Hi, As you know, I do a lot of reading and research about various things. In November, I caught a lot of the replays from The Gluten Summit. One that stood out for me was an interview with Prof. Schoenfeld who is the world 's leading authority on autoimmune diseases. He said that by the time you present outward symptoms of something like MS, you’ve probably already had it for many years, perhaps as many as 20. This got me to thinking. I started with MS symptoms during my first pregnancy in 2000 when I was 32. 20 years earlier - around the age of 12 - I started my periods. I now believe I am low on estrogen. Why? Gluten irritates the gut lining, causing leaky gut, and gluten particles pass through into the blood stream. The immune system swoops into action to destroy the invaders, but in doing so also destroys iodine which is similar in make-up to gliadin, the gluten protein. When you’re low on iodine, your thyroid runs into problems and there’s an impact on hormone production. I believe I’m still progressing because I’m pre-menopausal - I’ve had night sweats now for 4-5 years. When you look at diets that do really well for MS, they all contain foods that are good for the thyroid and hormones. I really believe now that the correct diet is one of the key points in getting relief from MS. I also think having our hormone levels tested should be done automatically, along with checking vitamin B12 and D3 levels. The knock-on effects of leaky gut are far reaching. When you start to see how things inter-connect, the true picture of the damage that gluten can do is horrific. I for one feel betrayed, as eating wheat/bread/pasta has been promoted as part of a healthy diet for years. The Food Pyramid was devised to support agriculture though, not promote nutrition, and was replaced by the Food Plate in 2011. Carbs don’t feature as highly. Maybe people with MS should be treated as though they’ve started the menopause? Just a thought. Heather
Hmm you may have something intersting here. I was on the pill for nealy 4 years and came off 18 months before my frist relapse am diagnosed with MS. Have been gluten and dairy free for 10 monyjs. Sadly am loosing too much weight though ny this. seeing dietitian in few weeks. On tthe fence about you questions.
Heather,
Very interesting thoughts but how does your theory relate to males?
E.g. I have eaten a reasonably well balanced diet all my adult life - more than 30 years so far - but I’d expect to have ‘low’ estrogen levels as a male and as far as I’m aware, I haven]'t experienced any kind of menopause to-date!!
Despite this, my MS continues to develop (…albeit slowly, thank goodness) and I expect development of the condition to be an ongoing thing …until a cure is found ??
Dom
Hi Heather
I have often thought MS is linked to low oestrogen, many years ago I had small things a couple of days before menstration, like a numb hand for a day or 2, didn’t think a lot about it at the time and put it down to hormone problems.
It was no surprise to me then that after having burning in my legs for many years I developed full blown MS around menopause.
But where that leaves my male friends with MS I don’t know! I am of the opinion that there may be many causes for the wretched disease. Including having correct genes.
Keep on reading Heather.
Love Wendy x
My MS worserened after hysterectomy. Took HRT for some years but stopped it for surgery and family history of clots. Neuro wanted me to go back on it as he said there is reports of women with mS doing better on it. I did some research and found a small study that backed this. However, I was on it for over 5 years, went through all the hot sweats etc, and not doing it again. I’m on Fingolimod now.
I was also told at dx that MS is there long before it shows itself, and after all my babies were born, i had symptoms, that i now realise were MS.
Food for thought, there may well be many factors that set it off. Sometimes, I don’t think we will never be conclusive on this because of the complexities of studying the CNS, can’t exactly operate on it like the heart etc