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The Auto-Immune Theory

By way of background, from the very first Betty's House website layout, even though it was much smaller than it is today, I have always maintained that the human body is designed to be self-healing. That is why we have an innate immune response.

When I was born most diseases were thought to be caused by bacteria invading the body. Soon thereafter so-called viruses were discovered, and if doctors didn't know what was wrong with a patient, ultimately most were told it must be a virus. "Virus" was the new catch-all medical buzzword.

Then in about another decade the new "in" medical buzzword became "auto-immune." Almost over night almost any disease was classified as auto-immune, where a part of the body was said to have been attacked by its own immune response.

In 1953 my mother had what eventually we came to know was her first MS episode (exacerbation). For the first few years she was told she had experienced a light stroke. Ultimately she was diagnosed by Stanford University with Relapsing Remitting Multiple Sclerosis. I remember sitting in her doctor's office with her when he said, "Don't worry Mrs. Horton. We know that MS is caused by a virus and we should have it identified very shortly and we'll be able to cure your MS." That would have been about 1958, and even though many millions of dollars have been spent on so-called MS research since that time, they still have not identified the illusive so-called virus, nor have they determined the cause of MS.  The millions of research dollars have all been based on what I believe to be a flawed theory that the immune response/system attacks and destroys myelin.

Early on in my own MS journey I received a phone call from a lady who was a Ph.D. medical researcher in Canada and who had RR MS herself. We must have talked for about two hours. During that discussion I learned what the immune response is and how it works. (She was adamant that it should be called immune response and not immune system.) From that day on I absolutely knew that my suspicion that MS did not have an immune response component was correct. And everything I have learned since that day has confirmed my belief.

The immune response has and does only one job in our body - it protects us from any invader, whether it be called a bacteria, virus, or anything else. IT DEFIES ALL REASON AND LOGIC THAT OUR OWN IMMUNE RESPONSE WOULD ATTACK OUR BODY.

I truly believe that the auto-immune response so touted by medical science today is based on junk science. There is much more to be said on this subject, but that is enough for now.

Just my opinion!

The primary focus of this issue of Journey to Wellness is to update you on the status of Chronic Cerebrospinal Venous Insufficiency (CCSVI). In the over 12 years of my website and this newsletter, nothing has so shaken up the MS establishment as this story. We have explored what CCSVI is and how Dr. Zamboni in Italy was able to totally reverse his wife's MS with a relatively simple procedure to open up blocked veins in her neck. It is about two years since that occurred, and despite the National Multiple Sclerosis Societies' efforts to quash it, both in the U.S. and abroad, people living with MS-related disabilities are finally being heard and are now receiving treatment in many countries, including the United States, at least on a limited basis.

For a point of reference, here is a review of CCSVI. 

Beginning a few weeks ago I began to receive increasing numbers of e-mails from newsletter subscribers asking for more information. Then within 2-3 days following publication of the July newsletter, I received an e-mail from the first person to tell me that she had successfully had the procedure done. And then I made contact with several others who were also in various stages of recovery thanks to this procedure.

One of these ladies I want to introduce you to today. Here is her story.

My name is Denise Manley and this is my story.  I am 47 yrs old, and for the past 20 yrs I've had MS with an SPMS diagnosis over the last 10 yrs. I live in Massachusetts with 2 of my 4 children, my boyfriend and his son. Thank the Lord the kids are all older teens now. I have recently undergone the procedure of venography and stenting to correct CCSVI found in my left jugular vein. I am excited to share my MS recovery story with Betty's Journey to Wellness subscribers.

As far back as 1990 I had intermittent symptoms that would wax and wane. Dizzy spells, the all-too-familiar pins and needles, headaches, the booming sound in my ears when I would lie down, and each time I visited a doctor nothing was ever found and I was told that I should stop wasting their time. I even had a husband who said I just had to stop looking for attention,

In 1998 I was bitten by a tick, and then had a ruptured appendix removed, and I never really recovered after that. The pins and needles crept up my legs, vertigo consumed me, joint and muscle pain kept me in tears through my days and nights. Finally seizures brought me into NYC to the Neurologic Institute in 1999. After a spinal tap my verdict was in. I had Neuro-Lyme, Spinal Meningitis and possibly Multiple Sclerosis. I then was given an allopathic medical protocol of antibiotics for the Lyme.

In 2000 I was diagnosed with secondary progressive multiple sclerosis. I was put on Copaxone, which did nothing to slow the disease but I remained on it for 3 years. Then I was put on Rebif and my neurological damage continued.

I experienced among other things losing the ability to feel my feet, almost total loss of bladder control, the MS hug, and very bad blurred vision, among others. By this time I had to rely on a cane or wheelchair to function. I even learned to use my computer desk chair which has wheels to get around the house.

In August 2008 I spotted Dr. Paolo Zamboni's theory about CCSVI on the Internet. It all made too much sense to me to ignore it. That article explained everything I was going through. I diligently researched CCSVI for a year and a half, following all the studies and educating myself on the past research that had brought Dr. Zamboni to his conclusions, and I could only agree. By November 2009 Dr. Zamboni's study was published and I absolutely knew that I was going to get that procedure done, which has been dubbed the "Liberation Procedure."

Not one doctor even wanted to look at the research. Over and over I fired doctors. Then I realized that I needed to train one - just one. Working through my primary care physician I finally got an order for the MRV, and ultimately found a specialty group of doctors who specialized in venous disease and interventional radiology.

Within a week I met my FSIR (eff-sir). That means he has earned his Fellowship into the Society of Interventional Radiology. He has published works of protocol and procedure within the field of vascular diseases and is highly respected in this field. Besides, this doctor really cares that I am well and he agrees that my symptoms are related to vascular disease.

The plan was made, and April 30, 2010 I underwent a very extensive procedure to my left jugular vein. My procedure lasted 3 hours, but I was awake throughout. It was actually very fascinating and I learned and enormous amount of information. After a few hours of lying flat I was allowed to get up, and that's when I knew something was different. My legs swung off the bed without me telling them or dragging them. When my feet hit the floor I felt it. I could feel my feet on the floor and no one had to hold them there and tell me they were on the floor! I stood with strength and balance and I was shocked.

This wasn't what I had expected at all. Everyone was trying to hold me and hand me my cane. I stated, "No no, don't touch me, please. I have balance and I think I can walk." They urged me to just sit, but I'm stubborn and bullheaded and I proceeded to walk around the recovery room with strength and balance. I walked out of that hospital without huffing and puffing from dragging my body. I could breathe! OMG! I could breathe! I walked down stairs, turned around and walked up them and did it again and again!

With a few mis-steps along the way, including a second surgical procedure, I have continued to regain all that I had lost from what doctors called MS. My new diagnosis is Cerebral Vascular Disease and I will continue to be treated and followed for that. Interestingly the MS symptoms continue to subside. Just a note: Genetic research proved in Aug. 2009 that people with MS have a defective chromosome 6p21.32 for venous disease. It was only released to the public on April 28, 2010, after the Annual Neurologic meeting in Toronto Canada.

As you are reading this it is approximately 3 months since my venous procedure, and my healing continues. During my healing time I'm working very hard getting other people to experience this reversal of their MS symptoms. Through Facebook we pass around the medical information, getting people educated on what CCSVI is and what lesions in MS really are. As the National Multiple Sclerosis Society feeds us lame lies, they can no longer hide it.

We all deserve to be treated for venous malformations if they exist. No society has the right to stop our medical care or even determine what medical care is appropriate. No doctor has the right to not treat a disease that they can see and know how to treat because of a pre-existing condition. This is 2010 not 1020!

I am recovering from SPMS and you should have the chance to start recovering too!

Thank you Denise for sharing your remarkable story. A lot about Denise reminds me of myself . . . I too am a very stubborn and "full steam ahead" kind of person. When I began my MS journey I was absolutely unequivocally certain that I would find a way to defeat it, and I stubbornly kept trying everything I ever heard of.  I had watched my mother's life destroyed by MS, and I was determined that would never happen to me.

Interestingly some of the things that I consider to have been important in my own recovery, such as exercise and meditation, as well as a healthy low fat diet, high omega 3 supplements and some of the Statin drugs like Zocor and Lipitor, which have been helpful for some MS patients, would all be beneficial in treating vascular/venous disease because they help increase blood flow.

I have always surmised that I just taught my body how to compensate for whatever caused it to fall prey to MS in the first place. The CCSVI theory does not change my feeling at all that our body is designed to be self-healing, no matter what disability or dis-ease we may develop. But I also know that not everyone is able to match my results.

We may very well be on the threshold of finally unraveling the mystery of MS. But rest assured that the huge pharmaceutical houses, who will lose billions of dollars when/if their costly drugs are no longer prescribed, will not go down without a huge cry of fowl. And since they finance the medical schools and such organizations as the NMSS, the pharmaceutical giants will find themselves closely allied with the NMSS and the traditional neurological industry that is fueled by those same drug houses.

It is also interesting to note that Dr. Zamboni isn't a neurologist. I also recall that the "specialist" my mother was sent to all those years ago was a doctor of internal medicine. It was quite a number of years later that MS began to be considered a neurology specialty disorder. But it took a physician outside of the neurology specialization to quite literally "think outside the auto-immune box" that had hamstrung MS research for so many, many years. And yes, neurologists are still fighting Dr. Zamboni's theories, but physicians all over the world are now proving the theory and improving the quality or life for MS patients.

I encourage you to study, study, and study some more. If you are not comfortable surfing the Internet, then get comfortable. All you need to do is open your web browser (however you access the Internet), and do a Google search for Dr. Zamboni and/or CCSVI and you will come up with tons of information.

Here's a link to an excellent site with follow-up information:

        http://www.communitycare.com/Practices/Interventional_Radiology/CCSVI_FAQ.asp

Dr. Embry's site www.direct-ms.org has top quality articles by Ashton, as well as links to just about every significant related study. I urge every one of you to study all the information presented there.

Please remember that we do not yet know exactly the role CCSVI plays in MS, but new information about it is being added to the mountain of information being amassed.  Hopefully we will have complete definitive research data soon.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch . . . life goes on.

One of my favorite authors of all time is Richard Bach, best known for writing Jonathan Livingston Seagull, The Bridge Across Forever, Illusions, One, as well as other books. I highly recommend all of Bach's books, all of which are available in paperback from Amazon.

Reading Richard's books is like having a wonderful massage of your soul! One of my favorite quotes from Richard is:

I suggest that the opposite is also true. If we accept that a strong, healthy body is ours, sure enough, that will be true also. Short 3-4 minute video films that play on your computer are a great way to combine affirmations, images, and background music to build your belief. I am working to bring to you selected short videos on health and fitness, as well as other subjects, Watch for them soon.

Spirit. God. Divine Intelligence. Universal Mind. Whatever we may call that ineffable force that beats our hearts and keeps the planets in place, it seems like a very good idea for us to align with it. The best approach I know to accomplish that is through meditation of some form.

Paul Scheele is the president and co-founder of Learning Systems in Minneapolis, and much respected in the industry. In any case I hope you enjoy this little gem. It is well worth the hassle to download it. Paul has one of the most soothing and relaxing voices for meditation that I have ever heard. Enjoy.

NOTE: Registering with Finerminds will put you on their mailing list. If you find that you do not wish to continue receiving things from them, simply have them remove you from their mailing list and they will do it promptly. Finerminds is published by Mind Valley, which is one of the most respected Internet-based publishers of human potential products.

Please, everyone don't sit around and wait for testing and treatment if warranted for CCSVI. Even if that becomes the standard MS treatment down the road, you need to get moving and improve your quality of life NOW.

How do you do that? I suspect that you already know. Start a simple daily meditation ritual, and move your body with healthy exercise.

Oh you say you can't exercise? Excuse me, but that is rubbish. There is no such thing as a person who can't exercise. You can do a very effective exercise program sitting in a wheelchair, or even lying in bed. My good friend Max (in Canada) with whom I got acquainted on the Internet when it was in its infancy, used to say that if you don't do anything else but flay your arms about, you will gain strength and begin to get better. He took himself from beginning to consider some kind of assisted living to being a fully functioning human being with nothing but exercise. Max had been wheel-chair bound for years, so he spoke from personal experience.  And you can do it too! You just start with some simple breathing exercises and very simple seated movement. EVERYBODY CAN IMPROVE HIS/HER BODY WITH A COMMITMENT TO EXERCISE.

If you don't have them, order Yoga for MS (for strength) and/or Tai Chi/Qi Gong for Seniors or Gentle Fitness and get moving. PLEASE DON'T WAIT!  Then pick two or three things from one or two of these programs and get started. Soon you won't believe what a tremendous improvement you will experience. The only thing hindering you is your own lack of enthusiasm and passion.

I absolutely know that I live a normal, healthy life today because of these exercise programs.  Come on.  Get started today!

CHECK OUT THE DETAILS OF THESE VIDEOS HERE

   GEMS FROM THE INTERNET

Lots of heavy stuff this month, so let's share a laugh or two.

California vintners in the Napa Valley area, which primarily produce Pinot Blanc, Pinot Noir and Pinot Grigio wines, have developed a new hybrid grape that acts as an anti-diuretic. It is expected to reduce the number of trips many people must make to the bathroom during the night.

The new wine will be marketed as . . . are you ready?

                                PINO MORE

Everyone who deals with MS-related bladder urgency incontinence will appreciate the humor in this!

ANOTHER GREAT LESSON FROM THE INTERNET:

                                                                                                          - Francesca Reigler