Multiple Sclerosis What Are the Facts What Do They Mean

Published on January 2017 | Categories: Documents | Downloads: 26 | Comments: 0 | Views: 300
of 9
Download PDF   Embed   Report

Comments

Content

Multiple Sclerosis: What are the facts? What do they mean?

Prologue:
Hello. My name is Bob, I'm a health educator from Centennial, Colorado, a Denver suburb. Eight years ago my now ex-wife was diagnosed with MS. A month back a friend also was told she had the disease. I found myself, once again, reading everything I can find on the internet and in libraries, etc. about Multiple Sclerosis. In the process, I’ve re-asked the six original questions that I'd wondered about back in late 2001 and now added several more. In the process of researching MS, I discovered that American doctors, large national drug companies, and the AMA seem to incidentally be conspiring to keep the truth from victims, their families and the American people. Believing that “the truth shall set you free,” I have written this paper about MS for everyone who is either a victim or a friend, family member or knows an MS victim. You can get the basics about multiple sclerosis in a million places. I recommend: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_Sclerosis becauseit is a fairly even-handed approach to the reality that is multiple sclerosis. If you’re not well-informed about the disease itself, I recommend you do your homework and visit the website before reading this paper. This paper will dispute much of what is presented as fact about MS. I believe someone must speak up because so long as the present day nihilistic medical philosophy of tossing more and more ailments into the illusive category of “autoimmune disease,” holds sway, Americans will have the most expensive and least effective health care system on the planet. The MS article at the Wikipedia link above reflects current orthodox thinking on MS in the American medical community. The trouble is A. thatso-called “orthodox” thinking is regarded as fact and anything contrary to that thinking is regarded as medical heresy and is vehemently attacked by the American Medical Association rather than given the fair hearing it deserves B. That “orthodox” thinking currently puts roughly 60 diseases into the grab bag of auto-immunity and the result is that the diseases in question are seen as incurable (because it’s the body itself that is seen as the attacking organism) and therefore the only reasonable course of medical treatment is to treat the symptoms with dangerous drugs and the patient is thus comforted but nevertheless relegated to the scrap heap waiting for the disease to eventually weaken and kill him/her or for the sideeffects of the medicines to do so. Lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, MS, AIDS, and CrohnsDisease are just a few among a whole host of ailments that are considered “incurable auto-immune diseases” a great convenience for the pharmaceutical industry and those doctors specializing in these expensive to treat ailments. All that is required from the patient is to be a lifelong subscriber to the expensive potions that ease their symptoms and those doctors and those companies are perfectly happy.

Personal Introduction
It is only fairthat before you potentially waste your time reading about MS, as I see it, that you understand my credentials. In a phrase: “I have none.” I am a health educator and personal trainer/life coach. I own no medical degrees. I am what’scalled a free-thinker. My biggest single contribution, and it’s now all over the internet, is something called “The Seven Golden Rules of Health” which I have been spreading since I first discovered them in 1976 while working at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas. More than anything I can say to you, this little blurb I’ve been spreading tells you everything any reasonable person needs to know about me:

The Seven Golden Rules of Health I first named them in health education materials I created for public dissemination in Kansas back in 1977, four or five months after reading the research on a lengthy University of California study of vigorous elderly people. The study identified seven lifestyle traits shared by virtually all of the hardy geriatric individuals examined. To wit: 1. Eating a relatively large healthy breakfast daily 2. Regularly eating 3-5 meals daily 3. Maintaining a normal healthy weight 4. Regularly sleeping 7-8 hours nightly 5. Avoidance of tobacco products and drugs 6. Regular vigorous exercise (besides walking, jogging and swimming, this included gardening, house-keeping, tennis, golf and activities like running a ranch, etc.) 7. Extremely light use of alcohol (equivalent to a six-pack a week) From my experience I would add that seat-belt use is crucial and should be included as golden rule #8. Also, even though the study showed in item #7 that “no use of alcohol” is harder on longevity than light use is, my experience is that a vast number of absolute teetotalers (complete abstainers from alcoholic beverages) are reformed alcoholics who often have greatly harmed their health long before they gave up booze. I’m a light drinker myself, but don’t necessarily trust that particular moderation of mine is holier than thine abstinence if you weren’t a lush to begin with.

The most impressive thing from this study was that when it was extrapolated onto the general populace . . . a man of 55 who followed 6-7 of the lifestyle habits had the same actuarial age as a man of 20 who practiced 0-1 of them. In other words, the two men might very well be expected to die on the same day. Those 35 years are my personal definition of “quality of life.”

The Vital Questions about Multiple Sclerosis, that No One is Asking?
As I said, I’m living in Centennial, Colorado. The first two of these questions should be obvious to any Colorado resident familiar with the MS health crisis in the state. More importantly, however, they lead the earnest questioner toward a new theory of MS that suggests a logical “cause” and logical place to start looking for the cure . . . . 1. Why is Colorado the U.S. state with the highest MS incidence per capita? 2. Why is Colorado Springs the highest incident large city in the highest incident state? 3. Why do women suffer from MS at a rate roughly 2-4 times as great as men? 4. Why is MS less prevalent on the coasts? 5. Why is MS far more prevalent in urban settings than in rural areas? 6. Central Nervous System Dilators pioneered as an MS treatment during the 1950’s by Bayard Horton of the Mayo Clinic were apparently quite successful with few or no side effects in relieving acute attacks promptly and often prevented progression? Why? 7. MRI examinations today frequently depict a lack of correlation between symptoms and lesions in MS (often called the “clinico-radiological paradox). What’s going on? If demyelization is the fundamental essential lesion in multiple sclerosis, why is there often no correlation? 8. Trials of sex hormones show they improve lesions as well as symptoms and Larginine, zinc and magnesium supplements also seem to lesson symptoms. Why? 9. What role do deficiencies of endothelial and neuronal nitric oxide and elevated levels of inducible nitric oxide play in MS? Is this symptomatic or causal? 10. Is better detection the only reason MS incidence has risen so dramatically in the last 40 years, or is some environmental factor exacerbating the situation? 11. What about the “brain leak” theory of MS? That theory says free hemoglobin

scavenges nitric oxide avidly, which may create deficiencies especially in the central nervous system, with its greater vasodilator tone. Could depletion of endothelial nitric oxide shift blood from the arterial circulation to the venous circulation in MS sufferers as in diabetics? Could multiple sclerosis result from too little blood in arteries and arterioles leading to vasospastic symptoms? Meanwhile could too much blood in veins and venules lead to blood-brain barrier leakage and lesions? 12. Is there any logical reason for continued loyalty by many to the idea that MS is an anti-immune condition? 13. Is there one over-arching theory that might explain all these factors? 14. Is there one over-arching theory about disease that goes beyond “the germ theory” of disease and explains how the body “goes wrong?” 15. Does that over-arching theory tie in with the over-arching theory of MS causation? The more I read, the more certain I become that these factors need to be explained and understood. OXYGEN is the key An obvious main or, at least, exacerbating factor seems to jump out from the first six questions: OXYGEN! The clearest correlation for Question #1 is that higher altitudes = lower oxygen density levels. Colorado is the state with the highest average altitude among the 50 states. As far as Question #2, Colorado Springs, the 49th largest city in the country, is easily the highest large metropolitan area in the country roughly 750 ft. (14%) higher than “Mile-High” Denver. Question #3, Women’s bodies and their unique chemistry may make them far more vulnerable than men to MS for any number of reasons. Exploring the OXYGEN HYPOTHESIS among women more deeply . . . women tend to be smaller with smaller lungs and hearts and society until recently encouraged female physical fitness far less than it did male activity so generally speaking females were less efficient VO max processors than men. Additionally, hemoglobin and iron are more problematical in females during their menses which makes females more likely prey for anemia again potentially lessening oxygen-use efficiency. A factor which I've also noticed and which may not have any bearing on the issue is that females are about eight or nine times more likely than man at any given moment to be engaged in dieting, skipping breakfast and sometimes fad fasting that is just plain nonsensical health-wise . . . this is behavior which could spark nutritional deficiencies. I've seen nothing about dieting, eating 3-5 regular meals daily, good nutrition, or having a good breakfast in the MS literature, but common sense says, good habits are important and could play a role. Question #4, the coasts, are by definition, found at sea level hence, lower than 99.99% of the inland areas of the country with more oxygen available. Additionally, coastal diet is far more likely to include fish with its attendant fish oil (deficiencies implicated in Alzheimer’s, high blood pressure and heart attacks) which aids in oxygen processing.

Question #5, People in rural areas are less likely to face high levels of air pollution (smog) than city dwellers. In particular: diesel fumes, ground level ozone contamination and INHALED nitric oxide contamination are brutal every day facts of life in our largest cities. (By the way: INHALED nitric oxide is confusing in many respects to the layman. A. it is NOT nitrous oxide (laughing gas) once commonly used as an anesthetic in dentistry. B. Our bodies naturally create nitric oxide and it is one of the most important gases found in our blood stream (as reflected in the Nobel Prize for Medicine awarded to Dr. Louis Ignarro) which we will discuss later as it relates to MS. C. Many people realize that nitric oxide is also an important negative component of tobacco smoke. In any case, the obvious effect of air pollution is less oxygen and more toxins allowed to reach the lungs, heart, brain and every cell of the human body than one would expect from clear, pure country air. Question #6 Peter Good’s thought-provoking website on nitric oxide and MS seems to indicate that there was great success with the CNS vasodilator histamine diphosphate during the late 40's, the 50's and 60's. Today’s “fashion” calls for different meds with greater potential for dangerous side effects. CNS vasodilation with histamine not only fairly consistently relieved a disease now thought to be incurable, it thereby demonstrated that its fundamental lesion may be something entirely different from demyelization which is an idea considered heretical to the AMA and today’s drug companies and MS Specialists. Having said that let's examine Question #12, Is there any logical reason for continued loyalty by many to the idea that MS is an anti-immune condition? As a result we regard MS today as incurable because its primary lesion is thought to be an irreversible disintegration of myelin sheaths in the brain and spinal cord. That thought pattern has been in place for roughly 50 years. Neurologists who successfully treated MS with vasodilators thought the lesion was REVERSIBLE because the underlying cause – a diminished blood supply in the brain and cord (leading to oxygen lack there), they said, was treatable. Because of the autoimmune assumption, workable theories and workable treatments (and cures?) have been relegated to the trash heap. Certainly some MS cases have reversed, rare but well-documented cases with lightning strikes, for example. How lightning could ever "re-myelinize" the nervous system is a mystery even beyond the question of how lightning can reverse the symptoms. Certainly, it does NOT seem incredible that all that amperage might “charge” the cells up for more efficient oxygen processing, is there? Question #7, since MRI results seem NOT to show continued and progressive demyelization as the fundamental and unvarying effect of MS and they don’t rule out oxygen as a key factor, we can continue to keep an open mind toward blood and oxygen as the fundamental truth of the disease. Lest anyone decide that I’m seeking oversimplification of a complex problem . . . Siblerud and Kienholz (1994) compared red blood cell concentrations and hemoglobin levels of MS patients who had their mercury amalgam dental fillings removed against blood values of MS patients who retained their amalgam fillings: MS subjects with amalgams were found to have significantly lower levels of red blood cells, hemoglobin and hematocrit compared to MS subjects with amalgam removal.... The MS amalgam group had significantly higher blood urea nitrogen and lower serum IgG.... A health questionnaire found that MS subjects with

amalgams had significantly more (33.7%) exacerbations during the past 12 months compared to the MS volunteers with amalgam removal. Obviously, while we’re still talking about the blood’s ability to deliver oxygen . . . every indication is that a wide variety of toxins and negative effects might stimulate that same overarching undesirable effect. The specific trigger may vary from case to case, but the indications are that oxygen and blood might well hold the key to understanding MS. Just as in AIDS, the possibility that the immune system is responding to an agent like a virus is countered by the reality that no such agent has ever been identified. We know that once identified, if transmitted to any animal or human in clinical experiments that theory could be proved. Retrovirus, where art thou????? In truth, endogenous retroviruses have not yet been proven to play any causal role in this disease. According to PO Behan and A Chaudhuri of Glasgow University, together with BO Roep of Leiden University (2002) contend there is little support for contemporary views that multiple sclerosis is an immunological disease. And not surprisingly, according to them, there is little benefit from treatments based on this misconception. In any case, since no "smoking gun" for MS has ever been found, isn't it a little short-sighted to UNCRITICALLY say that it MUST BE an autoimmunity problem? Question #8, again brings up questions of gender. Women, who typically undergo puberty earlier than men, get MS more often and earlier and its path is less likely to be predictable and progressive compared to male victims. Some success has been had treating both genders with male and/or female hormones. Additionally, L-arginine creates nitric oxide in the blood which dilates blood vessels. Zinc and magnesium are under-appreciated nutrients which play vital roles in human health. Again, The specific trigger for MS may vary from case to case, but there are no indications here that oxygen and blood do not hold the key to understanding MS and certainly there is no outright refutation for that idea to be found in this question. See the next paragraph . . . . Question #9 and 11 are best answered and best understood together through the insights of Peter Good: “Two signs that endothelial nitric oxide may be chronically depleted in multiple sclerosis are that patients tend to be very heat-sensitive, and their platelets are sticky. Sensitivity to stress may reveal depletion of the parasympathetic transmitter neuronal nitric oxide. Other reasons to suspect endothelial nitric oxide depletion in multiple sclerosis are apparent deficiencies of sex hormones, magnesium, and zinc. Estrogen, testosterone via estrogen, and magnesium all utilize endothelial nitric oxide, the primary endogenous vasodilator, to relax vascular smooth muscle. The (most simple and straightforward explanation) cause of multiple sclerosis might be that too little blood in arteries and arterioles leads to vasospastic symptoms, while too much blood in veins and venules leads to blood-brain barrier leakage and lesions.” A recent Nobel Prize based upon L-arnithine and nitric oxide gas in the blood being a "trigger" for the body seems to offer a promising area for further study. In any case, Oxygen's potentially primary role would be in harmony with this data. Question #10, is easily dealt with, in principle as the last 40 years have seen a precipitous rise in all manner of environmental toxins. Polluted foods (steroids and anti-biotics in meats, for example), side effects of certain pharmaceuticals, residential toxins (such as arising from carpet liners, asbestos, etc., etc., ad nauseum), the preponderance of intimate electronic devices such as cell phones,

and just plain stress all could easily be regarded as potential triggers somehow setting in motion the conditions leading to diminished blood and oxygen to the brain and spinal cord. Overuse of antibiotics (acne prescriptions are the most clearcase) and the insidious effect they have on the body’s natural intestinal biota are another suspect area. Obviously, we live in toxic times, but is this really where MS comes from, or perhaps merely what exacerbates MS? Question #13 (Is there one over-arching theory that might explain all these factors?) In answering the previous 12 questions we have laid the groundwork for open mindedly considering that, for now, the overarching theory that holds the key to understanding MS seems to be: a theory of diminished blood supply and/or oxygen supply; or a theory of sick cells unable to efficiently and effectively process oxygen from the blood. Question #14 Inlooking at a whole host of diseases, most notably ones regarded as auto-immune; or at cancer, on a cellular level, the diseases seem to thrive in the absence of oxygen. For example, one promising new line of cancer attack is based upon heavily oxygenating the tumor area. Along those lines, in Europe where water with an extra oxygen atom (an H2O2 or hydrogen peroxide molecule) is looked upon as a “wonder treatment,” the idea of oxygenation as a first line of defense against disease is taken very seriously. Clinics where IV hydrogen peroxide treatment is one of the standards are found all over. More importantly the “old wive’spanacea” for many ailments there consists of eight drops of “foodgrade” hydrogen peroxide in a glass of distilled or well water. In Europe the overarching theory of disease seems to be that germs may attack, but what makes a body susceptible to germs seems to be individual cells which do not or cannot process oxygen effectively. Yes, among the biggest necessities for maintaining each cell of our body healthy is oxygen. But rather than my simplistic original telling of it which basically implied that water is left over and the extra oxygen molecule (hydrogen peroxide is H2O2, remember) gets added to the amount inside our cells . . . the process is far more complicated and beautiful. Let me make it simple and beautiful for you. Hydrogen peroxide acts in several places in the human body pretty much like a hormone. It "nudges" the cell in a certain way that helps it virtually immediately begin to process the oxygen within it at a much higher efficiency: voila! a superhealthy cell instead of a dying one. So the European theory, as restated, is NOT that the dying or sick cells lack oxygen but rather that what makes them sick is their inability to process what oxygen they do have efficiently and effectively. The European reasoning is that cellular-oxygen deprivation is believed to play a significant role in virtually all the common health problems we face. In other words, the body may be genetically vulnerable or "nudged by lifestyle" toward vulnerability to say, MS or arthritis, but it is only when the individual cells involved face severe oxygen deprivation that the problem is exacerbated into full-fledged disease. Here's the "beautiful" part of the explanation (everything dramatically simplified, naturally): Take something like MS, AIDS, lupus, or rheumatoid arthritis. All of

these have been cast by American theoretical medicine into a nihilistic framework called "auto-immune diseases. I say "nihilistic" because once you say it's the body attacking itself, this means you can never hope to cure it. Your only resource is to throw expensive drugs at the problem and put up with the god-awful sideeffects as you merely control the symptoms. But the European model looks at these ailments holistically and this hydrogen peroxide model I've stumbled upon in their research fits in perfectly. Beside the hormone-like action I mentioned with individual cells the actual interplay between the immune system and disease goes like this: Among the first lines of defense against invading micro-organisms which the body recognizes as "alien" by the body's immunological system are the macrophages and leucocytes (white blood cells) and guess what compound plays an important role in the process as these macrophages and leucocytes fight off these invaders? If you said H2O2, go to the head of the class! How is it done? H2O2 oxidizes the foreign cells to death. But that's just a small part of it . . . . Remember when Linus Pauling got the Nobel Prize for his work with Vitamin C? It also turns out that Vitamin C is primarily/principally effective because its boost to the immune system is via C's ability to promote hydrogen peroxide use against foreign entities (parasites, viruses, bacteria, yeast/fungus) with extraordinary efficiency. Not enough Vitamin C? It's called scurvy and it leaves you vulnerable to a thousand opportunistic killer diseases. Most of the common animals we see don't need C because their bodies synthesize their own C. Meanwhile, animals like men and other primates evolved in C-rich environments and got C from citrus fruits and other plants so they never needed to synthesize C which was readily available via diet. So learning about H2O2 reinforces Vitamin C's crucial role in body health. It also seems that when examined closely, MS medicines that do give relief also relieve the oxygen processing problems at a cellular level! But the H2O2 hits keep right on coming . . . All body tissues contain catalase . . . and hydrogen peroxide in the presence of catalase reduces to oxygen and water -- this is NOT the main benefit (the extra oxygen) but it shows that most importantly when used properly and carefully, H2O2 is not only natural and ubiquitous throughout the human body but it is utterly safe and wildly effective against most invading organisms. This cannot please the pharmaceutical companies nor many wrong-spirited doctors since H2O2 is cheap and not patentable and does not require extended complicated treatments in hospitals or clinics but it may very well hold the key (along with the 7 Golden Rules of Health) to fuller, more active and longer healthier lives as well as to MS treatment. By the way, if you're interested in the more complex big picture and the "nudging" I mentioned, here's a simplification of that also: Hydrogen peroxide is NOT now, but should be considered an essential metabolite, a substance vitally necessary to the processes of life.**** It is important that the body have in place killer-cells that allow at least temporary respite from microbial attack so the overall system has "down time" to heal and rejuvenate. With aging

or the onslaught of disease the immune systems weaken and leave us vulnerable to diseases of opportunity. **** This theory about H2O2's importance comes from William Campbell Douglass, M.D., who states that not only is H2O2 (Hydrogen Peroxide) involved in phagocytosis (killing and absorption of foreign germs), but it also “acts like insulin in that it aids the transport of sugar through the body.” It is also at least as important, or perhaps more so, than thyroid for heat generation because it creates “intracellular thermo-genesis, a warming of your cells which is absolutely essential to life’s processes.”

Sponsor Documents

Or use your account on DocShare.tips

Hide

Forgot your password?

Or register your new account on DocShare.tips

Hide

Lost your password? Please enter your email address. You will receive a link to create a new password.

Back to log-in

Close