Multiple Sclerosis 1- Complexity

There is no cure for multiple sclerosis.  It's a debilitating (to varying degrees) disorder that affects 300,000 people in the United States; most of them, women. In the coming weeks, I will be posting on multiple sclerosis and the utility of a functional medicine approach toward its management.   Conventional management of the disease has become more sophisticated in the past decade but emerging research may guide us toward more effective care in the future.  You can read about conventional care of MS through this Emedicine website.  Another great resource to keep abreast the current research can be found through the Lancet website. 

For many chronic diseases, functional medicine offers safer and often better options for management.  MS is a condition where a truly integrative approach between conventional and so-called "holistic" care may be ideal.  MS is an autoimmune disease that attacks myelin in the central nervous system.  It is often referred to as a 'demyelinating disorder.'  This means that the fatty sheaths that cover nerve cells are destroyed.  

Multiple sclerosis, while traditionally categorized as a neurological disorder, is actually a disease of immunity.  I realize this is hardly ground-breaking news, but once we really accept that fact that it is immunity gone haywire, it will open up options to approach this disease.

Is MS the result of a "pissed off" brain or a "pissed off" immune system.  Of course it is the brain but only as a consequence of the PO'd immune system.  This leads to the question; what PO'd the immune system?  Was there a provocative agent that made him turn on himself?  There is certainly a genetic component and some of the environmental factors have been identified. For example, researchers have long understood that latitude is significantly related to disease onset.

We'll look at MS through the lens of integrative physiology in the coming weeks.  By the end of this series, I want readers to be convinced that eating well and maintaining a healthy lifestyle are an absolutely essential part of management.  Many doctors and patients have the opinion that a healthy diet and lifestyle are important, but not of critical significance.  In other words, talk of a healthy diet gets a generic head nod and mumbled agreement while the tilt of the conversation moves toward "sexy" therapies like interferon or medications taken concurrently to reduce spasticity or pain.

Patients and doctors managing MS are a zealous lot; weeks of research and aggressive reading into the most suitable therapies.  My hope is that patients and doctors will invest equal time and energy into managing food intake and lifestyle habits.