April 11, 2012 at 12:18pm
We all know nutrition is an important part of good health and recovery in chronic illness. If some forms of MS are indeed related to the venous system, as Dr. Zamboni's and others' research indicates, it's important to live a vascular healthy lifestyle.
Medical doctors like Dr. Terry Wahls and Dr. George Jelinek have shown, through their own lifestyles and published research, the importance of diets rich in antioxidants and phytonutrients from fruits and vegetables. It helps some people with MS find stability. I believe there is no coincidence in this fact.
I wanted to write a bit about the new supplement companies coming forward with special, proprietary blends of products for MS that "enhance your DNA!!" or "provide epigenetic support!!" These products can only be purchased by a special distributor.
They all seem to all have snazzy webpages and YouTube videos hosted by toothy and tanned men in white coats. Some of them get celebrities to hawk their wares. The products all end in "ex" or sound vaguely scientific and futuristic. They claim to switch on your body's own DNA. (Here's the deal, your DNA is already in the on position. Epigenetics just means outside influences that change our DNA...stuff that isn't written in our code, but affects of genes from the outside. Your genes are changed by what you ingest and come in contact with--both the good and the bad. In other words, you control your epigenetics.)
We then read testimonials from our friends online, whose lives have been forever changed by this one product, and they sincerely want to help us. But this supplement can only be purchased from so and so, and we'd better go and meet so and so and change our lives. Oh, yeah. There's a dollar sign attached.
ALL of these new supplements contain phytonutrients. Phyto simply means plant in Greek. So, these are nutrients from plants, that's all. Nothing super special or proprietary. These supplements are very colorful. Jeff's curcumin supplement leaves my hands orange. We just had a note from the Hubbard Foundation on beets, and as Jason noted, BE CAREFUL! Beet juice stains! So does wine, which is rich in phytonutrients. Any fruit or veggie rich in these nutrients will probably stain, because they have such intense color. God made them colorful, and He made them good for us.
