You have the symptoms commonly associated with MS and your doctor has made the diagnosis. Maybe you’ve been told you have Relapsing-Remitting, Secondary-Progressive, Progressive Relapsing, Fulminate, or even Benign. Those are a few of the types of MS you might have.
Regardless of the names or initials entered on your chart, you now HAVE a diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis. It’s yours. Forever.
On the one hand, this is a good thing. It helps categorize you and your symptoms into a standardized system of medical nomenclature that includes prognosis and probable treatment options.
At the same time, the assigning of medical diagnosis can also take many things “off the table”. Once the diagnosis is made, the inevitable happens and you’re labeled as a person with a disease for which there is no cause and no cure. Right off the bat, it can stop the search for any other underlying causes for your symptoms. The best that can be done in the health-care current system is to use drugs to lessen symptoms and put somewhat of a hold on the progression of the disease.
Hold on!
Numerous things can affect the nervous system and cause symptoms that are commonly associated with MS. The most common “missed diagnosis” is Lyme disease – an infection transmitted to humans through the bite of a tick that is infected – or another buggy-type critter – with a bacteria called Borrelia burgdorferi. The key point is that Lyme disease is a bacterial infection and it is treatable with antibiotics.
Wouldn’t it be a shame to finish off your life with an incurable disease, Multiple Sclerosis, when you might have Lyme disease, which can be cured?
WebMD.com offers very good information about Lyme disease. Anyone with a diagnosis of MS should seriously investigate the possibility that they have been infected with the bacteria that causes Lyme disease.
What else can cause damage to the nervous system, resulting in MS symptoms? Poison. While it is unlikely that someone is intentionally administering neurotoxic (poisonous to nerves or nerve cells) substances to you, you may be ingesting them unknowingly. In an ironic twist, a common artificial sweetener can break down into free amino acids, including phenylalanine, which is exceptionally toxic for people with phenylketonuria. Even more of a concern is that under strongly acidic conditions (stomach acid), aspartame may generate methanol (wood alcohol).
Wikipedia reports the following; Equal, NutraSweet, and Canderel are ingredients of approximately 6,000 consumer foods and beverages sold worldwide, including (but not limited to) diet sodas and other soft drinks, instant breakfasts, breath mints, cereals, sugar-free chewing gum, cocoa mixes, frozen desserts, gelatin desserts, juices, laxatives, chewable vitamins supplements, milk drinks, pharmaceutical drugs, and supplements, shake mixes, tabletop sweeteners, teas, instant coffees, topping mixes, wine coolers, and yogurt. It is provided as a table condiment in some countries. However, aspartame is not always suitable for baking because it often breaks down when heated and loses much of its sweetness. Aspartame is also one of the main sugar substitutes used by people with diabetes.
Methanol has a high toxicity in humans. Ingesting just a couple of teaspoonfuls can cause permanent blindness. It destroys the optic nerve. A single ounce is potentially fatal. I could go into detail on all of the toxic possibilities of methanol, but these two alone should give you the sense that methanol is not a substance you want in your body. Yet, it is generated every time you consume something that is sweetened with aspartame. Tiny doses with each can of soda or each “diet cookie”. Yes, you think you’re doing well by not consuming sugar – fewer calories. Sadly, in this case, the alternative to sugar is potentially poisoning you, bite by bite.
I am not saying you don’t have MS, but there is a chance that your diagnosis could be wrong (maybe a GOOD CHANCE). Lyme disease can be treated and cured with antibiotics. Methanol poisoning can be halted.
In both situations, your life can be dramatically better.
After removing the causes of your symptoms, you still have the battle to wage. You will want to have the diagnosis of “multiple sclerosis” removed from your medical records – completely expunged. It isn’t an easy task, but it is well worth it – especially in the lowered insurance premiums you’ll receive as a result of NOT having an incurable, degenerative disease.
Read more about the dangers of artificial sweeteners: