It has been suggested (not by anyone medical) that the reason I have demyelination is because I don’t eat enough fruit and vegetables and drink diet cola. If I change my diet then it will stop. How likely is this? I haven’t read anything but it would help go know it isn’t my fault. I already have an autoimmune condition. Thanks.
Hi, nobody knows what causes it… but let’s face it, if demyelination was caused by not eating fruit and veg then I think we could assume that most of the UK would have it… let alone the world.
Eating well, including fruit and veg, is of course very important for everyone (esp to decrease your risk of getting cancer) and there is some evidence that eating a low-fat diet can improve symptoms of MS.
There has been info on the internet for years that Aspartame, the artificial sweetener in diet Coke, can cause MS…or MS-like symptoms. There is absolutely no evidence to back this up. But it is artificial and probably not good for you… so I would suggest you change to something healthier (in moderation… drinking it sometimes won’t harm you)… but no, stopping won’t cure you.
Don’t fall into the ‘blame game’, but changing to a healthier diet can only be a good thing.
Pat x
Sorry, but this makes me so angry, and is absolute twaddle!
Whoever thinks they’re being “helpful” by blaming your lifestyle has no idea of the facts - or of the psychological impact of telling people they caused it themselves.
It’s actually part of the NICE guidelines that MS patients should be told they did nothing to cause it.
As Pat says, the cause of MS has yet to be found, but there is no evidence it has anything to do with lifestyle. Fitness freaks get it, as well as couch potatoes. Vegetarians still get it!
Smoking has been linked, by some studies, to both risk and severity of MS - but that’s still a long way from naming it as a cause. There is NO lifestyle factor that’s a known trigger.
As Pat says, a healthy diet is beneficial for everyone. But claims that a change of diet can stop or even reverse MS are dubious, at best.
Although there are adherents of diets who swear it has helped their MS, there have been very few controlled studies, and one of the problems is that MS is so unpredictable anyway.
RRMS - the most common kind - is characterised by flare-ups (relapses) and periods of spontaneous improvement (remission). So when someone gets a long period of remission, how can you tell if it was down to their dietary efforts, or just part of the natural ebb and flow of the disease?
Tina
Thanks for that. It really helped.
Gee, some people have no idea. Was this person trying to be helpful or were they being plain nasty?
I would shove a few MS info leaflets in their face and certainly tell them that their opinion is NOT helpful at all.
Tsk.
They are into alternative medicine and trying to be helpful, even though it wasn’t.
Ah, I see. Sometimes people think they can cure you with a few herbs. I do like to look at complimentary therapies to work alongside traditional meds but never in place of. I do believe they can help…but not cure.
Sometimes people are so set in their ways and ideas that they just won’t listen to another alternative.
My mother is one of these ‘meds are bad’ people and she suffers unnecessarily because of it. Silly woman. I have no sympathy for her.