MS Diet: The Natural Multiple Sclerosis Treatment

What makes for an effective MS diet? For as long as medical science has known about it, multiple sclerosis has been somewhat of a puzzle. There is still no cure or preventative for the condition, though research has helped broaden our concept of multiple sclerosis treatment.

Science has come to the understanding that multiple sclerosis is most likely an autoimmune condition that results when the immune system is triggered to attack the body’s own nervous system, but what causes it? Nobody’s really sure. Theories about what triggers this multiple sclerosis attack vary widely, but some evidence indicates that diet and intestinal health might hold some important clues.

The intestines and digestive tract are another one of the body’s barriers against the outside world, like skin. Unlike skin, however, the digestive tract very readily absorbs what it comes in contact with. In some people, a “leaky gut syndrome” can develop, where the intestines allow more things to pass through than they should. When these molecules permeate the intestinal wall and enter the bloodstream, the immune system may attack these substances as foreign bodies, setting up inflammation, immune system irritation, and other conditions that doctors feel may be responsible for conditions that range from autism to multiple sclerosis.

It’s also understood that many foods help heal the body by discouraging inflammation. These include foods high in omega-3 fatty acids, or certain antioxidants. Some practitioners and researchers feel that including more anti-inflammatory foods in a well-planned MS diet can help quell the immune system’s tendency to attack the body. This doesn’t just apply to natural multiple sclerosis treatment either – natural healing advocates have been recommending anti-inflammatory diets to help treat everything from heart disease, to asthma, to arthritis.

The principle behind this type of MS diet is that long-term inflammation puts the immune system on the defense, making it more likely to attack things it shouldn’t. Reducing this inflammation naturally, through diet, helps reduce the body’s tendency to attack itself. An anti-inflammatory diet is only one type of MS diet.

Many patients find that following other diets, like a gluten-free diet, Paleolithic diet, the Swank diet or other MS diet eating regimens, help them to control their multiple sclerosis symptoms, and even allow them to reduce their dependence on conventional, drug-based types of multiple sclerosis treatment.

Other Ways An MS Diet Impacts Multiple Sclerosis Symptoms

Far from simply being anti-inflammatory, there are some foods that have a definite medicinal quality that may prove useful in treating the symptoms and progression of multiple sclerosis. Spices like turmeric, which is used extensively in Southeast Asian cooking, are being researched for their apparent protective benefit to the brain and nervous system.

Many studies have shown that this spice, in particular, appears to have an effect when it is taken in amounts as small as those used in cooking. This means that all someone would have to do to take advantage of this form of MS diet treatment is to add some turmeric to their regular cooking, or take a simple turmeric supplement. Other important components to a good MS diet are vitamins and minerals.

Vitamins like B12, helps protect the structural integrity of myelin sheaths. Vitamin D3, obtained from sunlight, fish and enriched foods, is also effective at reducing the number and severity of multiple sclerosis attacks. Essential fatty acids or omega 3 fatty acids, like the ones found in oily fish are also protective against MS. Increasing these in ones MS diet reduces inflammation and improve the function of the immune and nervous systems.

Vitamins C, E, and other antioxidants help protect the body from oxidative damage to cells, which is important to helping to maintain good health and further reduce inflammation. Many of these nutrients need to be taken in very high amounts to start exhibiting an effect on multiple sclerosis symptoms, so diet alone might not be able to provide all that a patient needs to help control their illness. Fortunately, they can easily be found in supplement form.

Even at the high dosages needed to achieve a therapeutic effect, the vitamins and minerals taken as part of a good MS diet have far fewer side effects than many of the medications used as part of a conventional multiple sclerosis treatment plan. Though immunomodulators, corticosteroids, and antispasmodics are all very effective ways to control multiple sclerosis symptoms and slow down the progression of nerve damage, they can all end up having severe side effects that may make them inappropriate for some patients.

Some will end up experiencing things like disfiguring injection sites, nausea, fatigue, flu-like symptoms, pain, or even infections from these multiple sclerosis medications. Fortunately, natural treatments and MS diets offer patients a way to exercise some control over their treatment regimen, and can even help them reduce their need for medication.

Though natural multiple sclerosis treatments including MS diet can take a lot longer to have an effect than medication can, it helps patients take control of their illness and limit their need for potentially harmful drugs.

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