Let me add my welcome to the group. It's a great place with great people!
Re your question about the MS-gluten connection. I have absolutely no scientific facts to offer you. I can only relate what I've been told. A past boss of mine (he was my boss for over 20 years) was married to a woman with MS. She lived gluten-free for many, many years and the boss and I used to discuss the benefits of the diet (mostly at work potluck luncheons when he always brought in some weird thing his wife had made). According to him, at first it appeared that living gluten-free was beneficial.
However, over the course of years he changed his opinion - that living gluten-free might be somewhat healthful but it didn't appear to change the slow progression of his wife's MS. She gave up the diet and suffered no change in the course of the illness.
As other members of the group say - just my "two cents worth."
Jane D.
>>> Kevin Wolfthal <kwolfthal(AT)snet.net> 02/03 11:16 PM >>>
Hi again,
I want to thank everyone who sent me a personal message of welcome. It
means a lot to me :)
I will respond to all individually..(but not now, it's 2:08am, and my
eyes are getting heavy..)
I just wanted to mention one thing which I have read about on the net,
and wonder if anyone else has heard of this. I have heard that there
are cases of MS patients having remission after going on totally
Gluten-free diets. I guess that these people have an allergy to
gluten, that caused demelination. One of the cases was where the father
of a teenage boy found out about the diet, told his son, who had MS, and
the son went into total remission.
I don't know how closely TM is related to MS, other than they both are
demyelinating diseases. And I hestitate to try a drastic diet, for
fear that it could make things worse, (also, I love pizza, sandwiches,
and portuguese bread, all of which contain gluten) But I would be
willing to give it a try if it were safe.
Anyone heard of a gluten-MS connection?
Btw, I don't think I mentioned in my original post, but my doctor at
Yale felt that the cause of my TM may have been a virus that attacked
the nerves, and then left. But he said there was no way he could know
for sure.
Take care all,
Kevin