I was diagnosed in June with mild MS (though of course no guarantee it’ll stay that way) and have done my best to follow the low saturated fat SWANK diet since, as I wasn’t put on medication and there didn’t seem to be anything else I could do other than take Vitamin D ( I took the RDA as I was trying to get pregnant and didn’t want to be taking huge doses of anything).
I’m now thankfully pregnant (with my third child!) and went to see a dietician - she and my GP advised that I should not restrict dairy during pregnancy so I’m coming off the diet til after the baby, which is a shock to the system after 6 months of counting every gram of saturated fat.
Anyway, I’ve seen two neurologists and a dietician and none of them recommend or advocate the SWANK diet…the dietician has consulted neurologists about MS numerous times and had never heard of the SWANK diet. The neurologists I saw have heard of suggestions about special diets but say there is no evidence they are of benefit.
My concern is that this is only because there aren’t clinical trials to back up Swank’s assertions, but that they will follow at some point, and that by then, if in 5 or 10 years they say the Swank diet would have slowed progression and I went with the neurologists’ “no evidence of benefit” and didn’t follow it, I’ll be the worse off. The diet is very restrictive and ruins my pleasure in cooking, eating out etc, so if it really isn’t of benefit I wouldn’t want to follow it.
Just wondered what you all think…Swank made his claims so long ago, surely reputable universities have tested his claims and can dismiss them or back them up…but Google is revealing nothing of the kind and I’m annoyed that I have to resort to Google after consulting several medical professionals !
I don’t do Swank or any other special diet. There may be something in it but keeping to it can be difficult and dull! I take 10000 iu’s Vit D3 daily. There is some evidence to suggest a link here. See Call for vitamin D supplements to tackle Scots MS rates - BBC News I went to a lecture given by Prof Ebers. He strongly recommended taking vit d supplements if you had MS. I also take Rebif AND LDN (1.75 ml). I have not had a relapse for over 3 yrs. To which medication do I attribute this? Or is it good luck? Who knows for sure?. We have to find our own way to some extent. You might consider getting a blood test to check your vit d3 levels to see if they are in normal range. I forget what the range is. Rizzo? Roger.
I’m afraid the likelihood of the Swank diet being properly trialled is about zero - it would be a nightmare to control, the costs would be exorbitant and the data would be open to all sorts of challenges. There was a fairly recent study in Australia of some sort of diet which showed a small benefit, but I’m not sure what kind of diet exactly - I think it was a basic healthy eating diet though. You could google it to try and find it, and I think it was reported on the multiple sclerosis research blogspot so you might find it by searching on there. There was another, bigger study run in Holland or maybe Belgium - it showed that smoking was bad for RRMS (no suprises there - it comes up all the time), but alcohol, fish and coffee were good for RRMS. I have a vague recollection that that contradicts some of the diets out there? It’s all pretty confusing! However, I reckon that if diet made a really big difference, the evidence would be obvious and we’d all know about it - it’s not like it’s a new idea.
So, personally, there is no way I would ever give up the pleasures of eating the things I love. Some people will disagree with me, but I have done very well on my (pretty awful!) diet and see no reason to change.
Unless there are millions to be made from a prospective MS treatment there will be no, or very limited finances put forwards for scientific investigations.The drug industry is already fabulously wealthy,and has the funds to sponsor trials.Strangely enough it is pharmaceutical products which they conduct trials on.
No money in Swank,and the purveyors of fatty things actually lose money. Any evidence of good results is circumstantial, but if an individual feels it helps them,then “Tuck in”,or not,as the case may be.
I’m actually noticing good changes by taking vitamin D3 supplement,but at £10 for a years supply nobody is getting rich,so I doubt there will be any clinical trials just yet.
Yes I read Professor George Jelinek’s book. There is also a website. He swears by the diet although I dont think it is as severe as Swanks. He really recommends Vit D and omega fish oils big time. I am in kind of limbo land and when I was told back in June I had probable MS I went on the low fat diet. Instead of milk I took rice milk. Went Gluten free too and did not eat any read meat. After a couple of months I felt good on the diet with more energy. When a recent lumbar puncture came back negative for bands and MS looked unlikely I lunged straight back into red meat, crisps and biscuits ie all the things I had missed. And OMG the fatigue came back! So anyway I am now sort of back on the diet. I will now eat meat, gluten and dairy when I am out but in home I stick to the diet. My energy levels have returned. I never gave up coffee, tea and always enjoy the odd glass of wine.
I used to go to hyperbariac oxygen therapy (at an MS therapy centre) and when I first started to go there was a guy in his 40’s who had PPMS. He told me that within 18 months of being diagnosed he was in a wheel chair full time. We used to have the same 2 hourly session once a week. After a couple of weeks of going he told me that he had started the Swank Diet and was finding it a nightmare. Anyway I went for 18 months and in that time he went from wheelchair to crutches, crutches to sticks then one stick then no sticks. He couldnt decide whether it was the oxygen therapy or the diet that helped him because he started both at the same time. We both agreed that he couldnt give either up. He used to also take spirilina (not sure of spelling) to help fill in the vitamin/iron gaps.
I suppose this is why I went on the diet. I would have liked to continue with the oxygen therapy but they charged non-ms people about 3 times more. I couldnt afford the weekly costs any more.
My better half being the pHD academic got engrossed in his book and persuaded me to try and follow some of the findings as they are all research based! As he has a ‘H’ rating of 16 (the relevance of his work and being cited by others in publications) and my better has a rating of 6 am rather inclined to believe in his findings being of relevance.
Hi I agree with Wb on the trials thing. I think that is why no one will do the trials on LDN. It is too cheap, no money to be made out of it. I often think the Governent should fund their own trials. If it really worked then they may save more money in the long run.
I was shocked to read in the press recently that a cancer drug used by some neuros to treat MS has been rebranded for MS at a much higher price.
My daughter has just started a degree in Pharmacology & Pharmacy at University. At a careers convention last year she heard that there were plenty of career paths in that field and plenty of money too.
I was dignosed PPMS in 2007 and would say luckily I have had slow progression. The Neuro said there were no suitable treatments.
The way I see it is quite simplistic, if the medical authorities decide to do a trial on anything it would take ages with no definate conclusions.
In 2010 I decided to try and help myself, I got the Swank book, read it. Then I started to follow its basic principles. Keep saturated fat down to a minimum, basically by reading labels of what I bought. Kicked out red meat, biscuits, cake, chips etc. Changed to skimmed milk. To me its not complicated and seems healthy. It may be Im not following every last principle. I also take vit d and b12.
The benefits are that I lost over three stones, when last tested my overall chlorestorol level 3.4 that average is apparently 5.5. I dont know if its slowed progression how can I evaluate that.
Im certain it hasnt done any harm, might as well do my own ‘trial’ in view of the overwhelming silence from the medics.
Hello there Oscar 11.Unless you have got an identical twin who was diagnosed at the same time,has identical enviromental conditions with no MS specific drugs or therapies, there is no way of knowing what affects the course of ‘our mutual friend’.I hope this has never happened as it would be an apalling set of circumstances.
Sounds like what you’re doing suits you,even though it might be tough over ‘Gorgemas’
I think we will see change gradually since we just cannot afford the current system. This group have changed markedly just recently. Not sure if it will mean they will at last start listening to the people who actually find things like diet, LDN, CCSVI and the like helpful. Truth is for most people with MS they and things like them are the only treatments available to them and only then if they are prepared to do their own research and pay for them themselves.