Gut Health and Multiple Sclerosis

Last Updated on November 29, 2023 by Cathy

As Hippocrates said, “All disease begins in the gut.” It took almost 2,000 years but researchers are now believing that statement to be true. Not all diseases begin in your gut. But there’s a connection between gut health and multiple sclerosis.

All disease begins in the gut.

– Hippocrates 

Researchers found people with MS have less good bacteria compared with healthy people. So why does this happen? It happens due to many reasons. The standard American diet (SAD) is high in processed foods, refined grains, and sugar. This leads to a leaky gut which can cause many health problems. 

Get your free Gut Health Tracker at the bottom of this post.

SAD can lead to:

• Acne
• Allergies
• Autoimmune diseases 
• Brain fog
• Chronic fatigue
• Constipation/diarrhea 
• Depression
• Diabetes
• Food sensitivities 
• Heart disease
• Migraines 
• Nutritional deficiencies 
• Obesity
• Some cancers
• Stroke

Stress, infections, and medications such as antibiotics are also causes of leaky gut. Infections such as bacterial and yeast overgrowth (candida) increases inflammation in the gut. This causes an imbalance of bacteria allowing pathogens to surpass the good bacteria.

What is leaky gut syndrome?

Leaky gut syndrome happens when the tight junctions in the gut lining begin to separate. As they begin to open, it allows small food particles and toxins to pass through into the bloodstream. 

A large part of our immune system operates from our gut. That’s why when you become mentally stressed it upsets your stomach. When your stress hormone, cortisol, rises it shuts down your digestive system. 

Whether leaky gut causes MS or MS causes a leaky gut is unknown. But, once I started addressing my undying lying root cause to my leaky gut my MS symptoms began to reverse. For me, it was due to antibiotics, chronic stress, infections, and poor diet.

Possible triggers to MS:

• Diet (processed foods, refined sugar, refined carbs, food allergies, etc.)
• Infections (bacterial overgrowth, parasites, viruses, and yeast overgrowth )
• Environmental Toxins (heavy metals, mold, pesticides, plastics, etc.)
• Chronic Stress (especially emotional stress)
• Hormones (vitamin D, insulin, cortisol)
• Genetics (you can’t change your genes but you can change your gene expression by living a healthy lifestyle)

Unfortunately, conventional doctors don’t see leaky gut syndrome as a medical issue. Most aren’t trained in nutrition to support healthy eating habits for their patients. Leaving patients without help from their doctors. Using a mouse model of MS, mice who received gut bacteria from MS patients had more flares. Where healthy mice had more T cells to lower inflammation to prevent MS-like disease.

According to a PNAS study on mouse models with MS:

“We hypothesize that gut microbiota contribute to creating a sustained proinflammatory environment, which, in combination with genetic and other environmental factors, may crystallize the pathogenic autodestructive process of myelin.”

It’s up to you to improve your gut health.

How to Improve Your Gut Health

I’ve changed my diet many times looking for the perfect diet. Well, there is no perfect diet. Everyone is different so you will need to pay close attention to how your body reacts to food. For me, I follow The Wahls Protocol because I find it to be the most nutrient-dense diet out there.

I did have to change it a bit to fit my needs but it’s a good starting point for most people. First, you’ll need to cut out foods that promote inflammation such as:

• Grains
• Dairy
• Legumes
• Processed foods
• Refined sugar

Instead, focus on eating more vegetables, organic if possible to avoid pesticides. Your plate should be 3/4’s filled with vegetables. Including leafy greens, sulfur, and colorful vegetables. Dr. Terry Wahls recommends eating three cups of each every day.

Include:

• Vegetables 
• Fruit
• Healthy fats (avocados, coconut, olive oil, etc.)
• Nuts and seeds
• Wild-caught fish
• Pasture-raised poultry
• Grass-fed and finished meats

Try an Elimination Diet 

Since everyone is different it’s a good idea to keep a food diary to keep track of your symptoms after eating. For example, whenever I ate eggs it would always give me guts pains immediately. But tomatoes, I wouldn’t see a reaction until the next day when my face broke out.

This is where an elimination diet will help. By removing foods that you suspect to be problematic and then reintroducing them one at a time. This will help you to see if your body has a negative reaction or not.

This is how I found out I was sensitive to tomatoes and bell peppers. Wait a few days or a week before reintroducing another food item to give your body a chance yo heal. I tried three times eating tomatoes and each time my body had the same bad reaction.

Carbohydrates 

Carbohydrates break down into sugar which raises your blood sugar. Hidden infections like Candida feeds on sugar, any kind of sugar. Candida also breaks through your gut lining and spreads out through your entire body.

Symptoms of Candida:

• Acne
• Brain fog
• Constipation/diarrhea 
• Dandruff 
• Mood swings
• Nail fungus
• Oral thrush
• Skin rashes
• Vaginal yeast infections 

Sugar is highly addictive and a hard habit to break. But, to heal your gut, you will need to get Candida under control. That includes eating a low carb diet to stop feeding the yeast overgrowth.

The Wahls Protocol includes three different levels. The third level is Paleo Plus which an extremely low carb diet. It’s a ketogenic diet where a person consumes no more than 20 grams of carbs each day. I didn’t have luck on this level because I had a hard time keeping my weight on. 

Instead, I increased my carbs a little but I still ate 60 grams of carbs or less each day. The Mayo Clinic recommends people eat 225-325 grams each day. I also took herbal supplements to kill the yeast overgrowth.

Natural herbs to stop yeast overgrowth:

• Berberine
• Caprylic Acid (coconut oil)
• Cinnamon
• Garlic
• Grape seed extract
• Olive leaf 
• Oregano oil
• Pau d’arco 
• Wormwood

Bone Broth

Bone broth contains collagen which builds cartilage, ligaments, and muscle tissue. It’s perfect for rebuilding the lining in your gut. My functional medicine doctor told me that beef bone broth is more healing than chicken.

You can buy bone broth or make it yourself. It’s very easy to make but it is time-consuming. Check out my easy beef bone broth recipe. You can also make in a pressure cooker to help speed up the process, I now use a Ninja Foodi.

Fermented Foods

People have eaten fermented foods for thousands of years for gut health. But, most fermented foods bought in grocery stores no longer have probiotics. You need to make it yourself or make sure the brand your buying still has probiotics. I like to buy Bubbies sauerkraut and pickles.

Fermenting foods sounds complicated but it really isn’t. It is best to start with something simple. Like my sauerkraut recipe and then move onto other vegetables. 

Gut Health and Multiple Sclerosis

Your gut is part of every function in your body. It’s extremely important to heal your leaky gut, remove infections, exercise, and get good quality sleep!

Warning, having candida you’ll need to wait before introducing fermented foods. As foods ferment they produce probiotics and prebiotics. Prebiotics feeds probiotics but it also feeds candida. It would be better to take a probiotic supplement than to eat fermented foods.

Free Gut Health Tracker!

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