I have decided to follow the low fat Swank diet for my MS.

[LiberalLoner]

It's going to be so hard but if it helps me slow down the MS, it's worth it. Getting monthly relapses now and acquiring some disability. The data looks promising for this helping MS a whole bunch.

[libodem]

1. I tried to get a quick look up on Swank

Ooooh, baby. Porno magazine. I'll Google it later. I have a close friend with MS. She has had good success staying in remission. Thank the Goddess.

[LiberalLoner]

4. I am so glad for your friend! I hope her remission lasts all her life.

[Warpy]

2. The plural of "anecdote" is not "data."

Anecdotes are all this one has going for it.

Make sure you get your RDA of essential fatty acids on this one or you'll get sicker. You can get the capsules at a health food store. Other than that, eat the widest variety of foods the diet allows and you should be OK.

Whether or not it will give you anything more than the placebo effect is moot, but even the placebo effect will help you feel better, so go for it.

I hope it does help you but I'll put more faith in drugs at this point.

[LiberalLoner]

3. Yeah, I'm still looking at Copaxone, if the neuro ever gets me back in for an

Appointment. But I'll follow this diet - it allows pretty decent amounts of unsaturated fats - and I will make sure I take a good amount of Vitamin D and get as much sun as I can.

I don't really know what else to do. Anyway I need to lower my cholesterol and lose weight anyhow, and this might help with those things.

[libodem]

5. Weren't you just recently diagnosed

Think I remember your post about waiting for a solid diagnoses, and reporting some very debilitating symptoms? I read all over this place and so sometimes I forget some individual particulars, and get shit,wrong, it isn't that you are not important to me as an individual.

My friend is lucky in many ways. She had a job with insurance for one. She just retired. She dropped her hours as low as she could and still quality for benefits. She took Interferon injections for at least ten years. It started interfering with her skin integrity. Her neurologist had two drugs he wanted to try. Both immunosupressives. She had to be tested for a virus that lays dormant in the brain that wakes up and kills the patient on one of the drugs. She was p ositive. The virus is a man's name initials, JC but it is not Jacobs Cretchfield(sp) guessing on the spelling. The other was also a big deal to start because it targets receptors on the heart and drops the rate way down. Her ekg had her at a pretty low heart rate. She had to be in a hospital like setting and have her vital signs monitored for six hours. She is tolerating the Gilenya pill well. I think it runs like 75,000 a year or something wild like that.

Best wishes on your treatment plan, my friend. I can't delete that positive smilie on edit, it was an error.

[LiberalLoner]

6. Thank you so much! I am sorry your friend has gone through so much.

I hope she will be okay now.

Yeah, recent diagnosis, have some permanent symptoms and signs and bad scarring of my spinal cord, but I can still walk and see so I am very lucky. I look at how Annette Funicello ended up and I see my own future. I am trying not to think about it.

[libodem]

7. I do think it is important

To stay as stress free as possible and stay on your plan. That diet sounds like it will be healthy at the very least.

[Mojorabbit]

8. I am on aubagio which is a pill

I have been in the clinical trials for a couple of years and have really felt better than I have in decades. It was just approved by the fda.
I did copaxone for a year and still have divits in my legs that I guess will never go away. I found it a very painful injection and it did not seem to work for me.
There have been several pills put on the market recently so there are more choices than ever.
I tried the swank diet years ago but I found it hard to stick to. I hope it really helps you!
Peace, Mojo

[CountAllVotes]

9. good for you!

I've been on a semi-Swank diet since my DX.

I am fairly stable some 18 years now.

Never messed with those shots and new pills with all of the horrid/frightening side effects.

A diet cannot hurt.

With the Swank Diet, you can really eat good and healthy and also keep your weight in check which is very imporant!

Best of luck and I hope it helps!

[LiberalLoner]

10. Thank you so much! I am so glad you are doing great, that's encouraging!

I am at the point where I have to use my walker for very long distances so I am pretty worried about the future.

[CountAllVotes]

11. well, I'm not doing exactly great but

I am not declining rapidly as was the case with Annette Funicello from seemingly Day #1.

I'm sorry to read you need to use a walker. If you need one however, it is wise to use it so you do not fall.

Have you applied for disability? I hope so.

Is the star icon for the U.S. Army for you and did you serve in one of these wars they've had going on?

If so, I hope you are in contact with the VA!

Best of luck & drop me a line any time at all and I promise to reply!

and yes, I know what you are going through and it is not good at all!

[LiberalLoner]

12. Thank you so much! It's been kind of rough now and then. I expect it will be

Very hard in the future. Thank you so much for your kind offer!

Yeah, I was in theater during the first Gulf War. There is some correlation between that war and MS.

I hope you beat this disease! You can write me any time too, I'm always here! And I understand!