.

I saw pictures on the computer screen of how the branching corollary veins of my right jugular were enlarged because the main vein was collapsed and could not handle the blood flow. Then after the venoplasty (balloon) pushed the jugular opened, the small branching veins immediately shrank back to their ordinary size and the main vein pulsed large and full. It is amazing how the body will engage what ever it can to get a job done efficiently even if there are obstacles.

I can visualize this happening in the brain as well. If there are blocked messages because of scars on the myelin sheathing, the brain will find alternate routes to conduct the electrical communication to our muscles. This is why exercise is so important- exercise keeps asking neurons to fire in order to find effective movement through repetition.

Remember: the body wants to heal and the diet alone will be the key for many of you. The diet has been the foundation for my recovery and because it is a whole body protocol, I know it will also support whatever other methods I employ to regain a complete healing for all of my MS symptoms.