MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS AND PALEO
NOTICE HOW THIS AUTHOR MENTIONS "THE FOOD OF OUR ANCESTORS....!!!" AS BEING
HEALING FOR MS.

I SHOULD ALSO NOTE I FOUND OUT ON ANOTHER  MS   WEB PAGE THAT EMBRY'S ESSAY
HAS NOW BEEN BANNED FROM ALL OF THE LIBRARIES OF THE MS SOCIETY IN CANADA
(EMBRY LIVES IN CALGARY, ALBERTA,CANADA) AFTER ALL, IF THE PALEO DIET CURES
MS, WHERE WOULD THAT LEAVE THE MS SOCIETY?  OUT OF BUSINESS?  LESS FUNDING?
____________________________________________________________________________
______________________________

...snip....>       Primary progressive MS is likely a reflection of
>an individual's extreme hypersensitivity to various
>substances combined with high exposure and a relatively
>easy path for the antigens to reach the circulatory
>system.  In such a case almost continuous BBB failure
>and T-cell activation might be expected with no periods
>of relief.>
>       Thus it would appear as if dietary factors do
>provide a reasonable explanation for the great
>variation in presentation and progression of MS.>
>                    PERSONS WITH MS AND HYPERSENSITIVITIES>
>       If indeed food hypersensitivities are a main
>factor in the cause of MS it would be expected that
>persons with MS as a group, would have many more
>hypersensitivities than the general public.  Soll and
>Grenoble (1984) noted that "individuals with multiple
>sclerosis frequently display a profile of numerous
>allergies" (i.e. hypersensitivities).  My own
>experience, through both personal and internet contacts
>with persons with MS, has confirmed Dr. Soll's
>statement. Food hypersensitivities seem to be very
>common and this is currently being demonstrated by
>ELISA blood tests which test for IgE and IgG4 immune
>reactions to 190 foods.  Currently 15 of 18 persons
>with MS who have had such a test have had numerous,
>significant food hypersensitivities with dairy, cereal
>grains, eggs, yeast and legumes being the most common
>reactive foods.  Given that it is estimated that
>between 1 in 50 to 1 in 100 people have significant
>food hypersensitivities (Sampson, 1991), if MS and food
>hypersensitivities were not related, the chance of a
>person with MS also having food hypersensitivities
>would also be between 1 in 50 and 1 in 100.  Current
>data suggest at least 50%, if not 75%, of persons with
>MS have notable food hypersensitivities indicating that
>MS and food hypersensitivities are definitely related.>
>                                ANECDOTAL DATA>
>       A final area of potential useful data is anecdotal
>evidence regarding recoveries from MS or significant
>positive changes in the course of MS.  Such data are
>quite rightly regarded as "soft" and by themselves
>provide little, if any, good evidence for interpreting
>the cause of MS.  However, taken from another point of
>view, these independent accounts of positive changes in
>MS progression can provide another test of any proposed
>cause.  For example, if dietary factors are the main
>cause of MS, then it might be expected that diet
>revision, involving the avoidance of hypersensitive and
>high saturated fat food, was a critical factor in many
>of the documented anecdotal accounts.>
>       To test this I searched for all the accounts of
>"MS recovery" that I could find in the literature, on
>the Internet, and through conversations with persons
>with MS.  On the basis of the results of this
>investigation it would indeed appear that diet revision
>is a very critical treatment for achieving positive
>results in the halting or significantly altering the
>progression of MS.  Perhaps the most impressive account
>of recovery is that of Roger MacDougall (1980) which is
>described in "My Fight Against Multiple Sclerosis".
>Mr. MacDougall went from being near blind and confined
>to a wheelchair to normal health and activity level
>(for over 35 years) by faithfully adhering to a low
>fat, food sensitivity-free diet.  Other published
>"success" stories which used diet revision as the main
>therapy include those of Rachelle Breslow, Alan Greer,
>Judy Graham, Bob Lawrence, John Pageler and Bryan
>Forbes.  Recently a number of accounts of recovery have
>been gathered on a website (www.2cowherd.net/q) by an
>individual who himself has recovered from chronic
>progressive MS (wheelchair confined) to a normal,
>healthy lifestyle through diet revision.>
>       Of special interest is a scientific paper (Meyer
>et al., 1954) published over forty years ago when
>"allergy" was seriously considered as a possible cause
>of MS.  The authors describe 17 case histories of
>persons with MS whose symptoms were greatly alleviated
>by avoidance of identified food and inhalant
>"allergies" (non IgE-mediated).  Importantly the
>authors note that in cases where offending substances
>were reintroduced that MS symptoms returned.>
>       In another well known study of diet revision,
>Swank and Dugan (1987) reported that 66 patients who
>reduced their daily saturated fat intake to less than
>20 grams experienced, on average, only very minor
>deterioration over 35 years.  This result contrasted
>with 31 patients who did not follow such a low fat diet
>and suffered major deterioration during the same 35
>year study.  It should be noted that such a low fat
>dietary regime also resulted in a greatly reduced
>consumption of the foods which most commonly cause
>hypersensitivity reactions (dairy, grains, eggs).
>These impressive results are perhaps the best
>documented evidence of the beneficial effects of diet
>revision on the course of MS.>
>       And what of my son?  I had my son tested for food
>sensitivities on the basis of the concepts presented
>herein.  He came back with numerous significant
>hypersensitivities with dairy products, legumes and
>eggs being very problematic.  After he began avoiding
>his offending foods and went on a very low fat diet, a
>number of "minor" ailments which had plagued him for
>years completely disappeared.  These included night
>sweats, headaches, petechia (bruising), rhinitis,
>slight hand tremor and light sensitivity.  These
>ailments are related to inflammatory reactions and are
>very common in persons with MS (Swank and Dugan, 1987).
>All of his MS symptoms also disappeared and a
>subsequent neurological examination revealed no
>neurological deficits.  There is no doubt that such
>drastic diet revision has been difficult but my son
>takes the philosophical approach of DIET or WHEELCHAIR.
>This certainly provides the necessary incentive to
>faithfully stick to his strict, but absolutely
>essential, dietary regime.  He has remained in
>excellent health for the past 15 months.>
>       Notably a number of persons with MS who read the
>first "edition" of this essay, which was put on the
>Internet in early 1996, have reported significant
>improvement through diet revision therapy.  One example
>is Deidre's story which was written by her mother and
>is transcribed below.>
>                                DEIDRE'S STORY
>                             by Barbara MacLellan>
>       "Deidre contracted MS at age 11 and the hospital
>put her on steroids which had a limited benefit.  At
>age 25 she began to deteriorate quite rapidly: first
>her vision became distorted and she developed
>nystagmus. Her whole body would go into spasm and
>rigidity; her head and neck then went into spasm and
>shook all the time.  Her left hand and arm began to
>shake just as if she had palsy.  Then her right hand
>began to shake so that she was unable to feed herself,
>write or brush her teeth.  Deidre was also a wall
>walker and needed a wheelchair if she went any
>distance.  Cognitively Deidre was very confused and
>unable to continue with her university studies.  She
>was terribly fatigued.  The diagnosis was chronic
>progressive MS.>
>       In February a plea for help was made on the
>Internet Newsgroup alt.support mult-sclerosis.  Ashton
>Embry sent us his essay on MS and suggested that Deidre
>immediately stop all dairy, gluten and egg products.
>We decided to follow his advice and went a step farther
>by eliminating gluten, dairy, chicken, potatoes, sugar,
>caffeine and aspartame.  She mainly ate lots of
>vegetables, rice products, lamb, fish and fruit.  We
>had both RAST and ELISA tests done which confirmed the
>presence of many significant allergies.  Deidre also
>began taking various supplements including bilberry,
>kelp, vitamin B and C, cod liver oil, efamol and
>selenium.>
>       Her head shakes stopped first and soon she no
>longer felt "stupid and confused".  Over the past nine
>months Deidre has improved to the point where her arms
>and hands shake minimally and she is able to cut her
>own food.  Her body no longer goes into spasm, she is
>able to write again and she can walk longer distances
>without help.  Deidre shows gradual improvement every
>week and we feel confident that in another year, Deidre
>will be nearly symptom-free".>
>       Although the above anecdotal data cannot be
>regarded as strong evidence that dietary factors are
>the main cause of MS, I believe such data are important
>for strongly supporting the case for dietary factors
>which has been built on referenced epidemiological and
>theoretical scientific data.>
>                          MS AND SPECIFIC FOOD TYPES
>
>       It appears that specific types of food are most
>commonly responsible for causing various
>hypersensitivity reactions which lead to MS.  Such
>foods are dairy, cereal grains, eggs, yeast and
>legumes.  The evidence supporting this comes from the
>previously-quoted statistical studies of food
>consumption and MS prevalence (e.g. Malosse et al.,
>1992) and the abundant anecdotal data (e.g. MacDougall,
>1980).  As noted by Eaton and Konner (1985) these food
>types, as well as substantial saturated fats have been
>added relatively recently to the human diet in terms of
>our two million year evolutionary history.  Our distant
>ancestors did not consume such foods and did not suffer
>from most of the current lifestyle diseases, including
>MS, which are now common in Western societies.  It
>would seem that humans are genetically less tolerant of
>these "recently" introduced foods which cause a great
>variety of health problems (e.g. heart, stroke, cancer,
>autoimmune) for genetically susceptible individuals in
>societies which consume large quantities of them (Eaton
>and Konner, 1985).>
>       To me the best explanation for the appearance and
>steady increase of MS in Western societies is the
>continued increase over the last 150 years in the
>consumption of the "late, genetically-hard-to-handle"
>foods such as dairy, cereal grains, yeast, eggs,
>legumes and saturated fats.  Thus, although these
>"late", potentially problematic foods have been
>consumed for thousands of years, it is only recently
>that large quantities have been ingested so as to
>exceed tolerance levels for many genetically
>susceptible individuals.  Later a suggested treatment
>for MS is put forward and it is based on the final
>conclusion of Eaton and Konner (1985) - The diet of our
>ancestors is perhaps the best defense against the
>diseases of civilization.>
>                    DIETARY FACTORS AS THE MAIN CAUSE OF MS>
>        The interpretation that diet is the main
>environmental factor for the cause of MS is well
>supported by our current data base.  For those who
>would counter this interpretation I would ask them to
>provide either a better interpretation for the
>environmental factor using the current epidemiological
>data base or to provide solid, well reasoned evidence
>of why diet cannot possibly be the main environmental
>factor in most cases.  I am not saying that one
>specific food type (e.g. dairy) is responsible for MS.
>Rather it is mainly the activation of T-cells by one or
>more food proteins (specific to an individual) and the
>constant weakening of the blood-brain barrier by the
>immune reactions caused by a variety of individual food
>hypersensitivities and the micro-emboli which result
>from a high ratio of saturated to unsaturated fat
>intake.  Other environmental factors such as viruses
>and heavy metals also likely add to the environmental
>burden and thus contribute to the disease process.
>
>       When considering this entire debate it is
>essential to realize that diet is basically outside the
>world of conventional medicine and is rarely even
>considered.  Thus the subject is commonly either
>ignored or quickly brushed off.  Furthermore there is
>not one dime of research money being spent to test the
>hypothesis of diet control for MS despite the obvious
>links between the two.  I would urge anyone with MS to
>maintain an open mind on this subject and to consider
>the foregoing information objectively as possible.
>From my geological background I never forget that the
>theory of continental drift, which is now a fundamental
>concept of our science, was suppressed for 50 years
>(1912-1962) by the geological establishment.  It was
>simply too threatening to too many careers of those in
>power.  A diet cause for MS appears to represent a
>similar threat to conventional medicine.