Many years ago people took high doses of steroids. Many, many years ago they suffered through life with the knowledge they had a progressive disease that would just barely leave them alive (and probably many that had RRMS were treated as hypochondriacs) and over a century ago the worst of them suffered through syanide injections, gold and silver and assorted heavy metals.

It is hardly a new disease, the first "verified" existence of the disease dates back to the mid 1800's, with a documented history of symptoms and follow-up detailed autopsy. However, many of the same symptoms, progressions and resistance to other neurological treatments, that we still see today can be traced back through documentation to Ancient Greece.

How it was handled back in the day, isn't much different than what those of us go through when first getting our diagnosis. We suffer through our symptoms, are treated like hypochondriacs, questioned if our significant others or parents are 'abusive', wonder ourselves if it's not just all in our heads, and pray tomorrow we'll wake up perfectly fine and bursting with energy.

When we finally do get to "name" our problem, we seek out every bit of information, and occasionally some of us just give up immediately. We battle and battled through suicidal thoughts not for lack of desire to live but for want of a body that will do as we say and sometimes driven by maddening pain, as the roller coaster of hopes and dreams that come from every promised 'cure' or 'stopper' set forth by both big pharma, as well as little herbologists.

We try it all, we fight it all, and the rare few make it through, stopping progression and even rarer still finding improvement and their way back to normalcy. While the rest of us ride the crushing wave of defeat, and anxiously await the next hope, until we become one of their rare few or simply hop off the ride and await what will come with whatever dignity we have remaining, leaving the coaster of 'cures' for the next generation to ride upon.

You will have to forgive us if any of our comments have come off as snarky. Try to understand with a title of 'healing' MS it strikes a chord that lies within us all. Through our fight with this disease we quickly lose friends, forget about acquaintances, and many of us even have our own flesh and blood abandon us.

We are chronically plagued by people 'blaming' us for our disease, ourselves included. Picking on our diets, our will power, even our sleeping posture. It matters not that doctors still have no clue as to the cause of MS. Aside from the current theory that it is viral in nature but maintains a certain amount of genetic predisposition, nothing else is certain. Our immune system simply acts contrary to the norm. Yet still the majority would lay the blame firmly at our feet, all but accusing us of causing our disease though our lives and choices before the symptoms were not much different than anyone else's.

We are told by perfect strangers in supermarkets about how we should 'eat this, never that' or 'drink this, swallow that'. We endure lectures by so-called friends, family member, strangers and doctors alike about a friend of a friend's second cousin thrice removed who ate an orange upside everyday and is fine.

We endure it all, sometimes quietly and meekly, sometimes slipping in a bit of sarcasm and every so often giving out blatant retorts. It is not that we do not appreciate the sincere attempts to help, and console ourselves with the needed belief in a person's desire to share knowledge they fully believe will end our suffering. It is just that it simply becomes too much on occasion, and the goodwill often takes the form of yet another stone cast upon us.

Unlike a multitude of other neurological disorders, where one may suffer from depression and is all they must deal with, or muscular spasms, or maybe incontinence, they might have optic neurosis, or whatever, singular known and treatable neurological disorder occurring. We run the gamut, having them all, or a few, they may come and go or just a few of them take a break, and rarely do the medications for the singular neurological disorders work in treating our symptoms, often its some other medication designed to treat completely different disorders that end up working.

The best advice I can give in concern to your relationship with your sister is don't try to heal her. Simply love her, accept her fate, and be a willing ear (or eyes) for her. Allow her to cry as freely as she likes upon your shoulder, and be willing to do the same. Cry on her shoulder, lament over the unfairness of nature, fate and universe. Express your gratitude to your brother for being there for her, allow him the same kindred cry out. Feel free to express your fears, and allow your family to do the same. It is a terrible and terrifying disease even for those who have the best of it. Grieve together and accept it, then you and yours can move on, cherishing everyday you have together in this life and having hope for better things to come in the next.

That is really all you can do, and all that we can do. This disease has lost me my siblings, they are unable to accept the reality and have chosen to remove themselves from my life, undoubtedly desiring to keep the memory of me as their bratty, bouncy, daredevil, baby sister rather than seeing me as I am now, subdued and crippled by pain. It's not a conscience choice they're making, but rather a psychological reflex. To protect their psyche, an imagined slight formed and the relationship disbanded, it shows their love and deep affection even as they perceive themselves as being at odds with me. Yet even knowing that it still carries a sting. I end up blaming them for not being able to accept what I have become, and myself for putting them in such a situation. So please don't put your sister in a similar situation.

Here is an interesting site. I knew this. Jean Martin Charcot gave it a name in 1868. He also was known for many other diseases including Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease which I have.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3064755/

We have a number of people in our small community who have MS in one stage or the other.

Please know that I used the title from Ann B's works and her book. Whether Ann is authentic or not, we believe what we believe of people. I agree with a lot of her works on candida etc. I grew up with tons of carbs/sugars as did my parents and my sister and it's amazing today I don't believe candida is my issue, I have been steering clear of these offender foods for some time now. Not perfect but hugely opposite of what I grew up with and ate for Many years.

And there is so much I don't know about what the OPC's have been doing for me, like helping to keep candida from my body. Could be, I never did a search of candida and OPC's....

From PubMed:

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/...
National Center for Biotechnology Information
by Y Han - ‎2007 - ‎Cited by 40 - ‎Related articles
Oct 3, 2007 - Synergic effect of grape seed extract with amphotericin B against disseminated candidiasis due to Candida albicans. ... a drug of choice for treatment of fungal infections, but it causes severe side effects such as renal damage.


On my sister, I tried years ago to offer what I thought could help her, she bit a little, but didn't follow thru. We were quite close and talked a lot on phone, visited as we could and now I can do no more. I've let go, and we are 3000+ miles apart so I do my best to keep her alive in my life, I've shed tears and now have to take care of what I'm dealing with for myself.

My brother is on EC and we've talked about our sister a lot and he's wanted to visit her, but she's made excuses to not let him visit her.
I can't count how many phone messages I've left at her house in the last couple years and never a return call. Out of the blue I may get a call from her and it's hard to understand her ... at first I thought it was too many meds causing this slurring etc but then I thought maybe it's the MS....or maybe both. I'll probably never know and I accept that...doesn't change things.

So, we all are on our journies and do what we think is best at times. C

I do understand it came from the title of the books , just things like that make me, at least a bit more... Hmmmm 'sensitive'... Probably best word to describe it. And for the reasons stated above. Which isn't a criticism against you, as such as one against the author who chose it for a title. Who again I'm sure has the best and greatest of intentions, and I'm sure has helped a select few.

And as I read your initial posts, it felt as though you shared in Ann's belief that your sister would be 'healed' had she followed Ann's advice. It's those 'unrealistic' expectations that those of us with MS are constantly battling with. Big pharmaceutical companies, and homeopathic doctors alike seem to prey upon our desperation and the desperation of our family members.

I take Copaxone since I can get it for free, and it has the highest safety standard in regards to serious side-effects. But I realize fully and completely it will not 'heal' me, might not even slow my progression, it's a fiery shot of liquid torture that I endure three times a weeks on a wing and a prayer. After all, what have I to lose? My family members on the other hand, no matter how much I explain the complexities of the human body, chemistry and biometrics, some think I'll be 'cured!' In no time. And others think I have stopped it in its tracks since no new brain lesions were found at the six month follow up.

Even my mother who was an EMT and a nurse, has difficulty in accepting that it isn't some kind of a cure. But yet, still comes running to tell me about this diet and that diet or this pill and that pill to cure me if the copaxone doesn't. She doesn't quite appreciate my humor when I tell her there's a guarenteed cure, swallowing a bullet, or even just biting it. but at least she can laugh about it some and will lay off for a while.

Well MAYBE my sister would be a lot improved vs a lot worse today. I'll never know, will I if she had followed Ann's foods lists.

In general eliminating/reducing refined carbs/sugars just makes so much sense for everyone's health.


Just thinking back too, from many years ago when people had no clue about Vit D deficiency, my family for sure, mom avoided sun and that's our biggest source of Vit D. I've heard so much about the Vit D/MS connection...Actually, it was my sister who brought this to my attention in 2006 while we chatted on phone...she was making sure her daughter was up on her Vit D.

I know Dr. David Williams in his Alternatives Health Newsletter wrote about this deficiency for 20 yrs or more and no one listened, including me.

I was a sunworshipper for most of my life up to my mid 50's when being in the Sun too much bothered me, so I "came in" from the sun life...and little did I know I was depleting my Vit D tank, and when I found in 2006 how low my D was, I was shocked...How could this be, I'm in So. Cal, BUT I had come in from the sun I loved all my life....

Reducing refined carbs, still depends on what your current diet is, eliminating them, no. That is not the 'healthy' choice for everyone. Do cancer cells grow in sugary environments, absolutely, along with virus and bacteria. For the same token, antibodies grow in sugary environments, as do the necessary bacteria we need for digestion, and overall protective bacteria that fight off viruses.

Why? Because single cell organisms (virus, cancer and bacteria, good, bad and indifferent) need sugar to grow and split. They lack the ability to metabolize more complex proteins (which if you truly want to get technical sugar is also a protein) As multicelled organisms, we do require complex sugars and protiens along with fats as fats becomes the storage for those sugars and protiens.

Antioxidants, vitamins, minerals and the all the foods we eat are classifiable as only fat, protein or sugar. If you break it all down to the cellular level, they are only proteins and distinguishable by multiple proteins (complex) or few proteins (simple). It does not matter if the sugar is refined by chemistry or merely exists as unaltered plant fibers and meat of an animal. The body cannot distinguish the difference nor can the single cell organisms which protect us, kill us or just hitch a ride on us.

Now since MS "might" be linked to an unknown viral infection, the argument could be made that reducing the amount of sugar for the virus to have grown in "may" have helped your sister. But even then such research concerning viral infections believes the infection occurs in early childhood, and so alters the ones immune system that over time the body will begin to breakdown it's myelin sheaths. However, going by said theory means even if your sister had changed her diet, she had already been exposed to and invaded by the virus and her immune system was already altered, changing her diet after the on-set of symptoms would not and will not change her current state. Any improvement she might feel, or exhibit is known as the placebo effect.

Helpful or hurtful, the placebo effect is nothing more or less than ones ability to place so much faith in a treatment they can actually trick their body into believing it as well. It's a medical mystery, a psychological wonderment, but it does not heal. Still if one can find relief through it, I applaud them, and pray it will work for them indefinitely.

Second issue with heavily concerning oneself with "sugar", is the fact that it is the protein our adrenaline systems are entirely dependent upon. It's what our bodies use to produce cortisones (treating our pain and inflammation) our adrenaline system is also what keeps our hearts beating and our blood moving. When our pain and inflammation exceeds what our adrenaline systems can produce in cortisones, our blood pressure increases as our heart rate drops initially, if we are too lacking in simple sugars for our adrenaline systems to amp up our cortisone levels, our bodies begin expelling proteins in the form of salts from our sweat our muscles contract, our heart rate begins to speed up further in an effort to expel complex protiens in the search for sugar, while our blood pressure bottoms out. (Classically referred to as shock)

The most easily and readily absorbed and put to work nearly immediately form of sugar is said refined sugar. Because it is lacking in complex proteins that slow and hinder absorption. As MS comes often enough with pain, chronic pain at that, refined sugars are sometimes the only things keeping us out of the ERs.

And even, even if we should disregard the theory of viral infection, altered immune systems, or genetic mistake. Diet still would not be likely to have much of an effect on the disease. The nature of the systems at work is to destroy the ionic bonding of the myelin sheath by attacking critical proteins capable of breaking that bond. Ionic bonds are some of the strongest chemical bonds, but once broken they are nearly impossible to repair. Furthermore the proteins which are being destroyed are not those of simple sugars, it is complex destructive disorder in which our bodies are unable to maintain the ionic bonds. For whatever the reason, several or a multitude of these bonds fell apart or are going to fall apart.

I can assure you 99.999999999% that eating a Twinkie will neither hurt nor hinder MS. And I can only offer you my sincerest regrets that I am too struck with MS myself to be one of the researchers looking for a cure as my body and vision makes it impossible for me to complete my doctorate.

Thank You Starz, for speaking for a bunch of us and
Thank you Carol, for your info and trying to help.

Over my last 40 to 50 years of MS, I have tried just about
everything, including Grape seed extract, to no Avail.
Suggestions and proper helpful links are welcome but
pushing it beyond probabilities is not.

I ordered the book. I'll review it once I receive and read it. After I'm finished with it I'll be happy to share it with anyone here who wants to read it.

Kitty, will be watching for your review on the book.