Why Integrative Medicine Works to Tamp Down Multiple Sclerosis: Traditional Plus Holistic Treatments

If you have multiple sclerosis (MS), be thankful that you live in a time and a place where we know how to keep you virtually asymptomatic.

I was diagnosed with MS in 2000 at age 29. Four years earlier, I had been told that I "might" have MS, because I had a pretty severe case of optic neuritis in my left eye. The ophthalmologist told me that optic neuritis usually indicates MS, but the neurologist wouldn't diagnose me with MS because it was only my first exacerbation -- and back then in 1996, they waited for a "second and different" exacerbation. Today, however, if a healthy young person suddenly has optic neuritis, the neurologist will usually give a preliminary MS diagnosis so treatment can begin.

Optic neuritis is the most common first symptom of MS. What happened to me, and what happens to many people who have optic neuritis out of the blue, is that you’re first worried that it might indicate brain cancer. Indeed, my maternal grandfather died at age 30 in 1947 of brain cancer, so I was worried that this partial blindness was due to brain cancer. After my first MRI, when my ophthalmologist called me at work to tell me that it wasn’t brain cancer, my relief only lasted a few moments before he said that it could indicate MS. I did know that MS was much better than brain cancer, but it was still a shock.

After having the optic neuritis, I hoped that avoiding the various things which we knew triggered MS symptoms, such as heat and stress, would keep any further MS symptoms from occurring. Plus, when I was 26 -- only a year after the episode of optic neuritis and the subsequent MS "warning" -- I also discovered the Blood Type Diet, which accurately (for me) explained that people who have type B blood tend to be good at fending off cancers and heart disease, but not so good at avoiding immune-system conditions such as lupus, Lou Gehrig's disease (ALS), and MS. So finding this science-backed (albeit holistic and naturopathic) diet was like finding the answer to a mysterious riddle.

It was when I got careless -- I took a fairly hot bath in my new Whirlpool tub after moving to a new house, and I'd also just started a new job (all of which equals stress). I developed numbness in the entire left side of my body, and it was then that I was finally diagnosed. I was prescribed Avonex, and so my multifaceted solution was now complete.

How the MS Pieces Came Together

In 1993, the first MS medication became available under the brand name Betaseron (interferon beta 1-b). In 1996, both Avonex (interferon beta 1-a) and Copaxone (glatiramer acetate) became available as alternative options, and they were known as "the ABC drugs for MS."

In the meantime, we had learned many things over recent decades about what can trigger or worsen MS exacerbations, such as getting too hot, being too stressed, and not getting enough sleep.

There have also been some key pieces of knowledge that we've gained in tamping down MS, including avoiding "immune-enhancing" supplements – such as vitamins C and B-6. (This means that multivitamins are to be avoided.) In MS, the immune system is already strong enough as it is, and indeed too strong in certain ways -- so strengthening it further is not only not beneficial, not only unhelpful, but indeed potentially destructive to someone who has MS.

There are certain supplements that are necessary, however, including vitamins D and B-12 as well as magnesium. Evening primrose oil is also believed to be beneficial. Healthy MS patients also tend to value and nurture the spiritual aspect of their life.

In MS, the immune system mistakenly attacks the protective fatty layer that covers neurological cells, and this layer is called myelin. These areas where the myelin has been attacked are called scars, or "sclerosis." Most people's bodies have the ability to replace any missing myelin, but the quality and integrity of the new myelin isn't quite as good as the original -- which is why some MS exacerbations sometimes have aftereffects.

In my book “Game Over, MS,” I explain how the combination of these factors come together to form the ideal solution. The acronym SYSTEMS stands for Spirit, Your mind, Sleep, Temperature, Eat right, Medication, and Supplements.

Although we don’t yet have a cure to MS per se, we do have a solution -- a system -- that truly works.