My wife was recently diagnosed with MS. Luckily she studied biochemistry and is now a data scientists. She spoke immediately with a professional nutritionist at the hospital.
Apparently at the current moment the best is to keep your PH value in the body neutral. It's particularly important to prevent "acidity". Which is not easy as a lot of food we eat is acidic.
The reason why you want to not be acidic is: MS causes inflammation and acidity makes it worse. Or in other words, it slows down the bodies self healing "power".
Gut Germs Appear to Play Role in Multiple Sclerosis
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Re: Gut Germs Appear to Play Role in Multiple Sclerosis
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've recently watched a ton of Ted talks on the subject (thank you, autoplay), so you can call me a proper internet know-it-all. The consensus seems to be: nobody knows, but the SAD certainly is not the right answer. As diverse as you can get and as little processed as you stand seem to be popular ideas too. Dropping sugar and milk seem commonly recommended, but they can pry my ice-cream from my cold, dead fingers.
Small amounts of animal protein and lots of raw greens and vegetables, tubers and roots. Everything else is extra. Be careful though about making any specific recommendations here or else someone with a different idea will attack you for not backing it up with scientific data. Because you shouldn't try to figure out what to eat until you get a PhD.
Oh yes, that's exactly the kind of advice I had in mind, but didn't feel comfortable giving. Maybe because I have a PhD?
Re: Gut Germs Appear to Play Role in Multiple Sclerosis
#73Do we actually need gut bacteria? Do they serve other purposes that breaking down fibers?
Yes, gut bacteria are very important, they serve many functions, not all of which are understood fully. For example, it is estimated that 90 percent of the body's serotonin is produced in the gut, it’s the chemical that helps with sleeping, eating, and digesting. If you want to read more, have a look on PubMed for articles relating to 'Gut Microbiome' like this, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=gut+microbiome
Re: Gut Germs Appear to Play Role in Multiple Sclerosis
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've recently watched a ton of Ted talks on the subject (thank you, autoplay), so you can call me a proper internet know-it-all. The consensus seems to be: nobody knows, but the SAD certainly is not the right answer. As diverse as you can get and as little processed as you stand seem to be popular ideas too. Dropping sugar and milk seem commonly recommended, but they can pry my ice-cream from my cold, dead fingers.
Small amounts of animal protein and lots of raw greens and vegetables, tubers and roots. Everything else is extra. Be careful though about making any specific recommendations here or else someone with a different idea will attack you for not backing it up with scientific data. Because you shouldn't try to figure out what to eat until you get a PhD.
Or alternatively, go on keto diet - 60-70% fat (mostly animal and milk fat), 20-30% protein, 5-10% carbs. Make sure to increase your electrolyte and fiber intake to account for lower intake of those through the diet.
Re: Gut Germs Appear to Play Role in Multiple Sclerosis
#75Do we actually need gut bacteria? Do they serve other purposes that breaking down fibers?
I had my large intestine entirely removed about 8 years ago, so no gut bacteria for me! And i haven't noticed any change
Glad you've not noticed a change, that is probably good right! I think the Gut microbiome extends further than just the large intestine, you've probably got some bugs hiding out somewhere in the system :) https://www.newscientist.com/round-up/microbiome/
Re: Gut Germs Appear to Play Role in Multiple Sclerosis
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
What’s the value in raw vs cooked vegetables? I thought cooking makes their nutrients more bio-available. Do you really eat tubers raw? I can't imagine eating a potato raw. Our ancestors even always cooked them.
Cooking was probably man's greatest discovery, well before the wheel. Why negate all of that and join a culinary religion? Remember the E. Coli epidemic in Hamburg a few years ago? It started from raw bean sprouts. https://www.foodsafety.gov/keep/types/fruits/sprouts.html
Yup, cooking and increased animal protein/fat intake (aka eating more meat) are responsible for 2 most important evolutionary jumps in our history by increasing both availability of calories+protein and (in case of fire) reducing parasite load.
Re: Gut Germs Appear to Play Role in Multiple Sclerosis
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
What’s the value in raw vs cooked vegetables? I thought cooking makes their nutrients more bio-available. Do you really eat tubers raw? I can't imagine eating a potato raw. Our ancestors even always cooked them.
Cooking was probably man's greatest discovery, well before the wheel. Why negate all of that and join a culinary religion? Remember the E. Coli epidemic in Hamburg a few years ago? It started from raw bean sprouts. https://www.foodsafety.gov/keep/types/fruits/sprouts.html
>Remember the E. Coli epidemic in Hamburg a few years ago? It started from raw bean sprouts.
That's a hygiene problem not a culinary one.
I doubt that stir frying bean sprouts would be enough to sterilise them and surely no one cooks them any longer than that.
Used to eat a lot, mostly sprouted at home and we never took any special precautions, just normal domestic hygiene. Ate a lot of them raw too.
Of course I haven't tested either the internal temperature of a bean sprout during stir frying nor have I tried infecting one with E. Coli to see if the E. Coli is neutralised by stir frying. Perhaps someone with the necessary gear and expertise could try it.
Re: Gut Germs Appear to Play Role in Multiple Sclerosis
#78My wife was recently diagnosed with MS. Luckily she studied biochemistry and is now a data scientists. She spoke immediately with a professional nutritionist at the hospital. Apparently at the current moment the best is to keep your PH value in the body neutral. It's particularly important to prevent "acidity". Which is not easy as a lot of food we eat is acidic. The reason why you want to not be acidic is: MS causes…
> Apparently at the current moment the best is to keep your PH value in the body neutral. It's particularly important to prevent "acidity"
If you're talking about a neutral pH as in pH = 7.0 (the usual accepted definition of neutral), these claims are contradictory. The pH of the human blood is usually between 7.35 and 7.45. This is usually way less acicic than the neutral pH of 7.0. Furthermore, a pH of 7 is usually associated with very serious disease (and yes, it is causal: if you inject/ingest enough acid to make the pH drop to 7.0 you're in pretty bad shape, especially because it means the regulatory mechanisms aren't working as they should). I don't know who that "professional nutritionist" is, but this sounds like crackpot-level science.
Also, to the best of my knowledge, it's extremely hard to change the blood's pH with diet... The body has a multi-layered system specifically dedicated to keeping the pH in the normal range (7.35-7.45), and that's independent of what you eat. Maybe you're mistaking it for changing the urine's pH, which is much easier to do, and can be achieved through diet alone. Unfortunately, changing the urine's pH doesn't seem to achieve much beyond preventing some inds of kidney stones...
Re: Gut Germs Appear to Play Role in Multiple Sclerosis
#79I wonder if there's a similar correlation between the gut and something like ALS.
Probably not. Unlike MS, which is an autoimmune disease, ALS is not autoimmune. The exact cause is only known in some cases, but it seems to stem from problems with the machinery inside the cell, not an aggression by the immune system from outside the cell.
Re: Gut Germs Appear to Play Role in Multiple Sclerosis
#80Do we actually need gut bacteria? Do they serve other purposes that breaking down fibers?
I had my large intestine entirely removed about 8 years ago, so no gut bacteria for me! And i haven't noticed any change
You still have gut bacteria in the small intestine, and they're probably as important as the ones in the large intestine. I can guarantee you that without both the small and the large intestine, you do notice a difference (but unfortunately for reasons more serious than just not having the bacteria). Glad you're adapting well to living without the large intestine!