View Single Post
Old 07-04-2013, 10:15 PM
Mariel Mariel is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 724
15 yr Member
Mariel Mariel is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 724
15 yr Member
Default

I have stuck with Swank for this reason: my symptoms over more than 25 years always got worse if I got off it, and quickly. This does not mean that I got rid of symptoms entirely. No, I just improved while on Swank.

At this time in my life, many years later, I am seeing Swank diet not help as much. My neuropathy is awful tonight, pain down my leg. I just keep fighting but one never completely wins.
I'm sorry you have to take IV steroids. I can't tolerate them, go balmy on them.

Dr. Swank himself thought there needed to be a further treatment, and it involved giving transfusions from close friends or relatives who had the same blood type. He found that this helped patients dramatically. But it was really only practical for someone who lived in Portland where he was. It would have been too great an effort for both my husband and I to make the trip (we were the same blood type). My husband was working, even though I was on disability then. The reason Swank wanted close friends or relatives for the donor was to cut down on possibility of disease. I know he was right about that, because I did get Hepatitis B from the only transfusion I ever had, which I had for anemia. I could not take iron, ever, which was probably because I also had undiagnosed Porphyria.
Dr. Swank sent my blood and others' blood to England, where research conditions for his odd ideas were easier, but finally he got very old and retired and did not complete the blood work. He thought something was missing in MS blood. I did have something missing in MY blood, ha-ha, I had only 50% of one of the enzymes in the porphyrin synthesis pathway. I would have been sure to tell him about this if he and I were still in contact...but he did live to be very old and retired. He followed his own diet and he said that was why he lived so long. What a great man. He sowed some seeds which may someday pay off.
Mariel is offline   Reply With QuoteReply With Quote
"Thanks for this!" says:
yeti (07-05-2013)