Try to think like a detective… in multiple sclerosis, the Central Nervous System (CNS) is the crime scene. This is where myelin is destroyed, so the CNS is one of the major systems involved in MS that needs support. Foods and supplements that support processes of the CNS are really important for us!

Again, think like a detective… in MS, the perpetrator of the crime is the immune system. The immune system sends warriors into the brain because it suspects criminal activity is taking place. Normally, the immune system is supposed to fight crime, but in the case of MS, the victim of the crime is our own myelin sheath, which has done no wrong. Adding things to your diet that support the immune system is another major factor in managing MS.

Women with MS outnumber men in roughly a 4:1 ratio. That means if you take 10 people with MS and line them up, nearly 8 of them will be women, and less than 3 of them will be men. The Endocrine System is another major player in the mystery of MS, and unveils another complexity of MS. The way our hormones interact with other key systems - the CNS, immune system, Enteric Nervous System, and genes- are thought to play a role in the disease process. Most hormones are basically “dumped” into the bloodstream so they interact with several different systems both directly and indirectly. Hormones are not produced or regulated like other cell-types, so learning to support the endocrine system is tricky, but definitely necessary if you have MS.

This is the “brain-gut” connection, and it’s super important in the case of MS. Did you know that the lining of our stomachs contain millions of neural ganglions that form a network that connects directly to the brain? And guess what- if you have MS, your gut microbiome is quite different from people who don’t have MS. You guessed it right- we need to support our brain-gut connection in order to manage our MS and stave off inflammation.

Recent research has shown that inflammation begins before demyelination occurs in MS, and persistent inflammation is the key driving force that fuels the autoimmune process. The immune system detects inflammation in the brain and races to clean it up, but in doing so, this actually leads to myelin destruction. If you have MS, inflammation is an enemy! Learn how to avoid system-wide inflammation if you want to feel better.

When a detective arrives to a crime scene, what does he find? A big mess that needs carefully inspected and cleaned up…this is the role of demyelination in MS, and over time, it leads to axonal degeneration and permanent disability. Demyelination is what occurs as the immune system reacts to something it detects in myelin, and axonal damage is the after-effect. But guess what? Recent research has shown that it is actually possible to support remyelination using diet and supplements. If we want to remyelinate or prevent permanent damage from occurring, we’ve got to give our body what it needs to make more myelin, which directly involves fighting inflammation.

We are getting so close in our research on this! The detailed role of pathogens- particularly viruses- in MS etiology is currently being unveiled. For several years, we have suspected that infection with one or more pathogens is the driving force that causes MS… the very likely trigger, the final ingredient in the recipe for disaster, the final ingredient in the chemistry experiment that sets off the reaction. Our research has shown that there are literally dozens of viruses involved in all stages of MS, from onset, to relapses, to demyelination, to being present in the lesions of MS patients. For some unknown reason, as people with MS, we are highly susceptible to become infected with viruses. This means that in order to manage our MS, we must study viruses, learn to manage them, and reduce their ability to harm us, which is directly related to supporting our internal environment.

One of the most important things we can do to manage our MS is to create an environment inside our bodies where viruses and pathogens cannot thrive. Bacteria are living cells that reproduce on their own, and we have developed antibiotics to fight them. Bacteria can be removed from our bodies. However, viruses are not technically alive because they do not have all of the organelles necessary to reproduce on their own. Instead, tiny virus particles enter our bodies, infiltrate our cells, embed themselves into our DNA, and then take over the parts of our cells that they need to activate and reproduce. Viruses embed their genetic material into strands of DNA in every one of our cells and can lie dormant for years, until the internal environment is just right for them to activate. For this reason, it is highly unlikely that our body is able to actually kill a virus. In order to manage pathogens in our bodies, we must create an environment inside of us that does not allow them to activate. This can be done by avoiding foods that pathogens might use to activate.

We know that there are several different genes involved in the disease process in MS. Many of these genes are immune system genes, but some of them are also involved in the endocrine and nervous systems. Scientists are working hard to trace where all of these genes intersect and map out their shared system pathways with hopes that these systemic interactions will give us more clues about the cause and processes involved in MS. We understand that there are certain genes commonly overexpressed in the brains and spinal cords of people with MS but not the normal population. These highly overexpressed genes have been directly linked to inflammation and demyelination. But- the good news is that recent research has shown that certain dietary factors are able to downregulate the overexpression of these genes and cause them to be expressed at very low levels, which in turn suppresses the immune response and causes remission in MS.