Last Updated on November 30, 2023 by Cathy
Can multiple sclerosis be cured? There really is no “cure” for multiple sclerosis (MS). But that doesn’t mean you can’t stop the progression and reverse its symptoms for a better quality of life. Conventional doctors believe in immunosuppressant medications to manage MS. Unfortunately, they come with horrible side effects like severe depression, heart damage, liver damage, and even death.
The worst part, MS drugs don’t stop the disease progression – they only slow it down IF they work. Researchers now believe MS starts with genetic susceptibility. But, it’s the environment and lifestyle habits that trigger it.
At the bottom of this post, I will give you the steps to reverse MS.
Is MS Genetic?
MS can run in families but it doesn’t in my family, I’m the only one with MS. But, when I took a DNA test it revealed I had a “3 times higher risk” meaning I inherited a predisposition for MS from my parents.
That doesn’t mean MS was in my destiny. My genes didn’t cause me to get MS it was my environment and lifestyle habits that caused MS to develop. The sad part is, I was only fifteen years old when I had my first MS symptom – optic neuritis. (You can see a picture from my DNA results below.)
HLA-DRB1*15:01 increases the risk of MS by three times.
Environment and lifestyle habits play a bigger role than conventional doctors believe. They believe our immune system goes haywire and starts attacking our own body. But our immune system is defending itself against something that is wrong inside of our body.
Possible Triggers to MS:
- Poor Diet
- Infections (bacteria, parasites, viruses, and yeast overgrowth)
- Environmental toxins (heavy metals, mold, pesticides, etc.)
- Chronic stress
- Hormones (adrenaline, cortisol, etc.)
Functional Medicine
In autoimmune diseases, there is chronic inflammation. Functional medicine looks at the root cause of the inflammation and the doctors determine how and why the disease occurs. They work to restore a person back to health not mask the symptoms.
Your body is fighting something — an infection, a toxin, an allergen, a food or the stress response — and somehow it redirects its hostile attack on your joints, your brain, your thyroid, your gut, your skin, or sometimes your whole body.
– Mark Hyman, MD
Unlike conventional medicine, functional medicine doesn’t treat the name of the disease. Instead, doctors treat the cause in each individual. They believe in restoring balance in the body and the interconnections between symptoms. Since everyone is different – everyone’s treatment will be different.
Imagine that you’re standing on a tack. How would you treat the pain? The obvious answer is that you’d take the tack out of your foot. You wouldn’t just keep taking aspirin until it felt better. But that’s exactly how most doctors treat illness!
– Mark Hyman, MD
Taking pharmaceutical drugs only masks the symptoms. The drugs may make you feel better for a while but the disease keeps progressing. Pharmaceutical drugs don’t stop the progression of MS!
Addressing the Root Causes of Inflammation
Remove whatever root causes are keeping your body from moving toward a state of wellness. You need to become a detective to discover what the root cause is, it’s more than likely there is more than one trigger.
Start by cleaning up your diet. Remove processed foods, grains, dairy, legumes, and refined sugar. Eat a clean diet with whole foods and lots of vegetables. There are many more steps listed at the bottom of this post.
Foods to avoid:
- Dairy
- Gluten
- Refined sugar
- Artificial flavors and sweeteners
- Natural flavors
- Corn (it’s mostly a GMO)
- Soy (it’s mostly a GMO)
- MSG
- Canola oil (it’s mostly a GMO)
- Pork (it’s high in fat and prone to parasites)
- Farmed fish (it’s washed in toxic chemicals due to parasites)
- Processed citric acid (it’s mostly derived from corn)
Foods to eat:
- Vegetables
- Fruit
- Healthy fats
- Nuts
- Seeds
- Wild-caught fish
- Pasture-raised poultry
- Grass-fed beef
Get your vitamin D tested, most people with MS have a deficiency. It is a known fact that the further away a person lives from the equator the higher their risk is for MS. The majority of people are also deficient in magnesium which is an important aspect of vitamin D. All organs in the body use both vitamin D and magnesium.
Heavy Metals in the Body
Test for heavy metals, the most common are arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury. Researchers claim there is “no scientific evidence” that heavy metals cause harm to the body or brain.
However, many studies have proved mercury is dangerous to human health, including the central nervous system. Mercury is considered an “environmental pollutant of high risk” because of its high toxicity. It’s associated with neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and MS.
Mercury exposure at high levels can harm the brain, heart, kidneys, lungs, and immune system of all ages.
– MedicineNet
Sources of mercury:
- Batteries
- Dental amalgams
- Fluorescent and CFL light bulbs
- Fish (king mackerel, swordfish, tuna)
- Thermometers
- Thimerosal contained in vaccines (hepatitis B, flu, rabies)
Gadolinium is the contrast dye commonly used with MRIs. This gives doctors a better look at the brain but it also contains metal. The metal can stay in the body for months even years after receiving the drug.
If you are getting an MRI every year or every six months the gadolinium is adding up. Heavy metals, no matter how small the amount should not be in your brain!
How to Clam Down the Inflammation
Your first step is to stop eating processed and junk foods. They are full of sugar, chemicals, additives, preservatives, and unrecognizable ingredients. Instead, you should eat a diet of mostly vegetables.
Forget what we’ve heard for the past 40 years about fats. Healthy fats are anti-inflammatory and rich in omega-3 fatty acids. They are good for our brains, central nervous system, and heart.
Healthy fats:
- Avocados
- Chia seeds
- Coconut
- Flaxseeds, ground
- Olive oil
- Salmon
- Walnuts
Try an elimination diet to find foods your body is sensitive to. This is how I discovered I was sensitive to tomatoes and sweet peppers. Common food sensitivities for people with MS are eggs and nightshades.
Quick Links To Information In This Post:
Improve Your Lifestyle Habits
We live in a busy world doing two or three things all at once. All this does is create stress, frustration, and exhaustion. You need to put YOU first! Take time to relax to remove stress and enjoy the little things in life. Like going for a walk or reading a good book.
Don’t forget to exercise! When you stop moving stiffness and muscle atrophy set in or get worse. When you exercise you’re breathing in air and exhaling toxins. Stretching and massaging before and after you sleep help your muscles relax. (Even our pets stretch when they wake up.)
Learn to say no and avoid negative people. Turn off your social media notifications. Avoid all electronic devices before going to bed so you can get a good night’s sleep.
Treat the Source, not the Symptom
To calm down the inflammation in your body you need to find the source and remove it. You have the power to heal so start with your next bite of food. If you need to dig further consider contacting a functional medicine practitioner.
Steps to Reverse Multiple Sclerosis
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Resources:
https://www.medicinenet.com/mercury_poisoning/article.htm#mercury_poisoning_definition_and_facts
