The MS Diagnosis - How It All Started

Everyone has their own story. Their own drama. Their own distress. Their own illness. Their own health.

We are nothing more than a culmination of the experiences we have in our lives. Our journey took a dramatic turn when my wife was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at age 37. Living a highly healthy lifestyle already – exercise regimens, vegetarian based diet, minimal vices – this diagnosis was devastating. Of course, being newly diagnosed, we relied on our doctors to provide the guidance, expertise, and best options to manage this insidious disease. This is the American way. We are ingrained and indoctrinated to hold doctors to the highest degree as authoritarians and, essentially, give our bodies to them to heal rather than educate ourselves. This has become deeply entrenched in the mindsets of our culture.

Numerous MRI’s and then acceptance into a medical study – we began phase I of the recovery journey, or, so we thought. This required 2 shots per day of intense medication. Side effects were severe, never mind the impact to the areas of injection creating leather skin and hardness of the affected areas. We did what we were told, all the while questioning the validity of what we were doing. Could this really be effective? Are these side effects worth it? The many questions we had put us on a journey of research to understand how MS works and why this medication was supposed to help.

All the while, told to rest, not push the body, and asked if we wanted any depression medication, we took the alternate approach. We were not going to allow the disease to control us, we were going to try and control it. We opted to make physical goals rather than not push the body. We embarked on hiking the summit of all 48 4000’ mountains in NH, our favorite vacation locale. Even more challenging was that my wife had never even once hiked a summit, never mind hike all 48 large peaks post diagnosis. Credit to her for the desire and acceptance of the challenge. I became her psychological coach to keep her from getting depression, highly common for those diagnosed with MS.

So, the research journey began. The physical journey began. The hiking started with smaller, less difficult peaks, and she became hooked. The research continued on our own, all the while continuing with the daily shots for almost 2 years. Side effects got worse, panic attacks increased. Skin irritations worsened. Hives, those that require emergency room visits, occurred.

This led to a major turn in the journey. Education and experience equal awareness. Awareness then leads to decision making.

It all starts with understanding how MS works and how the medical community responds. MS is, in and of itself, a central nervous system disorder in which there are numerous effects due to multiple hardenings or scars to the nerve fibers. Labeled the ‘snowflake’ disease because it is so individualized and comes in so many varietal effects on the host, the key is that the body is allegedly attacking itself, creating detrimental effects to portions of the body.

Myelin is the sheathing around nerves. It is similar to the rubber coating on electrical cords that surround the copper wiring inside, i.e. the nerve. In those diagnosed with MS, this sheathing (myelin) is eroded, exposing the nerve which, due to its open exposure, creates lesions in the brain. The location of the lesion then determines where in the body there is a corollary effect – numbness, paralysis, reduced mobility, loss of functionality, loss of speech or vision, loss of feeling, loss of balance, or other symptoms. The myelin then recovers the nerve, and the lesion goes dormant. Those with permanent impacts have myelin that does not repair itself, leaving the nerve exposed.

It is the medical community’s belief is that the body’s immune system is attacking the myelin as it is similar in genetical code to a virus – the body mistakes it as a virus, attacks it, erodes it, and exposes the nerve creating the negative body impact. This is the disorder in those with MS - the body’s immune system recognizes the myelin as a virus and attacks it accordingly.

As a result of this belief, the intent from the medical community is to reduce the body’s immune system so that it does not further attack the myelin, thus slowing down the impact of the MS to the host. In theory, if it is believed that the body would attack itself, then this makes common sense. Or, so we thought.

Reducing the immune system in one’s body comes with many risks. The immune system is designed to work as best as it can to thwart negative effects from the body. The human body is the most complex working machine we know. Why would we want to reduce it from working at its peak? This seems contrary to common sense. Reducing the immune system exposes the host to numerous other risks, viruses, flus, or ability to cure itself from any other malady. It is simply not a good idea to minimize one’s immunity system effectiveness, the best possible cure our own body knows.

While suffering horrific side effects, remaining physically active, and questioning the validity of this approach, it became more and more clear to us that the medication was not what we felt was in our best medical interests. There was no guarantee it would work. The costs were unbelievable – thank goodness for excellent medical coverage at the time. The side effects were terrible. The risks were unknown. We felt like guinea pigs.

More research lead to the belief that the body’s immune system should not be tampered with. We are reducing the effectiveness of the body’s ability to work properly. Even if the theory that the immune system was eroding the myelin, the theory of reducing the immunity system no longer made sense. My wife informed her doctor that she would no longer take medication and begin a natural healing regimen. Her doctor was not supportive, threatened detrimental future health problems if this severe medication was not continued, and reiterated his demand for her to continue. To the contrary, we were going to do all we could to maximize the body’s immunity system, not defeat it, and get our bodies back to optimum working condition – that which nature and evolution gave to us at birth.

So, the natural journey began. Off synthetic medication. Hives continued from long term side effects. However, panic attacks, daily painful injections, skin irritations were no longer issues. The key now is learning how to maximize the body’s immune system to do what it was built for. We were going to address and handle the MS the natural way, holistically, getting the body to heal itself, not require manufactured medication to do something the body should be able to do for itself.

The natural journey was founded on understanding how to maximize the immune system, remove all toxins, stress, and things creating negative impacts on the body and rebuilding it from inside. That would provide the ‘cure’ to the problem. Not just addressing the symptoms.

13 years later, armed with extensive experiences, wellness has been achieved naturally. We are not in any way urging others to follow our lead nor challenging the highly educated medical community – we are simply providing knowledge so that each person can determine how they personally choose to manage achieving wellness whether they have been diagnosed with a chronic or life threatening illness or they simply want to be as well as possible. Wellness leads to quality of life and longevity – those goals that should take precedence over almost anything in our collective lives.

We intend to provide many tips, recipes, lessons learned, experiences, education, and options to increase the body’s immune system. We now run an organic vegetable farm, and my wife has never felt better – physically, emotionally, and psychologically. While no one can guarantee the future, we truly feel maximizing the body’s immune system is the optimum approach for most diseases, not poisoning the body with synthetically manufactured chemicals that the body was never designed to digest/process. One has to ponder why there are so many severe side effects to prescription medication – that in and of itself should lead one to examine deeply what they are taking and the true effects on the body.

It is each individual’s personal choice how they wish to treat maladies with their own body. We choose to take control rather than be told what is best for us. We choose wellness over the western approach of treating symptoms. For those that choose the natural approach, they look younger, have stronger immune systems, and seem healthier. Indeed, it can be hard work for some; that is why it is not a cliff jump but a journey - a wonderful, educational, enlightening approach to achieve wellness which will lead to an overall optimum quality of life from a health standpoint.