It all began back in February of 1986. My husband (Mark) and I had gone to dinner with Jim & Linda. While we were eating I rubbed my nose, it was numb, the whole left side of my face went numb. That's how my multiple sclerosis started, from there it progressed to tingling and numbness in both legs. Would get worse when I went for an extended period without eating. I was diagnosed after a whole session of tests through a spinal tap.
In the 10 years following, I had ms attacks on a regular basis, every time in the months of November, December or January. I thought it was the stress of Christmas.
I had a pretty bad attack six months after my daughter was born (January of 1991) this attack took away the control and use of my right arm. It lasted for eight months, when it finally ended I could no longer feel with that hand.
My episodes with MS flare-ups consisted of numbness & tingling in my legs, loss of color & clarity of vision, vertigo, cognitive problems, inability to run or walk straight and a general loss of balance with a tendency to go to the left and run into walls, bladder problems, depression, spasticity, mood swings, fatigue, you know the run of the mill things related to MS.
I took prednisone for each attack until I ended up in the hospital due to inactivating my immune system to the point that a minor infection in my tooth took over my whole face and I resembled a basketball. Refused to take prednisone after that.
I started on Betaseron in April of 1994, and had the worst set of attacks ever. One right after the other until I was losing the ability to walk and was in pain. Stopped the Betaseron (since it was making me worse), the results of trying that put me in my worst state of health.
They remained (though after two years I had learned to adjust to the loss of balance by widening the spread of my legs to match the width of my shoulders...made me look extremely bowlegged but I didn't fall!!) until August of 1996 when I read an article written by Daveq regarding vitamins and antioxidants.
It was my first visit on the Web searching for the words "Multiple Sclerosis". I combined part of the diet by Daveq with Ashton Embry's theory and Tim Stouts theory. Pretty much matched similar items and went to the drugstore with the list.
On August 14, 1996 I began a 3 times a day vitamin routine. On August 16, 1996 I had the feeling in my hand return. This was the beginning of the most unexpected chain of events. My eyesight began returning. The feeling in my hand returned to normal. The tingling in various body parts ceased. My balance returned to the point that I can actually run (I don't jog, never cared for it, but I can run from the store to the car if its raining!). Its now August of 1997 and I've been symptom free since September 1996.
I also quit all dairy, all caffeine and lowered the amount of sugar that I eat. I had an ELISA food allergy test done and found that I'm allergic to ALL dairy products and eggs, mainly eggs. Well, to most people this would be a major change, but I never eat those items during the year, only in eggnog, and the reason I know this to be the major part of my problem was that I only had attacks during the months of November, December and January every year for ten years, 1986-1995 (except for when I took the Betaseron!!) The point here is that all the vitamins in the world might not be able to overcome the reaction from something you are ingesting that you are highly allergic to. Food allergies played a role in my attacks and I have removed all items that showed up as high allergens from my diet.
On April 18, 1997, I visited my neurologist (I had visited him in October, 1996 and he had seen the results I was having with the vitamins), his words were "Linda, if you went in any neurologist's office, say for migraines, and they checked you over they would have no idea that you have MS. You have no visible signs of MS in any of the tests I performed, all of your reflexes are normal, an MRI might show MS plaques, but in an office visit the neurologist would have no idea that you have MS."
He thinks I've chosen the "Nutritional" route since the word "Alternative" to him means doing something strange. What I have done is completely healthy.
Well, that's it, my life and times with MS!!
June 30, 1998
I have realized that I left out One major factor in my article. In March of 1996, I began attending church regularly and have since been baptized. Having Jesus in my heart and life is the only thing that could have lead me to creating the list of vitamins, to becoming symptom free and to finally be working from home where I can raise my daughter.
Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. Psalms 37.4
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths. Proverbs 3.5-6
I have been symptom free since September of 1996 and all items termed "permanent" by the medical profession have ceased to exist. It's all natural, it's all nutritional and it is something that hasn't been studied by our medical society. It's an area that needs to be researched and the results of the research need to be made public. The truth belonging to proper nutrition needs to be considered "headline" material, the wealth of pharmaceutical companies needs to rest on a back burner while the health of the public is brought forward.
Update June 24, 2000
I'm still symptom free and thanking the Lord for showing me the way through nutritional healing!! :-)
Update August 26, 2000
I sprayed insecticide around the outside of the house a few weeks back. This really irritated my system (guess I had forgotten that I had an illness, not very bright on my part!). Anyway, I am currently having a problem with my right leg getting fatigue after walking when wearing shoes (this has me stumped since my leg feels so much better without shoes). I'll keep updating this site as new developments occur.
One thing I have learned, if you neglect the supplements, diet, good eating habits, exercise and avoiding the items that irritate your immune system, MS gets the pleasure of saying "I'm back!" :-)
Update February 20, 2002
Things are getting back to normal now Walking is slowly returning to normal....but will probably be normal within the next month or so. Will post again when I jog to the end of the street (and I plan on doing this soon) :-)
I have learned that I need to Trust the Lord to guide me (always) and let Him provide the solution. Let the Lord guide you too. You'll be amazed, I always am!
Take care,
Linda - mslinda@cox.net
P.S. This is the address for the Lab I used to get the ELISA test done:
Meridian Valley Clinical Laboratory
515 W. Harrison St.
Kent, Washington 98032
Fax: (253) 859-1135
Tel: (253) 859-8700
2 food panels covering 190 foods
Here are the addresses of the web sites where I initially found all the information I needed to become symptom free:
Ashton Embry's Theory
http://www.direct-ms.org/bestbet.html [archive.org]
Timothy Stout's Theory http://www.el-dorado.ca.us/~tstout/ms/welcome.html [archive.org]