Initially I was grateful – I now knew what was wrong – but after the prognosis, the treatment prescribed by the neurologist really sucked!

With the symptoms no better after a month of Rebif subcutaneous injections – tingling, numbness, bad balance and tiredness, I decided on a dietary approach to combat the effects and possibly cure multiple sclerosis

There have been numerous articles on the Internet where it has been reported that a change in diet was beneficial – e.g. The Swank Diet – helps reduce symptoms. Then there are some diets that supposedly eliminate relapses in Relapsing/Remitting Multiple Sclerosis (RRMS).

So desperate and frustrated I bought a copy of Mark Anastasi’s “Multiple Sclerosis Breakthrough”. What a waste of $47 dollars!

This ebook was filled with nothing but common sense. The extras? Crap! Don’t buy it – Google will serve you better.

Peeved, I hit Yahoo and Google and found some substance and numerous referrals to another ebook – “The MS Recovery Diet“. So I paid some more dollars ($16.95) and at least it has given me some valuable and usable tips that I now use to control and test the foodstuffs I eat.

With MS, finding healthy food has become a nightmare in its own right.

Just avoiding foodstuffs containing preservatives, additives, flavorings and those crypto numbers like 200,202,220 etc cuts your possible shopping list options down by 75%

Some things are easy to cut out aspartame - good bye Coca Cola! As part of trying to find out what triggers my MS relapse, I had a Coke. About an hour later I had a sudden increase in the MS tingling!

Avoid aspartame – avoid Coca Cola ;-(

The MS Recovery Diet also mentions dairy as a trigger. So far I’ve found that cheddar cheese and yogurt is no longer on my shopping list. However plain white cheese seems fine. As for organic milk – well the jury is still out on that one. Probably know by the end of the week.

So far the only safe – multiple sclerosis friendly – food seems to be fish. I’ve been told that swordfish should be avoided because it is high in mercury? Don’t know about that but then I wouldn’t know where to get swordfish anyway! Stick to the standard tuna, salmon etc.

Where does shellfish fit in? Oysters, muscles etc.

I found this site that has a mercury calculator.

Wheat has a bad side too in the journal article “Cereal Grains: Humanity’s double edge sword“. Problem with this is that pretty much everything on the food shelfs down here in Australia has wheat or a derived ingredient. Difficult one.

Step by step, I think it is possible to find a “completely natural diet” that not only halts the progression of the MS disease but rebuilds the myelin layer and repairs the central nervous system (CNS).

“Let medicine be your food and food be your medicine” – Hippocrates (460-377BC)

Well I hope so

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Because of the nature of the disease and existing medication, you can’t pop a pill for MS symptoms – you need a subcutaneous injection. The injection needle is about 15mm (almost an inch!) long and inserted perpendicularly to the skin. Possible subcutaneous injection sites include the buttocks, stomach and the back portion of the upper arms.

Do the subcutaneous Rebif (interferon beta) injections help?

Well Rebif, isn’t a cure and it doesn’t claim to be. It is a disease modifying drug that claims to reduces the frequency of exacerbations and slows the progression of disability. So three injections per week – every week religiously – stab wounds the way I look at it

I’m sure everybody has heard of or experienced the case where a medication meant to help a one condition aggravates or generates another condition. Kinda where if you’ve got a headache the doctor prescribes this pill only to generate a stomach ulcer.

Rebif is no different. On YouTube a young girl was demonstrating the correct injection procedure. Initially, I thought she added the hand full of headache pills and pain killers for dramatic effect – hell no!

Sure one of the Rebif side effects noted on the packaging information is the headache, but what Serona failed to say was that this headache was the mother of all headaches. If there was noble ache prize, Rebif would be clear a winner.

To put the Rebif subcutaneous injection headache into perspective, a guillotine or bullet would be a blessing.

Now onto the injection site stab wounds. You don’t have to be very smart to realize that you’ve got only a limited amount of skin that can be jabbed regularly. Sure move the needle around but even still, the area does begin to hurt – almost as though you’ve been punched and bruised.

When you next need an injection in that area – a couple days later – it still hurts even though the needle is nowhere near the last injection location.

Serono say the side effects of Rebif are manageable – headache, depression, nausea, flu-like symptoms, severe liver injury, injection side reactions but what about long term side effects? What about the effect on current or future pregnancy or sperm?

A couple years ago, Fosamax (Bisphosphonate) was released to help those suffering from osteoporosis – a bone weakening disease which leads to fractures. Now they’ve found that the drug is responsible for the development of a bone disease called osteonecrosis of the jaw (ONJ) or “dead jaw“.

Somewhat contradictory wouldn’t you say for a medication that’s meant to protect the bone?

What unknown (unpublished) side effects does Rebif have?

Now I know MS affects the brain – but with the little that I’ve got left – I struggle to see the value of a medication that makes my head explode, doesn’t cure the disease and supposedly maximizes the time between relapses.

My final thought is this: Rebif is the trademark name for “Chinese Hamster Ovary” juice Read the information leaflet!!!

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