Eat Like a Cave Man

 I thought my MS friends might be interested in reading this:

By Dr. Mercola

Multiple sclerosis (MS) drugs are some of the most toxic drugs used in the field of medicine, and while it is my strong recommendation not to use them, conventional physicians often offer them as a first-line treatment.

This is especially tragic because there are other options for fighting MS, namely nutrition to support and heal your brain and central nervous system, which I’ll explain shortly.

Unfortunately, many MS patients take drugs because they are not aware that alternatives exist, and this can be a deadly decision.

In fact, a 59-year-old multiple sclerosis patient died last month within 24 hours of taking Gilenya, which is the first oral drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to reduce relapses and delay disability progression in patients with relapsing forms of MS.

While the FDA is still evaluating the case to determine if, in fact, the drug resulted in the patient’s death, it’s already known the drug can cause serious side effects, to the extent that all patients must be monitored for slow heart rate for six hours after they first take the drug.

Multiple Sclerosis Drugs Can be Deadly

When you take drugs for multiple sclerosis, you may very well be trading MS for another set of potentially deadly drug-related symptoms. In the case of Gilenya, which is one of the newer MS drugs approved in September 2010, the FDA states:

"Gilenya may cause serious side effects, such as slow heart rate (bradycardia), which may be related to slowed conduction of electrical impulses from the upper chambers of the heart to the lower chambers of the heart. These effects usually do not cause symptoms, but they can cause dizziness, fatigue, and palpitations."

Other serious risks, as noted by the drug’s manufacturer Web site, include:

• Increased risk of serious infections, as the drug lowers the number of white blood cells in your blood. Two patients died who took higher-dose Gilenya, which increases the risk of infection
• Macular edema, a vision problem that can cause some of the same vision symptoms as an MS attack
• Breathing problems
• Liver problems and increases in blood pressure
• Harm to a woman’s unborn baby, and therefore contraindicated during pregnancy or breastfeeding

Brain Infection, Immune System Problems and More

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es/articles/archive/2010/02/25/ms-drug-continues-to-cause-disastrous-side-effects.aspx” style=”color: rgb(0, 43, 184); text-decoration: none; “>MS drug, Tysabri, was slated to be the "miracle" drug for MS when it hit the market in 2004 because the results from the first year of clinical trials showed that MS patients who took Tysabri for one year had a 66 percent reduction in relapses compared to those who took a placebo.

Tysabri is a type of drug known as a monoclonal antibody, meaning it is derived from a mouse antibody that has been genetically engineered to mirror a human antibody (antibodies are proteins that help your body fight infection). Unlike Gilenya, which is taken orally, Tysabri is given every four weeks by infusion directly into a vein, where the antibodies bind to immune systemcells, inhibiting them from crossing over from the bloodstream to the brain.

However, if destructive immune system cells break free of the bloodstream, they can reach your brain, gastrointestinal tract and joints and cause severe damage, including progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML), a rare brain infection that results in death or severe disablement. The drug was pulled from the market after just three months because of this deadly risk – but years later the FDA allowed it to return!

Other toxic MS medications include:

• Prednisone, a steroid hormone that can significantly impair your immune system, and cause diseases like osteoporosis and cataracts
• Interferon. This drug is quite deceptive, because even though it’s a natural substance, it’s typically given in a dose that shuts down <span class="kLink" style="border-top-width: 0px !important; border-top-style: none !important; border-top-color: initial !important; border-left-width: 0px !important; border-left-style: none !imp

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So what, then, are your options other than drugs if you’re struggling with MS? Many conventional physicians would have you believe there are none, but they obviously have not heard Dr. Terry Wahls’ inspiring story of how she reversed her multiple sclerosis by switching to a Paleo-style diet focused on fresh raw foods, high in specific nutrients needed for proper function of myelin and mitochondria.

The Power of Proper Nutrition for MS

In the video above, Dr. Terry Wahls explains how she reversed multiple sclerosis after seven years of deterioration on the best conventional treatments available — simply by changing her diet!

She began to notice significant improvement in just three months, and at the nine-month mark of her new diet, she was able to go on an 18-mile bike ride! This is astounding when you consider that over the past seven years her condition had deteriorated to the point that she had to sit in a reclined zero-gravity chair and could only walk short distances using two canes.

What was the diet? Well, Dr. Wahls looked into a number of diseases that cause brain shrinkage, including not only MS but also Huntington’s, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease. One common denominator in these conditions is poorly functioning mitochondria, and Dr. Wahls discovered that three nutrients in particular are essential for proper mitochondrial function:

1. Animal-based omega-3 fat
2. Creatine
3. Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), or better yet, the reduced version known as Ubiquinol

Just by adding those three to her diet, her decline began to slow. But it wasn’t until she adjusted her diet for optimal mitochondrial-, myelin-, and neurotransmitter function that she began to improve. She also eliminated processed foods, grains, and starches (which includes potatoes and corn), and within a matter of months experienced astounding improvements.

In short, she altered her diet to reflect the Paleo-style diet of the hunter-gatherers of old as follows:

• 3 cups daily (equal to one dinner plate, piled high) of green leaves, such as kale, which are high in vitamins in the B group, A, C, K, and minerals
• 3 cups daily of sulfur-rich vegetables from the cabbage- and onion- families, mushrooms and asparagus

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Wild fish for animal-based omega-3’s

Grass-fed meat

Organ meats for vitamins, minerals and CoQ10

Seaweed for iodine and selenium

You Don’t Have to Risk Your Life to Recover from MS

If you are diagnosed with MS, you need to understand that taking potentially deadly drugs is not your only option — and that optimizing your diet can have truly profound implications for your health. Dr. Wahls is a poster-child for the complete lack of benefit gleaned from such drug treatments, and the profound healing that can be achieved using nutrition, and her dietary recommendations are spot-on.

I’d like to add a few other strategies as well, and below is a summary of my lifestyle recommendations for MS. Many are identical to the general-health principles I’ve been teaching for years, but a few stand out as being specifically applicable to the treatment of autoimmune diseases such as MS.

• Optimize your vitamin D levels – This is an essential step, as there are well over a dozen studies showing a link between MS and vitamin D deficiency.   While the optimal level for general health lies between 50-70 ng/ml, when treating diseases such as cancer, heart disease, or autoimmune diseases, your level should ideally be somewhere between 70-100 ng/ml. The preferred method to raise (and maintain) your vitamin D levels is by regularly exposing large amounts of your skin to sunshine, or by u