The MS Recovery Diet by Ann Sawyer and Judi Bachrach

My wife has been following the MS Recovery Diet since she was dx’d with a mild case of MS about 3 years ago. We found it to be a wonderful resource. On the diet, several small improvements were seen, and her 6 month MRI's have been stable.
I am commenting on Ann’s CCSVI blog:
I've been researching CCSVI for quite a while (I alerted Ashton Embry to it), and my wife had the procedure done 5 weeks ago. CCSVI promises to be an exciting new way to treat ms, and in my opinion, makes a perfect compliment to the diet.
The CCSVI procedure (aka as the 'liberation procedure') is extremely safe particularly when no stents are involved. Over 80% of MS patients examined have had jugular and or azygous blockages (my wife included). The procedure to do this - angioplasty - is very common, and done every day for various health problems. Some patients do report minor discomfort during the actual ballooning, but it‘s brief. A few of the very first Stanford patients who received stents did have lingering pain in their neck. There was one incident early on at Stanford where a stent came loose from the jugular and migrated into the heart, and surgery was required, and he‘s now recovering. This is the ONLY complication found in hundreds of procedures. If only ballooning is done, a migrating stent is a non-issue. As an aside, in Poland, Dr. Simka and his crew have done hundreds of procedures, many with stents, with no problems. The only fatality that is often mentioned was another early patient at Stanford who suffered a stroke while on the flight home after the procedure. It was agreed by all doctors involved that the stroke was NOT caused by the procedure, but perhaps the blood thinning medication exacerbated the stroke.
As for my wife - it was found that both jugulars were blocked, and ballooning was done. She did experience pain during the few minutes the balloon was inflated, but no other pain or complications. She was sent home 3 hours after the procedure. Her cold right hand immediately became warmer. Five weeks out, there have been some small changes - her L'Hermettes is less, and her morning spasticity is also less. She is still dedicated to the diet, and her outlook is now more hopeful. I strongly feel that everyone with MS should investigate CCSVI. As Ann mentioned, the DIRECT-MS website is a great resource, as is the thisisms.com website.

Hi everyone! I'm interested to find out how many MSers out there are following just the diet or the diet while still on MS medication.
Hopefully I get some replies.

For starters, I am following the diet and also participating in the trial for oral MS medicine. Have started the diet at the same time as the medicine and had only one relapse after 2 years (real mild, only sensory symptoms) which lasted 2 months. I had strayed off the diet for a while prior to the relapse so it's no surprise, I paid the price.
Apart from that I have no symptoms whatsoever.
So is it the diet.... or the medicine.... or a combination of both???

Any users or any thoughts?? I've been on the diet for 5 months and doing very well, but i've also been on Tysabri for 5 months also.

Hi folks,

I was told that I have MS by a neuro a little more than a year ago. I sought a second opinion, one of the best in the area, and he has been wonderful. He hasn't been quick to prescribe drugs, and has gone along with me with the diet. I KNOW that the diet makes a difference in how I feel. I can usually tell within minutes if I've eaten something I shouldn't have. My MRIs have been stable-improving, with the last done in May. However, I have been experiencing weakness/decreased ability since about Easter. It has increased in frequency and duration, as well as recovery time. I went for a walk with my five-year old and 16-month old a few days ago... it was only a quarter of a mile, and I needed to have my five-year old come back so I could lean on him to make it back home. I was hoping to just go through this entirely med-free, but I said last year that when it starts affecting my children, I would need to reconsider. I am now at that point. Instead of these episodes happening twice a month, it is now a daily occurrence. I am weakened by just the morning routine, or ordinary chores around the house. Would you go on the meds? A friend who is a nurse, and husband is a doctor with MS, said I should immediately seek steroid treatment. What would you do?

Rebecca

Hi everyone..

I'm 25yrs old and been diagnosed 3 years ago with MS after having a case of optic neuritis. After that I've only had twice (6 months apart) weird parethesias in first left and then right sides. And after that there has been nothing!!
After about 9months after the optic neuritis I found the article about Paleolithic Diet (similar to MS diet) and immediately started it, following it precisely for 2 months. After that and uptil now I've been having so called "exceptions" or reward days, usually once a week where I eat whatever I want. So I'm not following a totally strict diet anymore but generally it's Paleolithically correct.. No gluten, dairy, starchy foods or sugar unless it's an exception day and I have pizza.

I was wondering about the symptoms though. Since I don't have any clear symptoms and so far my MS has been sensory then how can I tell that I have some food sensitivities? Sometimes I do notice a very mild tingling sensation or feeling of being a bit unwell after eating something so I cut it out of my diet for a few days because I consider this a first sign. Am I right? Is it those little details I gotta observe and that is how I know whats my sensitivity? I sinserely hope no major symptom comes along, but maybe it hasnt because I started the diet quite soon after the diagnosis and luckily the diagnosis was done really quick.

If anyone can give any feedback on what kind of food reactions to look out for. It feels now like I'm searching in the dark because I experience no MS symptoms or difficulties and yet have some weird sensations sometimes which a normal healthy person would consider as crazy talk. No point in asking doctors, they only recommend medicines which don't cure. I havent been on medicine up until now, this august joined the oral MS med research and been only having reactions to the drug, unrelated to MS.

However I am not resigning from my Paleolithic Diet.... except for that one day per week =)