MS anti-inflammation and improvement from a cheap, safe OTC supplement we all know?

Studies show that oral N-acetylglucosamine produced benefits for remitting-relapsing, primary progressive and secondary progressive types of MS. After one month, nearly one-third of subjects reported less disability. No serious side effects were seen even after supplementing for long periods of time. As of last summer, the National Institutes of Health was continuing to study it, but as lead researcher Dr. Michael Demetriou of University of California Irvine School of Medicine points out, "Anyone can get their hands on [it now] if they have $20."

And that’s just what I’ve done, except that it was $17.99 — for potential MS anti-inflammation and symptom improvement.

I don’t know how many out there are like me, but I’m without an MS treatment. With primary progressive MS like mine, there are few disease-modifying drugs available. The DMT most prescribed for PPMS is Ocrevus, but my neurologist, who was one of the researchers that helped to get the drug approved, strongly warned me away from it because of the risk of respiratory infections that I, as a full-time wheelchair user, may not be able to fight off. So while the MS Society recommends that everyone with MS should be on a DMT, I haven’t been on one for years. At this point my case is only very gradually worsening, but I don’t know how much more spinal cord I have left before I develop breathing and swallowing problems or more.

Then, instead of just playing defense with symptom management alone, I’m been open to looking at promising research-study results. Nothing crazy. I stick to NIH-related stuff. One of my past neuros, who had MS himself, pointed me to a study about intermittent fasting, which I read and, yes, gave a try for a few months. It wasn’t for me, but I tried.

Another, I still stick to. Overcoming Multiple Sclerosis is a program started by Dr. George Jelinek in Australia, who has MS and went through the scientific literature of the time to come up with his protocol. It’s a number of lifestyle changes, like exercise, meditation, minimizing stress and taking daily omega-3 fatty acids in the form of flaxseed oil. The most difficult step for most would be the largely plant-based whole foods diet, except for allowing various cold-water fish — so really it’s a pescatarian diet. The thinking behind it is to minimize saturated fats, which according to the work of influential doctors Swank and McDougall, contribute to the most rapid MS deterioration. I tried going the extra step of cutting out meat altogether, since I was 95% of the way there already, and I did fine with it, and have been vegan now for about a dozen years.

There are no miraculous cures anywhere on this page. OMS is about maximizing your well-being while living with MS, including using DMT’S, Jelinek writes.

Still, taking glucosamine — make sure it’s oral N-acetylglucosamine for best results — which is available for cheap at your local anywhere store, to maybe get both anti-inflammation and improvement? With little or no side effects? Tantalizing, yes?

Related articles:

https://jneuroinflammation.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12974-023-02893-9

https://www.webmd.com/multiple-sclerosis/news/20240710/could-help-be-coming-for-progressive-multiple-sclerosis

https://multiplesclerosisnewstoday.com/news-posts/2023/09/19/sugar-molecule-supplements-glcnac-may-ease-inflammation-ms-trial/

https://www.ucihealth.org/news/2024/07/progressive-multiple-sclerosis

https://tinyurl.com/baj4ejzb

https://multiplesclerosisnewstoday.com/news-posts/2020/10/09/simple-sugar-molecule-may-be-potential-myelin-repairing-therapy-multiple-sclerosis-mouse-study/

Newly diagnosed "can truly be optimistic about their prospects for a life free from disability"

Years ago I was skeptical of all articles like the one I'm highlighting below. I'd see them regularly -- 'The New Drug on the Way Could Be a Game-Changer' or 'A Cure May Be In Sight,' stuff like that -- I mean, how many times can you hear them cry wolf? Particularly when you have primary progressive and there were no treatments at all. But now there is so much going on, and the post-pandemic science has moved the sticks so much. … The landscape feels much different to me now. It doesn't smell like BS anymore. (How's that for unscientific?) Even if there still isn't a treatment for me. Here's to someday. --

Dr. Stephen Hauser, who has been working on MS for decades, is hopeful that the world is on the cusp of a new era in MS. “The battle is not yet won, but all of the pieces are in place to soon reach the finish line — a cure for MS. … I think we can, in the next few years, completely suppress the disease in most people, if the proverbial tea leaves continue to point in the direction that they do today,” he said. And a cure for MS could be close behind.

And in the last decade, UCSF researchers have made incredible advances that could, one day, reverse MS symptoms or even treat the disease before it begins.

Today, clinical studies like those being conducted by the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences, which Hauser directs, are investigating new ways to aggressively treat MS sooner with existing medications and new, more powerful versions. They are also concentrating on myelin repair. The Institute is applying lessons learned from MS to develop treatments for degenerative brain disorders like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, as well as ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis).

Excerpts from full article: "A Cure for Multiple Sclerosis? Scientists Say Within Our Lifetime."

Make your plan to vote! Sign up for tomorrow's MS Society voting webinar.

For health care and insurance, disability policy and medical research, this will be a big election. Whoever you plan to vote for, it's important to know the "how" — because every state has different voting and registration laws.

On Tues., Sept. 17 at 2 PM ET/ 1 PM CT/ Noon MT / 11 AM PT, voting expert Michelle Bishop of the National Disability Rights Network gives you info and answers questions to help you form your own voting plan. Sign up and make sure you have your say!

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