Multiple Sclerosis is a horrible disease with few treatment options except hope. It often strikes at a young age and leaves the afflicted unable to care for themselves when they should be in the prime of their lives. It gets its name from the ‘sclerosed’ appearance that the fatty outer layer of the spinal cord, the myelin sheath, has when viewed on medical scans. These patches slow down- and even stop- electrical transmissions from the brain to the rest of the body and vice versa. Over time, strength and movement slow and are lost entirely.

Treatments for multiple sclerosis haven’t worked very well, but drug manufacturers and researchers are always attempting to develop treatments to, if not cure the disease, at least give sufferers relief from their symptoms. Some drug treatments that have seemed to show promise are, as usual, being found to have serious consequences like: brain infections from the drug Rituximab and an increase in cancer from a class of drugs called beta interferons! What a choice to have to make for better functioning.

But it seems that MS sufferers may not have to make that choice any more. A new study shows that those taking VERY high doses of Vitamin D Supplements, about 14,000 IU’s per day on average, prevented the frequent relapses that occur with the disease. These high doses of Vitamin D Supplements significantly helped the patients in the study to maintain their current level of functioning with virtually no adverse effects. But it’s somewhat baffling that the researchers warned other MS sufferers not to take more than 4000 IU’s of Vitamin D per day until the treatment was proven to be safe.

This is baffling for two reasons. One because the much lower dosages of 4,000 IU’s that was used in the study showed absolutely no benefit; and two because study after study has already shown that high dose Vitamin D IS safe. In fact the University of Toronto, the research facility for THIS study, had stated previously in a DIFFERENT study that there is “no evidence of adverse effects from taking 10,000 IU of Vitamin D a day”.

But even if you are skeptical about taking high doses of Vitamin D in pill form, where there IS the chance of taking too much if you don’t get a regular Vitamin D blood testing, you can get high dose Vitamin D for FREE just by exposing your skin to sunlight.

If you are light skinned and expose the majority of your body to direct sunlight for the amount of time that it takes you to get the slightest bit pink, you will make up to 200,000 IU’s of Vitamin D. Interestingly, even though the body makes such a large amount of Vitamin D all at once, there has NEVER been a recorded overdose of Vitamin D from too much sun.

While this may be the first study to show the effectiveness of Vitamin D to prevent relapses in MS, there is already precedent for the use of Vitamin D in the disease. Several studies have shown that higher levels of Vitamin D are effective at PREVENTING Multiple Sclerosis in the first place. Another study showed that the number of sclerosed areas on the spinal cord could be reduced by as much as HALF using the same high dose Vitamin D used in this study!! In fact, Vitamin D researchers such as Oliver Gilley, who did extensive studies on Scotland’s high rate of Multiple Sclerosis, has been urging higher levels of Vitamin D for years in order to ward off this preventable disease.

So, while drug researchers continue looking for the latest greatest drug treatment, Great Britain urges its Prime Minister to devote millions of pounds for stem cell research and the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada creates new training centers designed to “boost our capacity to conduct MS research through training of the next generation of MS researchers”; the “next generation” for the prevention AND treatment of this ‘incurable’ disease is sitting right in front of us right here, right now. While you may have to weigh the risks and benefits of getting your Vitamin D through the sun, this safe and effective treatment for Multiple Sclerosis is completely free of charge and no insurance is required.

Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune Queen
Functional Medicine Practitioner
Easy Immune Health.com

Magnesium is a powerhouse. It is inexpensive and is used to treat a vast array of medical problems, often better than any drugs or medical procedures available. The latest feather in magnesium’s cap is its newly discovered ability to protect the brain and improve the neurologic outcomes of infants and adults who have had oxygen deprivation to their brains. Pretty impressive for a cheap mineral present in practically every Multivitamin and Mineral Supplement on the market.

Magnesium is a simple element, abbreviated Mg, and is number 12 on the Table of the Elements. It is only present in small amounts in the body, yet it is imperative for many bodily processes and is essential for several lifesaving emergency treatments in the hospital in cases when there are simply no other procedures or drugs that exist to help.

One of the common lifesaving uses in the hospital is literally the ONLY treatment. In the movies, when someone’s heart stops beating and the doctors or paramedics rush on scene with CPR and a defibrillator to “shock” the patient’s heart back into a normal rhythm, they often portray the heart rhythm as a ‘flatline’ with no electrical activity. But in reality, if it is very soon after a person’s heart stops, they often have a heart rhythm called ‘Ventricular Fibrillation’- which is treated by ‘shocking’ it back to a normal rhythm, something that you cannot do with a ‘flatline’.

But occasionally, if this rhythm remains despite the best efforts to get the heart started it may be that the rhythm is a specific subtype of Ventricular Fibrillation called torsade de pointes. This rhythm is hard to distinguish from ‘simple’ ventricular fibrillation, but the importance of recognizing it quickly can’t be understated because it’s ONLY treatment is the immediate infusion of intravenous magnesium. Without emergency magnesium, the patient will die.

Additionally, intravenous magnesium is the only effective treatment for the prevention of seizures in women with late stage pregnancy whose blood pressure is extremely high- a very dangerous condition called eclampsia that requires immediate delivery of the baby in order to resolve.

Magnesium also shines as helpful additional treatment for many other problems such as heart rhythm disturbances, migraine headaches, depression, diabetes and constipation – among only a few of its many achievements.

But some of the latest and most exciting new research is showing its protective effects on the brain. Strokes, often called ‘Brain Attacks’, are one of the most devastating neurologic events. With few treatment options after the first few hours after the onset of symptoms, most of the time the family is relegated to just ‘watch and wait’ to see if the patient gets better. Often they don’t get better and are faced with a lifetime of disability.

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Some studies have shown that a higher daily magnesium intake can help to prevent strokes. But even more remarkably, a recent study found that intravenous magnesium, when used with other treatments, has “synergistic neuroprotective effects and reduces brain injury” in strokes caused from lack of blood flow to the brain.

While that study is impressive in its own right, another new study shows that magnesium also protects the brains of infants during childbirth when complications cause the baby to have a lack of oxygen to the brain. This devastating event called perinatal asphyxia often leads to permanent brain damage and disability. When magnesium was given to infants after these highly stressful births, researchers concluded that it “improves neurologic outcomes”. An impressive feat since giving oxygen and having hope is the current standard treatment for these infants.

So, while doctors still don’t even recommend that the general population take magnesium or a Mineral Supplement regularly despite its impressive list of accomplishments, it’s low risk of Magnesium Side Effects and its incredible record of safety, magnesium continues to rack up successes in treating and preventing some of the most difficult to treat medical problems that exist today.

Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune Queen
Functional Medicine Practitioner
Easy Immune Health.com

Fish Oils, and specifically Omega 3 fatty acids have shown in study after study to be a beneficial dietary addition.

Their most noted effects are their ability to reduce cholesterol levels- in some studies as well as the cholesterol lowering statin drugs.
Walk into any health food store and you can take your pick of a dozen different types of fish oils. In pills, liquids or even berry flavored, the general public has caught on to the health benefits of Omega 3 Fatty Acid Supplement

Never to be outdone by the supplement industry, Big Pharma has worked their way into an attempt to take over some of the market share of the Fish Oil industry… but it’s not quite turning out like they had hoped.

Lovaza, made by GlaxoSmithKline, is a patented preparation of ‘omega-3-acid ethyl esters’ and is FDA approved for lowering high triglyceride levels in the blood. Triglycerides are a type of fat present in the blood. Often checked at the same time as cholesterol levels, a high (over 150 mg/dl) is concerning to most doctors as it can indicate a higher risk of coronary heart disease.

When high triglycerides are present, medical professionals will often recommend some sort of intervention to bring the offending blood fats down sort- either lifestyle change or a prescription drug.

GlaxoSmithKline was hoping that Lovaza would fit that bill as one of the prescriptions recommended in combination with their ever beloved cholesterol-lowering statin drugs in cases where triglyceride levels were considered ‘moderately’ high, 200- 499 mg/dl.

But it’s turning out that their synthetically derived chemical ‘fish oil’ isn’t quite turning out to be the darling that the less expensive fish oil is.

It turns out that Lovaza, while lowering triglyceride levels, significantly RAISES LDL “bad cholesterol” levels which essentially negates the reason that Lovaza would be prescribed in the first place!

www.WorstPills.org reported that an FDA Black Box Warning was placed on Lovaza. The non profit ‘Expert Second Opinion for Prescription Drug Information’ no longer considers Lovaza appropriate for ‘moderately high’ triglycerides and recommends that it’s use be limited only to those suffering from triglyceride levels greater than 500 mg/dl.

While this may deter SOME practitioners from prescribing the $3300 per year Lovaza instead of inexpensive Omega 3 Fatty Acid Supplement once a prescription drug is prescribed, then it can be prescribed for any use a doctor desires.

And with the kickbacks bigger than Fish Oil companies are likely to provide, it’s not likely that Medicare is going to stop paying for this drug anytime soon.

Omega 3 Fatty Acids

But Fish oil supplements don’t have the only claim on Omega 3 Fatty Acids, however. You can get Omega 3′s in many different sources like:

Flax Seeds and Flax Seed Oil
Wild Salmon
Sardines
Chia Seeds (chaa,chaa,chaa,chia!)
Krill Oil
Borage Seed Oil
Green Lipped Mussels

Only to name a few. So you don’t need to take prescription drugs to get the beneficial effects of Omega 3 fatty acids. In fact, The Whole Cholesterol Issue Is a Complete Lie, according to Dr. Lundell- a former Heart Surgeon who saw that heart surgery and prescription drugs are NOT the way to lower the risk of heart disease anyway!

Inflammation is becoming the new villain- and it’s just not as easy to control inflammation with drugs- but that’s how fish oil works- by controlling the inflammation anyway. So, take a look at What Dr. Lundell Says about Cholesterol and Inflammation and learn more about cholesterol and inflammation than you ever thought possible.

Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune Queen
Functional Medicine Practitioner
Easy Immune Health.com