Multiple Sclerosis - My Approach to Defeat it.

I'm here in my home office waiting for a student who is consistently late. Thought I'd take the time to write. I did allude to some important stuff I believe anyone with ms should do. But first a bit about my background with ms:

My diagnosis came when I was 25 - that was 27 years ago! This was from MRI and spinal tap. I have r/r which means relapsing/remitting ms. I think the first few years were the worst as far as the "attacks" went. Now they are few and far between. I have been on Copaxone injectables now for the past 9 years - yes, I hate taking the shots but I think it helps. My advice to anyone new to ms is - try not to let it consume your life - you are so much more than some dumb disease! God has not forsaken you but given you a challenge. Try not to do what I did - when I was young I read that people with ms don't live beyond a certain age - so I stopped living. What I heard is now a bunch of bullshit. I am still alive and kicking. Don't give up - things will get better!

This is what I've done that I believe has helped me to be well for a long time:
1) have and give love and support and prayers to, and from, a wonderful family.
2) cut back on saturated fats - the bad kind of cholesterol.
3) take the good kind of fatty acids - twice a day every day religiously - Flax seed oil 1000mg 2x daily .
4) make attempts to decrease body inflammatory index - more about this below.
5) stay out of saunas and hot tubs and raising body temperature.
6) drink black and green tea all the time - 3 cups or more daily.
7) avoid diet sugars like splenda and aspartame (carefully check all labels called "light", many have hidden aspartame or splenda) - more below .
8) treat depression - meditate or medicate.
9) avoid stress - meditate or medicate.
10) Take aspirin as soon as ms starts to flare up - it decreases inflammation.
11) If you are taking blood thinners, meds for heart disease or high blood pressure, do NOT take the flax-seed oil or aspirin for they thin the blood naturally - strokes are worse than ms. Ask a doctor first.

Inflammation is either the cause or an effect of ms, in my opinion. Nobody, especially doctors, want you to believe you can do anything about this. I think you can! Doctors are not God.

You need to avoid foods that cause bodily inflammation and eat foods that decrease it. Meats and dairy foods increase inflammation, especially lamb and veal - the young animals have enzymes in them that promote inflammation. (Two bad attacks I've had were after eating lamb.)
Foods that decrease inflammation are: citric fruits and green vegetables, Cinnamon, Turmeric, Cayenne aka red pepper and black pepper, oily fish.

Sugar - too much is never a good thing - but did you know that aspartame was never properly tested by the FDA but was pushed through by various lobbyists. Profits are the name of the game! Aspartame turns into FORMALDEHYDE in the human body! Get this - some baby foods even have aspartame in them - why? Splenda is supposed to be a "natural sugar"? Then why does it cause constipation? They've tried to solve this problem by adding fiber pellets to the sugar crystals - come on! But fiber does decrease inflammation too, so get some, but not from splenda.

Anger and stress also increase inflammation, meditation and prayer is a good way to help these emotions.

Okay, I could go on and on, and I will in some of my next posts. I hope this will help someone out there!