Taking Control of Multiple Scleroris is a book written by Professor George Jelinek, M.D. He claims that multiple scleroris progression can possibly be halted or at least significantly slowed by keeping to a specific diet, this diet is based on Professor Roy L. Swank's, M.D., Ph.D research. The dietary and change in lifestyle suggestions have a lot in common with Hafer's recommendations. As in Hafer's case, the medical profession has largely chosen to turn a blind eye to this significant research. The interesting parallels and significant differences between the ADD story and the MS story, as we understand the situation, are the following:

1. Both conditions affect the central nervous system.
2. In both it is the transmission of nerve impulses from one nerve cell to others that is affected.
3. Both are 'modern' diseases; MS was first reported about 1800 and recognised throughout Europe by 1900. Hafer traces the earliest evidence for ADD to the second half of the nineteenth century.
4. Both conditions appear to be on the increase.
5. The geographical distribution of both is uneven. Both are common in the so-called "Western" industrialised countries, less common or unknown in countries in which traditional diets of natural, unprocessed foods are the norm.
6. This suggests that there may be an environmental factor or factors at work, it in particular suggests that the human body has not adapted to foods manufactured by modern food technology precisely because the geographical distribution of both conditions is so uneven.
7. There is also very strong evidence that there is a genetic factor at work in both conditions; both run in families. Jelinek estimates that MS is about 30% inherited and 70% environmental.
8. Hafer claims that people with ADD/ADHD can take control of their symptoms by actively following the appropriate diet. Jelinek states that the progression of MS can be slowed, possibly stopped, by diet. He further suggests that the triggering of MS in susceptible individuals may be prevented if families adopt the appropriate diet and make other important lifestyle changes.
9. The medical profession has in both cases shown an extraordinary - and quite unscientific - reluctance to acknowledge the value of dietary treatment for the control of the conditions.

The important difference between the two conditions appear to be the following:

1. ADD is a lifelong condition caused by an excess, a deficiency or an imbalance of brain chemicals. Insofar as it has consequences which are difficult to remedy, these are largely caused by the harm the condition causes during the vital early learning years; such major educational deficits are difficult indeed to overcome after the damage has been done.
2. MS, on the other hand, is a chronic, usually progressive degenerative disease of the nervous system, best described as an inflammatory demyelinating condition, which results in damaged nerves.
3. The incidence of MS increases with distance from the equator. In Australia, for example, the disease affects about 12 people per 100,000 in North Queensland and 76 per 100,000 in Tasmania. Jelinek believes that Vitamin D, obtained from exposure to sunlight, is an important factor in preventing the disease from progressing.
4. MS is an inflammatory, demyelinating disease of the central nervous system (CNS - the brain and spinal chord). Nerve cells in the CNS are coated with a form of insulating material called 'myelin'. This myelin sheath is broken down as a consequence of inflammation of the area, resulting in impaired nerve impulse transmission. Demyelination can occur anywhere in the CNS. Whereas ADD is caused by an imbalance of brain chemicals, affecting predominantly nerve impulse transmission in the frontal lobes.
5. ADD affects more boys than girls whereas MS affects more women than men; the ratio in MS is about 3:2.
6. There are differences between Jelinek and Hafer in their assessments as to the dietary substances which are responsible for causing the respective conditions. Hafer is convinced that excess dietary phosphate causes ADD while Jelinek believes that saturated fats, hydrogenated and trans-fatty acids are particularly implicated in MS.

Essentially we are dealing with two relatively new, chronic, increasingly common and very damaging conditions affecting the human nervous system which it is claimed be slowed, halted or rendered innocuous by dietary management, with both diets implicating many of the same foods.

Hafer links osteoporosis, allergic complaints - including skin conditions such as eczema and neurodermatitis, asthma - and substance abuse to excessive dietary phosphate; Jelinek addresses the issue of depression and states that 50% of MS patients become depressed subsequent to diagnosis. The conditions referred to are all having major impacts in the 'developed' countries and have massive adverse impacts on individual lives, both emotionally as well as financial.

There are two further points which are worth making. Hafer has encountered opposition to her ideas from the medical profession, no doubt in significant part because she was a pharmacist, not a medical practitioner. The medical profession in general is very resistant to the idea that anyone other than a medical scientist could come up with a valuable hypothesis or treatment relating to a major disease. But Jelinek is a professor of medicine, head of the emergency department in a major hospital. Precisely because of his impeccable qualifications, it is very much more difficult for the profession to ignore him. It was only when, having seen his own mother experience the crippling condition which severe MS causes, he himself was diagnosed with MS in mid-life that he found himself compelled to look beyond the conventional medical treatments his profession has to offer. As he says in his book, when a doctor finds himself afflicted with a condition such as MS and his or her own life is suddenly at stake, it ceases to be quite so easy to dismiss dietary and other treatments for which valid claims exist.

The second point relates to the way the medical profession ignored the research of eminent US neurologist Prof Roy Swank. Swank had observed that the incidence of MS was highest in countries in which people consumed large quantities of saturated fats and lowest in countries with low rates of consumption of such fats. Beginning in 1949 Swank commenced a research project which he continued for thirty-four years. He started with 150 MS patients on low saturated fat diets. Half of them approximately were classed as good dieters; they stuck essentially to the diet and consumed less than twenty grams a day of saturated fats. The other half were poor dieters who could not stick to the diet and had higher intakes of these fats.

After 34 years the difference between the two groups was dramatic. In the case of the good dieters, the disease progressed very little - and least of all for those who were the least disabled at the start of the study. Those unable to stick to the diet had very different outcomes. Those with minimum disability at the start of the study were, on average, wheelchair and bed bound by the end of it; 45 of the 72 bad dieters had died by 34 years of MS-related causes.

What is more, Swank has reported that he knows of no case where, when a family has followed his recommended diet, another family member has subsequently been diagnosed with MS. This is extremely important because relatives of MS sufferers have an increased risk of MS; in Canada it can be 8.0% or higher whereas the statistical risk in the general population is only 0.2%. In other words, appropriate diet appears not only able to stop MS in its tracks but also to prevent it from starting in the first place.

But Swank's extraordinary study has largely been ignored by the medical profession. It is regarded as "not scientifically proven" because Swank did not have a control group who had normal diets! Many neurologists do not even raise the issue of diet with MS patients. The point at issue was how conclusive this evidence was. In his book Jelinek emphasises the point: "Swank's diet had a huge advantage over other tried therapies. It involved patients actively controlling their illness with a major lifestyle change."

We include this information in our website so that you can make an informed decision as to whether you would like to try Hafer's diet to see whether it will help you, your child, your family. As Dr. Jelinek has noted: "Natural therapies are potentially less harmful and much more beneficial in other ways." And Dr. Swank has stated: "A lifestyle change will have to take place, which may be a challenge for you, but the challenges of living with a disability are much greater."

If you would like to learn more about dietary management of multiple sclerosis, please visit the Swank Foundation website, located at: http://swankmsdiet.org/.

Reference: Jelinek, Prof George, MD: "Taking Control of Multiple Sclerosis", Hyland House, Melbourne, 2000; ISBN 1 86447 086 0.