Science Can't Determine Everything - But It Can Help
Yesterday I telecommuted from vacation, to my second meeting
with the MS Mediterranean diet group.
My top two reasons for participating in this study:
- I have spent the longer portion of my adult life knowing that consumption is critical to wellness, but putting off my departure from sugar and saturated fats. This knowledge is experiential – observational – anecdotal, and something that I have discovered in my personal journey through a death-defying car accident – the premature loss of my mother – acupuncture – pollution – disease – global warming. This is something that American science has been slow to acknowledge, and struggles to substantiate. When my neurologist told me about the study, I was eager to participate.
- It might help.
Multiple Sclerosis is a disease of the central nervous
system. That’s pretty much what the results of any “Multiple Sclerosis” Google
search boil down to. From the human perspective, the thing that makes MS so
difficult to talk about is that it’s really challenging to understand. From the
layperson’s perspective, it’s not like cancer, which by majority seems to
follow a path of predictable cause and affect outcome in a pattern associated
with the originating body part and disease progression. It’s not like the
common cold either, which happens because that particular strain of bacteria
was stronger than the immune system. The common cold generally goes away
because the immune system figures out how to fight back.
MS is a disease that may or may not happen, for no
particular reason, because the immune system starts to attack the myelin, which similar to an electric wire, is the sheath
around a nerve channel. Once the nerve is exposed, it is more likely to
malfunction. The more attacks, the more potential for malfunction.
How the Diet Might
Help
Dr. Katz Sand as Principal Investigator has spoken a lot
about the gut in her explanations about how this diet may help. I’ll get more
into that in another post, but for now here’s my distillation of what she, her
colleagues, and its participants are hoping:
·
Anti-inflammatory disease modification through consumption
of foods that are high in fiber, omega-3 fatty acids, polyphenols, and
carotenoids, while eliminating foods that are high in saturated fat, sugar, and
sodium.
o
Alleviation of MS symptoms like fatigue
o
Creating a neuro-protective environment through
§
12-hour daily fasting which supports the body’s
natural circadian rhythm, and our organs’ needs to regenerate during sleep rather than
process late-night or early morning snacks.
§
Increased poly-unsaturated fat consumption which
supports neurons
Gratitude
I am nearing the end of week three, and the more I think about
this study – after removing my cynical [American science is trying to validate
a system that Eastern medicine, homeopaths, and naturalists have been utilizing
for years] hat – the more grateful I am to be a part of this process that many
skeptics were sure would not come to bear.
I am grateful that I have access to state of the art
treatments through some of the leaders in research, though the condition of the
U.S. healthcare system is a dinosaur all its own, which contributes more to the
problem than solution in the healing process.
I am grateful that my fundraising efforts through BikeMS and MuckFestMS are contributing directly to improve
quality of life for people living with MS.
I am proud to know that the organization I am raising funds for is putting most of the money back into directly benefitting the cause.
Next Up
More later, about food, fun, and poo. Until then, here’s a
great vegan cauliflower alfredo recipe I found while desperate for some kind of dairy
replacement sensation. I cannot emphasize enough the importance of lemon and
tamari (or aminos) called for.
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