Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Our Multiple Sclerosis Issue - Laziness

This past week we took our daughter to the doctor with concerns about Hypoglycemia. I have had issues with low blood sugar most of my life, and I feel like our daughter inherited the issue from me. After hearing the symptoms and some of the issues that the doctor informed us about, I wonder how much blood sugar plays a role in Multiple Sclerosis. Over the years I have noticed that sleep seems to affect my wife more than eating. What I mean by that is if I don't eat, I am pretty much a grouch and unbearable. If my wife eats late or skips a meal, it doesn't seem to bother her much. Now, if she misses sleep then you better watch out. :) Without sleep, she can become irritable in a hurry and has problems concentrating and focusing on anything.

What we have began to notice the past few years is that my wife is affected more and more by diet and food. When she eats poorly it begins to show up a lot quicker and more pronounced. She can become irritable, frustrated, unfocused and have the shakes if she misses a meal, especially if she hasn't drank enough water for the day. She starts to notice many issues if she misses her daily water intake, and has become light headed and had other issues because of it. All of this seems to really wreak havoc on her MS since stress and other issues seem to bring on her MS problems. When she doesn't eat properly, and doesn't eat on time, you can almost count on some MS symptoms showing up. Some of this may be related to gut issues since we know that she had a leaky gut when she had a bad attack years ago.

Diet is so important with any disease, and Multiple Sclerosis is no exception. Too much sugar and bad foods, and you begin to feed the bad "bugs" of the gut and can have candida issues, which I know my wife has had. Candida issues along with other "bugs" of the gut seem to shut down the natural processes that feed our bodies and detoxify our bodies. We are going to see a dietitian for my daughter and I have a feeling that our whole family will soon start to become much more serious about our daily eating habits. We know we should be doing this anyway, but to be honest, we have been lazy. It is much easier to eat out, eat junk and justify it by saying it saves time and energy, but in the end, we are just making excuses. We tried a little experiment with our daughter last week and noticed that her grades, friendships and our interaction with her became so much better when she ate regularly and healthy.

I know that Dr. Swank used diet to control MS, and every book ever published on MS talks about food and how it affects our bodies. When we have disease in the body, how much does it affect our assimilation of food etc.? I have studied the affects of water on the body and all of the books I have read on it say that we are living in a state of dehydration. We don't drink enough water and our hormones that control the water in our body are so messed up, that our bodies are running inefficiently, stressed out. I know that we already have enough stress in our lives without making the issue worse by not feeding our body properly and hydrating it. I guess the question is, would my wife live more fully, with more energy, and feel better about herself and her MS if she ate properly and hydrated? I know the answer is a resounding YES, then I know for us it is a matter of not making excuses and breaking the laziness cycle.

2 comments:

Lee @ sjogrens blog said...

This is all very interesting to me as i also wonder how big a part diet, allergies, blood sugar plays in disease. i will check back again and reread when i can take it all in -

Josie Warren said...

I think that Dr. Swank's information is very interesting and when I was first diagnosed was very gung ho about getting into the MS Diet. I am lazy right now as well and need to really follow through. I believe the medical community will do what it can to keep making money on drugs that are only partially effective. I don't mean to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but I have to look out for me since no one else has charge of that. I look forward to reading more on how this is all working for your family.