Do You Know You Can Prevent Multiple Sclerosis?
I do. Because I have.
My personal story of my MS journey is tumultuous. My first ‘flare-up’ happened after the birth of my 2nd child. At the time, the painful neuropathic pain on my left side was dismissed by doctors as having something to do with childbirth and that it would ‘subside’ soon. But it didn’t. In fact, it lasted six months and impacted my daily life. I had to get by and live with the pain while taking care of a toddler and a young baby. It finally did subside over time, but I never felt quite the same.
Then, five years later, I woke from blissful sleep to an unbelievable, burning pain on the left side of my body. It radiated from halfway down my spine and all the way to my toes. It was debilitating. I was beside myself. Organs on the left side of my insides were screaming at me – my kidney, my pancreas. Also the pain in my spine, thigh left buttock, legs and feet was almost unbearable..
I was living in rural Australia at the time and my health service options weren’t the best of care, so I traveled 500km to see a family doctor in Melbourne. After many appointments, I was finally referred to a neurologist who was quick to order a brain MRI to see what was going on. The pain was so widespread, the neurologist felt it had to be coming from my brain.
In tears (from the pain and lack of sleep) I had the MRI and the results did indeed show a white lesion in the centre of my brain - the corpus callosum, a place where MS likes to hang out.
Finally, I had an answer as to why I was suffering so much pain, but no solution. No cure. No way to feel better. The neurologist told me, “It looks like MS but you need 2 or more lesions for an actual diagnosis so there is nothing we can do at this stage.”
WHAT??? NOTHING?? JUST WAIT AND SEE?? IT HAS TO GET WORSE?
This didn’t sit well with me so I visited 2 more neurologists for more opinions. But their answers were the same. For all the tests and appointments, all I had to show was a script for sleeping tablets to get throught the excruciating pain kept me awake.
When you get an outcome like this… it’s really scary. You wonder how this happened, if it’s really true, and what to do next.
The thing you really want to know is if you can go back to the way it was before. Will you ever be healthy again?
What is MS?
Multiple sclerosis is a disease of the brain and spinal cord, which are also known as the central nervous system.
MS is a condition that affects the body’s central nervous system (CNS). By the latest estimates, over 2.8 million people worldwide have MS.
It’s a disorder that causes your body’s immune system to attack myelin, a coating that insulates some of your nerve fibers. This process is known as demyelination.
When myelin is damaged or destroyed, it affects the nerve impulses traveling to and from the brain and spinal cord, causing a wide variety of symptoms in MS.
What Does MS Feel Like?
This can cause life-changing symptoms, including extreme fatigue, numbness, tingling, pain, tremors, slurred speech, loss of balance and muscle coordination, visual disturbance and muscle weakness.
MS is three times more common in women than men and the diagnosis usually comes in the prime of someone’s life, typically between the ages of 20 and 40.
MS can be a potentially devastating condition with a potentially profound effect on the quality of life. We’re getting closer to understanding what causes it – most likely a combination of lifestyle and environmental factors as well as genetics.
While there is currently no cure, there is hope for a brighter, healthier future.
What Does MS Feel Like?
When searching for the causes of various symptoms online, many sources will refer to MS in the list of possible diagnoses. The symptoms often attributed to MS can also be caused by many other conditions, so it is important that a specialist makes a diagnosis of MS.
If you have recently been diagnosed with MS, one of the first symptoms you may have experienced is a problem with your vision.. You may have previously noticed other symptoms like dizziness or fatigue, but these are often dismissed.
People with multiple sclerosis can experience a wide range of symptoms, and have different symptoms at different times — you may not experience any of the symptoms that others do, and no two people with MS will have exactly the same experience.
Typical symptoms can include:
Fatigue
Depression
MS spasticity
Vision problems
Walking (gait) difficulties
Tingling and numbness
Cognitive symptoms
Bladder spasms and MS
Neuropathic pain
MS vertigo
Bowel problems
Sexual problems
What Causes MS?
For people who have an underlying genetic predisposition towards MS, it can then be triggered by things such as smoking, a lack of vitamin D, viral infection, stress, etc.
Some of the factors that have been suggested as possible environmental triggers of MS include:
Lack of sunlight and vitamin D – the risk of MS increases directly as you move further north or south of the Equator. As soon as you are diagnosed with MS make sure your vitamin D levels are tested.
Smoking – people who smoke are twice as likely to develop MS compared with those who don't smoke, and their MS tends to progress more quickly.
Viral infections – such as the Epstein-Barr virus (responsible for glandular fever)
Females are at higher risk – women are up to three times more likely to develop MS than men
Close family members and children of people living with MS are at an increased risk of developing MS themselves, but luckily there are steps that can be taken to reduce your overall risk.
Stop smoking
Exercise regularly
Make sure you get enough sun exposure and supplement with vitamin D (5,000 - 10,00 IU per day in winter)
Keep your stress levels down
Eat a healthy diet low in saturated fat, and supplement with flaxseed oil
Is MS hereditary?
So, is MS hereditary? Well, yes to some extent, as there is an increased risk in families who already have a member with MS — but the good news is that the risk may be substantially reduced.
Even if you are genetically susceptible to MS, those genes are not enough to trigger MS on their own. There are so many environmental factors that play a part and MS can be preventable.
Research is ongoing, but these include:
Smoking
Lack of vitamin D from sunshine (hypovitaminosis D)
Exposure to the very common Epstein Barr virus
How My Story Continued…
I suffered pain for another six months when started my journey of becoming curious about my illness. I discovered the work of Professor George Jellinek and Dr. Terry Wahls and combined their treatments. I introduced an anti-inflammatory protocol. And with these I was able to reverse my illness and beat my MS diagnosis.
Twelve months later, the scans showed that the lesion had disappeared - something doctors said was impossible.
In my case, inflammation was the main cause of my MS and eradicating that (taming the flame as I like to say) was the way I’m the healthiest I’ve ever been. I follow a fairly strict, but nourishing diet, and participate in regular self-care and exercise.
As an Australian nutritionist who’s been featured in articles and interviews about the subject of inflammation, it’s my goal to help as many people as possible to calm their bodies to remove the main culprit of most auto-immune conditions.
Visit my services here to learn how I can guide you to reverse your issues too!
