One of the cornerstones of treatment for multiple sclerosis is dietary. Roy Swank M. D. and his colleagues have shown that diets low in fats cause the illness to go into remission and the symptoms to diminish. Further, in following patients over a period of 35 years, he has shown that those who follow this diet have lower disease progression rates than those
who do not. Most significantly, it has been shown that many patients are able to lead normal lives with
just dietary manipulation alone.
My own experience with patients bears this out. I not only use the
Swank Diet for MS but have found it to be of benefit for other chronic degenerative illness as well. The
MS patient begins to experience changes in the disease process within 4 to 6 weeks of starting the diet,
often sooner. The longer the person continues with the diet the more improvement occurs. Even persons
with severe manifestations of the illness receive some benefit. Inevitably, at some time in the process, the
person will go off the dietary recommendations to see if in fact it is really helping or they are just going
through a period of remission. In every case symptoms begin to return within a short period of time and
will resolve when the patient begins to follow the proper diet again. That some individuals are more
susceptible to high fat diets than others has been shown by D'Adamo through the testing of red blood cell
groupings to determine their genetic susceptibility.
The naturopathic physician is highly trained in
clinical nutrition and possesses the knowledge of the therapeutic nutritional effects of different foods,
vitamins and minerals in the treatment of disease. To this end the physician may choose to test the
patients blood for genetic factors which determine the type of diet best suited for the patient or do allergy
testing to determine what agent is contributing to the illness.
Homeopathy:
Homeopathic medicine is a system of medicine practiced by doctors all over the world. Naturopathic
physicians are prominent in the revival of this healing science which uses like substances to cure like
diseases. This means that substances which will cause the symptoms similar to those of multiple sclerosis,
if taken in toxic doses will, in the homeopathic dose, produce a cure or an amelioration of those
symptoms.
Homeopathic medicine works well because it is not necessary to have a diagnosis in order to prescribe. Rather, what is most important is the symptom pattern presented by the patient as it is an individual manifestation of the disease. This is important because everyone who has MS will have some symptoms in common, but because we are unique individuals, we will have symptoms unique to our own illness. An example would be someone who is experiencing difficulty with reading because they can not focus their eyes for very long and becomes fatigued easily. These symptoms may be common to many MS sufferers, however, in one person they may be brought on by becoming over heated while in another they may occur only in the evening. Using these individual differences, the skilled physician can make the determination between the different medicines which are known to cure the affliction.
Because symptoms are seen as an attempt by the body to heal itself, the action of the medicine stimulates it to complete the healing reaction. While taking the medicine, the patient's body is better able to overcome the restrictions placed upon it by the disease. Because of this stimulating action and the eventual return to a higher level of health and well being, the medicines do not have to be taken for prolonged periods of time, but only until the healing process is complete.