The MS Recovery Diet is a name for a specific diet developed by Ann D. Sawyer and Judith E. Bachrach.  It is by no means the only diet showing promise in controlling MS, but is the subject of this short article.

The MS recovery diet testimonials are many, and it seems to have helped many.  It is actually an extension of an earlier diet developed by a Dr. Roy Swank, a professor of Neurology at Oregon Health Science University.  His reports chronicle his own study of 144 patients and showed that after 34 years of following his diet, 66% of the 70 participants who followed the diet were still living while only 20% of those not adhering to the diet survived.

 

The premise of the MS Recovery Diet

 

The idea behind the diet is that partially digested proteins can stimulate an allergic immune response that makes antibodies mistake myelin for the protein.  The antibodies then enter the brain and begin attacking the myelin sheath.  This myelin destruction disrupts the nerve conduction, eventually resulting in killing the axons.  This myelin destruction/nerve conduction is the main cause of all the damage done by MS and is well documented.  The authors are trying to identify and eliminate suspected culprit foods from the patient’s diet and thus eliminate or slow the immune response.  The authors identify five main MS trigger foods:

  • Gluten-containing grains and wheat
  • Dairy
  • Eggs
  • Legumes
  • Yeast
  • Saturated fat and sugar

The authors are still trying to find interested researcher who may want to conduct clinical, placebo-controlled studies on the MS Recovery Diet but have so far found no takers.  This may be in part because there is no profit to be had by any company should the trial show positive results.  All the profit is still in the pharmaceutical treatments, where studies are always focused on the next drug that might be marketed to the MS patients.

 

The author’s testimonial of her results with the MS Recovery Diet

 

Ms. Bachrach, one of the authors, used to be a dancer and movement instructor.  She was diagnosed with MS at the age of 35.  Within 14 years she was completely bedridden.  She became so weak she couldn’t even use a wheelchair because she had no upper-body strength to push the wheels.  In 2006, she met Ms. Sawyer and tried the diet.

After only a week, she regained feelings in her toes.  After about six weeks on the diet, she gained incrementally in terms of her endurance and muscular rebound.  She began to walk around on her property, carry firewood, cook meals, and stay up late with her husband.  To most of us this is not a big deal – but for Ms. Bachrach, improving to being able to do all this in one day from being bedridden was a major accomplishment.

The book offer over 100 MS Recovery Diet recipes, so you won’t get bored and tempted to veer from the diet.