Ask Larry:
Your question: My mom has MS and I wanted to know if you have a regimine that you recommend to help decrease symptoms. She’s had has it for years but only takes neurontin and it’s getting worse. Right now she takes only Vitamin D.
Larry’s Response: MS is one of the immune conditions and it’s made worse by inflammation. Many MS sufferers also have a difficult time with external heat – they’re miserable in hot weather. The key to handling the symptoms associated with MS is to reduce or eliminate all sources of inflammation.
There are a number of inflammatory substances in every day life;
- sugars
- artificial sweeteners
- starch
- estrogens in meat and cows milk
- wheat – in all forms (not just the gluten issue)
- city water
- pesticides
- many of the chemicals in cosmetics (including hair products)
- several home cleaning products (laundry detergents, dryer sheets, etc.)
There are others, but this gives a good picture of what must change for symptoms to be decreased. Make every effort to completely eliminate sugars, artificial sweeteners, and wheat. Dairy often contains estrogens, and lactose intolerance can also cause symptoms related to inflammation.
Shower water can be filtered to remove chlorine and a reverse osmosis system can clean up drinking water.
Eat organic whenever possible and carefully scrub all fruit and vegetables before eating them. Grass fed meat is superior.
MS isn’t usually a basic neurological disorder, but the symptoms related to nerves can be triggered by inflammation. While Neurontin can help, many people find that they need to increase doses, which can also cause unpleasant symptoms (drowsiness, sleep problems, etc.).
Allergies to dust/mold/pollen can activate inflammation throughout the body. One useful approach to reducing the allergy problem is to cleanse the sinuses once or twice daily. Try a sinus rise, which is the more powerful cousin to the Neti Pot.
Vitamin D3 is a good anti-inflammatory (D2 isn’t). People who use drugs to lower cholesterol often experience low Vitamin D levels because our Vitamin D is made by the interaction of sunshine and cholesterol.
The body needs a well-functioning gut and it is important to make sure the good bacteria are active and balanced against the bad bacteria. We always suggest daily doses of probiotics. Once daily for most people. Others need more – especially if they’ve had any antibiotics.
Low doses of naltrexone (LDN) have been shown to be exceptionally helpful in combating inflammation. Many MS patient use a tiny dose (3 mg to 4.5 mg) every day at bedtime. The side effects are practically non-existent. This medication does require a prescription.
One final important area is hormone balance. Many of the items listed above act like estrogens in the body, which shifts the hormone balance toward estrogen activity – weight gain, foggy thinking, joint pain. In addition to eliminating estrogen-like substances, many people also use a balancing amount ofprogesterone, usually as a cream that is applied according to a schedule.
MS can be tamed, it’s just a lot more work than pill to mouth and swallow.