A Researcher in Waiting - Part 2

It would appear in the blur of the first few days following diagnosis, that I have mixed some dates up and also forgotten that it was my wife who got me on the path of looking at foodstuffs.
About 6 days after the diagnosis, Mitra sent me the following link:
http://www.mscures.com/foods-to-eat.shtml.

I have since had another look at the site and, now that I compare 'some' of the advice given there, to the sites contained in my 'links' area, I remember now why I discounted it so quickly.
Apologies to the site owner - perhaps there are English translation errors also and of course, they need to make a living.

Negatives:
On the Causes page the author states:

Hands or feet cold or OFF color or a stinging sensation in hands and feet

Now here's me thinking this was simply due to a poor circulation or pins and needles.

Uncontrollable body jerks while sleeping

Ever seen a dog dream? Ever dreamt you were falling or playing football or..
For crying out loud - my mumbo-jumbo alerter was screaming at me.

JUST A FEW OF THE JOYFUL SYMPTOMS OF ANIMAL FAT AND HYDROGENATED OIL, raw egg (yellow part) IMPACTS!!!- U U U CAN CHANGE AND HEAL U FOREVER, IF U DECIDE 2!

Who writes like this? U U U?? If U decide 2?
Gnnngghhh - the dreaded txtspk.

So, red (reder? seriously?) ears show you have an imbalance...from time to time. I used to get that whenever I spoke to a woman I fancied.

"MYTH QUESTION: Why R 75% of all MS patients women? Because they lick the spoon or fork, (gravy samples, sauces made with animal drippings) when they cook!!!
That simple!"

Hmm, licking the back of the spoon gives you MS apparently - in which case, why aren't all the famous male chefs publicly acknowledging their disease. Why doesn't Nigella Lawson - surely the most famous spoon-licking chef have an issue with it in particular? (note to Nigella, please, keep licking).

MYTH QUESTION: Why R their ZERO out of 1.5Billion Chinese without MS, Parkinson’s, or Alzheimer’s in China? Because their diets R not based on animal fat, hydrogenated oil, butter, mayo, etc.

Patently not true:

http://www.mult-sclerosis.org/facts.html
MS is predominately a disease of temperate latitudes and of the western hemisphere. Principally, it is a disease prevalent in Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand. Although MS is found in Japan, China and some other temperate, eastern countries, it is very much rarer than it is in the West.

http://msj.sagepub.com/content/15/6/655.abstract

Results
In China, the first case of MS was described in the medical records from Xiehe hospital in 1926, and the first autopsy case of MS was reported from Huashan hospital in 1957. Although reports on MS based on the information from hospital case-series have been increased gradually in the recent decades, there is no national surveillance on MS frequency in the population and population-based surveys on MS were few in China. Generally for Chinese patients with MS the mean age at onset of MS is around 30 years, with a few cases younger than 20 years; the most frequent site of the lesions in the central nervous system, based on the clinical symptoms or signs, is the spinal cord (usually more than 60%); there are few patients with a family history of MS; almost all patients are treated with corticosteroids. Reported prevalence rates of MS from population surveys in China are rather low (1–2 per 100,000) and higher in females than in males, which are comparable with the results from other populations in Asia.

So, we've proven that there is MS in China, although prevalence is (in keeping with other Asiatic populations) low.
Now this is just dangerous clap-trap!
There's a name for vitamin overdosing - Hypervitaminosis
Here is an article for Vitamin A overdose

Effects include

• Angular cheilitis
• Birth defects
• Coarse bone growths
• Excessive skin dryness/peeling (desquamation)
• Hair loss
• Intracranial hypertension (see Idiopathic intracranial hypertension[1])
• Liver problems
• Premature epiphyseal closure[2][3][4][5][6]
• Reduced bone mineral density that may result in osteoporosis
• Skin discoloration

Death?
ooh yes!!

The liver of certain animals — including the polar bear, seal,[12] walrus,[13] and husky - is unsafe to eat because it is extraordinarily high in vitamin A.
This danger has long been known to the Inuit and has been recognised by Europeans since at least 1597 when Gerrit de Veer wrote in his diary that, while taking refuge in the winter in Nova Zemlya, he and his men became severely ill after eating polar bear liver.[14] In 1913, Antarctic explorers Douglas Mawson and Xavier Mertz were both poisoned (and Mertz died) from eating the liver of their sled dogs during the Far Eastern Party.[15]

Comparative safety statistics

Death by vitamin poisoning appears to be quite uncommon in the US, typically none in a given year.[2] For example, in the United States, overdose exposure to all formulations of "vitamins" was reported by 62,562 individuals in 2004 (nearly 80%(~78%, n=48,989) of these exposures were in children under the age of 6), leading to 53 "major" life-threatening outcomes and 3 deaths(2 from Vitamins - D and E; 1 from polyvitaminic type formula, with iron and no fluoride).[3]
This may be compared to the 19,250 people who died of unintentional poisoning of all kinds in the U.S. in the same year (2004).[4] In 2007, 58,000 exposures to various vitamins and multivitamin-mineral formulations were reported to poison control centers, which resulted in 17 severe reactions and 1 death.[5]

The final issue for me, was the following:

CALL (their number) TO HEAR THE CAUSE AND CURE FOR YOU
Only $34.95 (flat fee) (My personal phone number will B at the end of this voice message.) Either I or one of my personally trained Associates will call you back within 10 business days and answer all your specific questions. 100% MONEY BACK GUARENTEE!

Any site that wants my money and can't be bothered to perform a spell-check just puts me on spam alert anyway.

Positives:
The site got me started on the principle idea of diet and the role that saturated fats had to play.
Umm

Moving swiftly on...

On the previous post, I had mentioned discovering the Swank Diet website.
This was full of neatly presented, documented and backed up research and interesting conclusions. Whilst the site design appears to be a little old, and 'testamonials' seem to have stopped in 2005, I felt I was on the right track.

Later on, through following what seemed like 50 other links, I arrived at this site: http://www.msrc.co.uk/index.cfm.
This seemed to be even more useful in that it is more up-to-date, had a latest MS research and news RSS feed and seemed to be supporting (in general terms) the diet based on the Dr Swank findings.

The msrc site doesn't actually advocate a diet - they DO however provide a community dedicated to the Best Bet Diet
Related to the dietary aspects, the page BBD The Science - Part 3 “The Paleo Diet and Multiple Sclerosis” ontains the following extract from a public presentation by Dr. Loren Cordain of Colorado State University on the topic of “The Paleo Diet and Multiple Sclerosis”. Dr Cordain is a leading researcher in the field of the roles that various nutritional factors play in chronic diseases such as MS.

Activation of Myelin-Sensitive T cells? Grains! Legumes! Dairy!Once the lectins and their passengers are across the gut barrier, the transported food and gut bacteria protein fragments have the potential to activate the myelin-sensitive T cells by way of molecular mimicry. Furthermore, some lectins such as tomato lectin also have the capacity to act as immune adjuvants. This means they greatly stimulate the immune system such that the encounter with the lectin-transported proteins is much more likely to result in T cell activation. If that was not enough, the lectins also cause the upregulation of various proteins associated with the blood-brain barrier (adhesion molecules, MMPs). This action significantly facilitates the entry of the activated, myelin-sensitive T cells into the central nervous system where they lead the attack on myelin. We now have the answer to the question of what causes the frequent activation of myelin-sensitive T cells. It is the daily ingestion of lectin-containing grains and legumes along with other potentially problematic foods such as dairy.

So now there are at least two (serious and well-researched) websites advocating links between saturated fats and the spread of MS. The msrc linked Best bet Diet, ALSO appear to lay part of the blame on certain lectins as contained in Grains, legumes and dairy.

The sites I have linked to on the right, are completely free. You can (if you wish) buy the supporting books but they are not necessary.
There are recipe ideas on both, notes and research links regarding vitamins, drugs, holistic therapy, health retreats and so on.
The also have support forums and you only need to register with an e-mail address. if you are using hotmail, you can set up an alias address - meaning that your 'real' e-mail address is hidden, but mail delivered to your alias, still arrives at your inbox (useful for maintaining an e-mail address for shopping websites, another for journals and another for subscribing to blogs, like mine...)
Follow this link for instructions: http://mail.live.com/?rru=createalias

ok - that's most of the dry and heavy stuff out the way I think.
Next post - The whats & whys of my chosen treatment plan.