Every now and then I get asked about it – it’s time to gather all the information in one place so I don’t have to write from scratch each time.
First, the bad news – the course of the disease clearly shows that it is not due to any deficiencies, infections or poisoning. Diseases that arise from such “variable” things have this in common, that they often disappear on their own, the moment the causative factor ceases, they also have an extremely different course – this applies for example to multiple sclerosis.
That is to say – everything points to the fact that the disease is simply congenital, or caused by an unknown factor which, once it has acted, loses its significance – this can be compared to lung cancer caused by smoking, as long as it is not there, quitting protects against the disease, but once it appears, giving up cigarettes will not reverse the disease.
There is no alternative therapy that is in any way proven, even if only by credible case reports of cures. But there are a whole lot of creatures preying on people’s misfortune, telling them that such cases have taken place and that they can sell a miracle cure that will surely work. An example is the sect of Lyme disease believers. The English language google is full of offers of clinics, where in big letters they write about miraculous cures after antibiotics. The problem is that no such clinic has ever released the medical records of even one case. And what’s more, modern medicine has tested whether antibiotics help the disease – quite by chance, it just so happens that the one most commonly used to treat Lyme disease also affects some protein in the brain that is suspected of causing amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. So there were clinical trials where people were given intravenous infusions of this antibiotic for years – it was given to thousands of people, no one was cured.
There are hundreds of such information in the net, some magic herbs, radiation, miracles. There is no shortage of degenerates using the despair of the sick. But – I repeat – no one has yet presented any documentation of a cured disease. It is always “I have already cured dozens of people, why would I lie, do you buy?”.
No, you will not cure the disease. But you can count on slowing its progression considerably – perhaps until medicine finally succeeds in developing an effective treatment. On the other hand, some things that are potentially healthy may be harmful. Let’s take a look at them:
For starters – omega 3 fatty acids. Their high intake is associated with the risk reduced by half:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4160351/
On the other hand, mice in an experimental model of the disease that received omega 3 as a supplement had greatly increased levels of toxic substances in the brain, which theoretically could greatly accelerate the disease:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3631166/
Furthermore, supplementation with high doses of omega 6 significantly slowed the disease in mice, while omega 3 accelerated it:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5748836/
Bottom line – we know that we know nothing. It is possible that omega 3 protect against the onset of disease, but no longer when it occurs. It should be remembered that the “mouse” model of disease is quite different from the human one, in fact, these are two different diseases, only slightly similar.
With the above examples in mind, you can carefully look at the results of studies on the concentration of various fatty acids in the cells of healthy people and sick people, this is the second table:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4492495/table/pone.0131512.t002/
You have to be a little careful with this type of research, for two reasons – the first is what I stated above, the same substance that protects against disease, may even accelerate its development, once the disease has already appeared. The second – the fact that the patient has much more or less of some fatty acid may be due not only to diet, but also to the fact that he simply has genes that make it much more difficult or easier to accumulate, then the consumption of this substance alone may have no effect on the disease.
A very big difference is seen in DPA acid, which is almost twice as much in healthy people, compared to sick people. This is one of the active forms of omega 3.
There are similar differences in the primary omega 3, ALA, but – surprisingly – there were no differences in either EPA or DHA levels, the two most important ones.
Unfortunately, the levels of gamma linolenic acid, GLA, were not checked, this is the one that supplementation helped so much in multiple sclerosis.
Here we have a very interesting study where SLA patients were fed an experimental diet containing gamma linolenic acid, among other things:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24582471
Admittedly, the study was on a small group of patients, but the results are very promising – 43% of patients in the control group died during the therapy, while in the group that received, among other things, GLA – all survived.
Other differences were not clear enough to draw any conclusions.
In conclusion – I would bet on gamma linolenic acid, or possibly DPA supplements, which unfortunately I have not seen on sale anywhere. One study reported reversal of multiple sclerosis after supplementation with GLA-rich borage oil at a dose of about 14 ml per day – this is quite a lot, and unfortunately the price will not be low, in addition no one guarantees that the therapy will do anything. Don’t ask me how many milliliters are in a spoon and how many in a teaspoon – I recommend buying a syringe for 50 cents and measure it yourself.
Uridine:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20565334
In one mouse model of ALS (different models are different types of disease, each caused by a slightly different factor), uridine supplementation markedly increased survival and improved the animals’ overall condition. Eating uridine-rich foods may not have an effect; supplements should be in the form of about 300 mg of uridine monophosphate per day, preferably broken into portions and taken sublingually, which may increase absorption. As with other things, there is no guarantee that uridine will do anything in humans.
Choline is usually given along with uridine, but preliminary studies have shown that choline did not improve ALS:
http://n.neurology.org/content/32/3/315
Neither lithium nor methylene blue (a rather interesting supplement) had any effect:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22230045
Lithium was a rather promising drug, but more detailed studies have yielded disappointment.
It is suspected that lead poisoning can cause the disease, moreover, severe poisoning causes a twin disorder – if one has been exposed to the element, it is worth doing blood tests and possibly trying detoxification, which is cheap and safe.
It has been suggested that carnosine may protect against disease progression to some extent:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11113563
However, instead of supplementing with expensive carnosine, you can simply take beta alanine at the same time (for pennies to buy in sports stores) and histidine – it is also fairly cheap. The effect will be identical. Recommended dosage – about 2 grams of beta alanine, 1 gram of histidine. Note – after a large dose of beta the skin burns very much, so it is better to divide it into two portions.
Every now and then it is necessary to take a break from beta alanine supplementation and use high doses of taurine for a week or two, as beta alanine can lead to severe taurine deficiency.
Carnitine, a popular (not working) weight loss supplement has the added benefit of protecting brain cells.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23421600
In this study, patients who received 3 grams of acetyl-l-carnitine survived an average of 45 months, compared to only 22 months for those in the placebo group.
Alpha lipoic acid, a popular supplement prescribed to diabetics, works synergistically with carnitine (enhancing each other’s effect). It is worth looking at the described case of complete recovery of ALS:
https://www.karger.com/Article/FullText/477397
The patient believed that his disease was caused by mercury poisoning. He began supplementing with alpha lipoic acid and selenium, among other things – interestingly, patients actually have lower levels of mercury in their bodies, compared to healthy people, but also lower levels of selenium:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8229049
In addition, he also used DMPS and a number of different vitamins. After a while, there was no trace of the disease. Of all that he did, alpha lipoic acid seems to be the most promising. It cannot be ruled out, however, that the disease is in fact, in at least some cases, related to heavy metal accumulation in the brain (then there may be even less of it in the blood than in healthy people), in which case DMPS therapy would be the best solution – this can only be done by a doctor, you can talk to your doctor showing him a link to a case report of a cure. It is a very inexpensive therapy and lasts only a few weeks.
By the way, it is worth noting that if someone is actually cured by alternative methods, it is described and published – there is no conspiracy that prohibits publication of such things. This is just a remark about all those “miracle” healers who have hundreds of cures on their account but have not documented any of them because a conspiracy of corporations forbids them.
The big unknown is piracetam. Theoretically, it can have a protective effect on the cells of the nervous system, in practice – no one has studied it. It can be bought over-the-counter.
Very high doses of vitamin B12 have tentatively shown promising effects, including significant prolongation of patients’ lives, but it is not known whether this will be confirmed by the results of more detailed studies:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17969354
The above study used the methylated form (methylcobalamin), but it is possible that identical results will be produced by much cheaper regular B12 along with very cheap TMG as a source of methyl groups.
Finally, vitamin B1. There are various forms of it, including some that easily cross the blood-brain barrier (benfotiamine, sulbutiamine). It has been suggested that low levels of B1 metabolites in cerebrospinal fluid are one of the factors that accelerate the development of the disease:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7103799
It is possible that supplementation would be a very good solution here, but – as always – there is a lack of thorough research done.
Vitamin D3 had no effect on the course of the disease, vitamin K2 – there is some faint hope that it might somehow have an effect.
To sum up the whole article, there are many indications that putting all these crumbs of clues together will significantly slow down the development of the disease, even prolonging life several times. However, no one can guarantee either that they will work (their effect is proven by very small clinical trials) or that the effect will not be counterproductive.