Roger: MY FIGHT AGAINST MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS

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MY FIGHT AGAINST MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS

by MacDougall

This is the story of my fight against Multiple Sclerosis. What follows is

based upon my own experiences and the conclusions I have drawn from them.

It should be clearly understood that I am not a doctor and have no medical

training. My theories are controversial, though a growing number of

individual doctors have now reached similar conclusions.

As a layman expressing views not accepted by the medical profession in

general, I obviously come in for much criticism from that quarter. My aims

are very simple. I suffered down to a state of terminal disability and am

now enjoying a healthier life than I can remember. I would be inhuman if I

did not use that unusual experience to give what advice I can to those

still suffering. Here are the facts:

I was diagnosed 30 years ago at the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases

in Queen Square, London, in February 1953. At that time, my specialist was

recognized as one of the world's leading neurologists and Queen Square as

one of the most celebrated neurological centres.

Within a few years I was unable to use my legs, eyes, and fingers ... even

my voice was affected, and I was quite unable to stand erect, even for a

few seconds.

Many years later when I was living in Hollywood I was given a thorough

neurological examination - encephalograph, radioactive brain scanning, and

lumbar puncture. Evidence of scar tissue damage was found in the brain and

a sample of my spinal fluid was sent for analysis to a New York Laboratory.

It came back marked as a specimen for someone suffering from Multiple

Sclerosis.

Today, my eyesight is restored, I can run up and down stairs and can lead a

life as active as most men my age. In support of these statements I will

refer later to a medical examination I was given in September 1975 by a

leading neurologist. No miracle has been performed. I have not been cured.

I am simply experiencing a remission - but A REMISSION WHICH I FIRMLY

BELIEVE TO BE SELF-INDUCED.

While accepting that each person's body has a different metabolism, I think

it is not unreasonable to assume that the benefit I obtained by following

certain principles, may be applicable to others.

I would be totally dishonest, however, if I claimed that the regime I

described in my previous booklet helped everyone who followed it. It

appears to have helped me and many others. It is equally true to say that

some people who have followed my recommendations have not in fact improved.

I formerly thought they had not followed my recommendations to the letter

for a sufficient length of time or had not perhaps had the same

determination to succeed as I had.

But recent advances in the study of food allergies have disclosed a more

likely explanation. The truth would seem to be that just as DIFFERENT

PEOPLE HAVE DIFFERENT METABOLIC PROCESSES THEY HAVE DIFFERENT ALLERGIES AND

ALSO DIFFERENT DEGREES OF REACTION TO VARIOUS ALLERGENS. THUS, THE DIET

WHICH HELPED ME IS NOT NECESSARILY THE EXACT DIET CALLED FOR IN ALL OTHER

CASES.

It is now possible to have one's allergies identified by a simple test. I

had this done recently and the result provides further evidence in support

of my contention. My most severe allergic reactions according to the test

were to those foods I had removed from my diet all those years ago

indicating that I had controlled my condition because I had removed gluten,

milk fat and other animal fats and sugar from my diet.

So why did I take that action at a time when I knew nothing of allergies?

The answer to that question, it seems to me, is of the utmost importance

because it may really be the answer to another question - what did I

believe was the cause of my multiple sclerosis?

It is important to understand what an allergen is. A food to which we are

allergic (called an allergen) is a food which is not accepted by our

autoimmune system. Instead of harmonising in our metabolic processes it

attacks and even destroys the white blood cells whose function it is to

stand guard against invasion by unwelcome intruders like viruses and germs.

That is why it is so important to our health to remove them from the diet.

I was now considering my body as a biochemical process, or, more

accurately, as a biochemical process going wrong. As I had not heard of

allergy tests I had to find some other way of pinpointing the errors in my

diet.

It seemed logical to stick to those foods which had been consumed by man

since the very beginning. I BASED MY DIET ON THE FOOD CONSUMED BY THE

HUNTER-GATHERER, BEFORE MANKIND SETTLED DOWN IN AGRICULTURAL COMMUNITIES,

GREW CEREALS AND TENDED CATTLE.

It was this reasoning which led me to cut out gluten (a protein which

surrounds the germ in grains), cow's milk and sugar. These are not foods

from whose consumption we have evolved and I believe that fact is in some

way connected with our rejection of them. Not enough is known yet but the

close connection between diet and illness becomes more and more obvious.

When I removed my three principle allergens, I stopped deteriorating and

eventually began to make slow but nonetheless steady improvement.

The conclusion I draw from this is that foods which are alien to our

species or to which we are allergic, and which attack the autoimmune system

(our natural defenses) somehow contrive to prevent the manufacture of

healthy replacement cell tissue and so become causative factors in the

whole range of degenerative diseases up to and including ageing.

What is Multiple Sclerosis? There appears to be no generally accepted

understanding of the cause. It has to be defined by describing it effects.

According to Black's Medical Dictionary: " It consists of hardened patches,

from the size of a pinhead to that of a pea or larger, scattered here and

there irregularly through the brain and (spinal) cord, each patch being

made up of a mass of the connective tissue (neuroglia), which should be

present only in sufficient amount to bind the nerve-cells and fibres

together. In the earliest stage, the insulating sheaths of the nerve-fibres

in the hardened patches break up, are absorbed, and leave the nerve-fibres

bare, the connective tissue being later formed between these. The actual

changes in the nervous system appear to be due to the action of some

substance which dissolves or breaks up the fatty matter of the nerve

sheaths. " Or according to Gould's (Blakiston's 3rd Edition):

" Demyelinisation followed by gliosis and formation of plaques affecting

different parts of the nervous system in patches. Cause is unknown. "

In simple terms it would appear that the insulation of the nerves

deteriorates, so that impulses can no longer be effectively carried to and

from the brain. The result may be paralysis, partial blindness, lack of

balance and the whole familiar range of symptoms which can vary widely from

case to case.

As I see it, we have three basic ways of trying to cope with illness and

disease.

First there is the orthodox medical approach with the use of drugs. It is

on this that the success of modern medicine is primarily based.

Unfortunately, in the case of MS and many other degenerative conditions,

the appropriate drug has not yet been discovered (if in fact it exists).

Second, there is the new scientific manipulative approach which has come to

be called genetic engineering. This, to be practical, is still some way off.

Third, there is the method known as preventative or holistic medicine. It

is in this group that my method of dealing with MS is based.

All these are legitimate approaches to problems of health. But since, in

the case of MS, the method I have adopted is the only one for me which has

produced positive results, it would seem reasonable to give it a try.

I believe that all three are possible ways of approaching any problem.

Professionals tend to become too rigid and stereotyped. It's good always to

remember that there's more than one way of skinning a cat.

Let me consolidate what I have so far touched on. Twenty-five years ago I

became disillusioned with the neurological approach to my condition. It

lacked cohesion, lacked direction, lacked conviction, lacked any

discernable chance of success. My thoughts travelled back to a time when I

had read biochemistry, and I remembered being struck by the thought that I

was not what the anatomy-trained doctor considered me, that is a static

chunk of meat - a sort of living cadaver. More accurately, I was a

biochemical process. And now, I was a biochemical process going wrong.

Perhaps, I thought, there is no mysterious virus, no invading germ involved

at all. Perhaps I am simply the result of a chemical imbalance, of the

wrong chemicals (in the widest sense) being lumped together and failing to

add up to a satisfactory human being.

In consequence, I left my neurologist and set out, almost a total wreck, to

investigate this new possibility - with invaluable help from my wife and my

friends.

This essay is one of the results of that decision. And because of my story

many people have experienced noticeable improvements.

I hope that another result will be the realisation by some of my medical

friends on the opposite side of this controversy that DIET AND DISEASE ARE

OFTEN DIRECTLY RELATED.

At any rate, after I left Queen Square, I began a process of treatment by

logic. I did what a combination of history, observation, and common sense

dictated that I should do.

That is what I personally did and the result for me was a complete reversal

of my unhappy prognosis. Instead of a wheelchair-confined cabbage I became

a normal human being again.

There is no way in which I can guarantee that the same regime will have the

same happy effect on other sufferers.

What I can say is that the same analysis of the metabolic process, the same

rigid enforcement of the appropriate compensating diet should produce the

same results.

No two people are exactly alike. Your life is in your own hands. If you

want to control and improve your condition it is logical that you should do

as I did and work out what diet your body can tolerate.

I'd like to be able to say don't touch this, take all you want of that. I

can't.

I can tell you that a significant number of people can't tolerate wheat and

other grains, also sugar and milk and milk products, but you have to find

out for yourself whether you are among them. They may be okay for you.

Though, along with many experts in dietary matters, I doubt it.

If you do not feel competent to do this on your own, or feel that you need

help, I strongly recommend that you look for an open-minded,

diet-conscious, holistic-type physician who can read this essay without

dismissing it out of hand, and put yourself in his charge.

It is perhaps worth noting that the three significant changes in diet with

which I began are medically recognised as helpful in the treatment of other

degenerative diseases.

A gluten free diet removes the symptoms of coeliac disease.

A sugar-free diet is indicated in cases of diabetes and hypoglycaemia.

A diet free of milk fat appears to help those with cardiovascular conditions.

It would seem obvious that these dietary changes affect the ability of the

metabolism to produce a supply of healthy replacement cell tissue. We can

once more keep up with our body's demand for new cell tissue to replace

that lost by the mere process of living.

An important way of helping to maintain that same function is to replace

any essential nutrients lost as a result of following your diet. This I

will consider later when I talk of the list of vitamin and mineral

supplements I devised.

Over the course of the next few years, I dropped the suspect foods from my

diet one after another. At first I merely stabilized the state of my

symptoms; then slowly and steadily, my health improved. Slowly is the word

I must emphasize. IT WAS MORE THAN FOUR YEARS BEFORE I NOTICED THE FIRST

SIGNIFICANT IMPROVEMENT when I managed to fumble a shirt-sleeve button into

the buttonhole - the first time my fingers had obeyed a command for a very

long time.

Thus encouraged, I took a closer interest in the problem of nutrition in

relation to my condition.

I owe a great deal - everything in fact - to the work of many different

doctors, biochemists, scientists, research workers and experts. I have

merely put together into a cohesive pattern discoveries, suggestions and

realisations which have come from many others.

It is a positive approach to the problem and one which appears to be

helping large numbers of people. By its very nature, it is often extremely

slow in showing results but, as I have said earlier, a slow improvement is

surely preferable to a slow, hopeless degeneration.

I hope that one day soon the medical profession will treat my theories by

medical methods which will take into account biochemical and dietetic

considerations.

I have followed the course dictated by my theories for many years and in

evidence of my present state of health I am delighted to tell you that in

September of 1975 I went to the neurologist who in 1953 actually conducted

most of my original examination at Queen Square. I asked him to give me a

complete and thorough neurological examination. This he did, and throughout

the examination kept saying " l can't fault you. " Every reflex, every

muscle, every movement was normal.

Finally he came to my eyes and at the extremity of my field of vision, as I

glance right, he found a vestigal trace of nystagmus (juddering of the

optic nerve). When at my worst, I had suffered from nystagmus to the point

of virtual blindness so that to be left with a vestigial trace, of which I

am unaware, hardly presents a hardship. As far as my eyes are otherwise

concerned my astigmatism has cleared up amazingly and I am now able, in

good sunlight, to read newsprint without glasses - something I have not

been able to do for more than thirty years.

At the conclusion of my examination the neurologist confirmed that this

slight trace of nystagmus was the only damage that appeared to remain

throughout my entire system as the result of a crippling attack of Multiple

Sclerosis.

Talking about the past, he recalled that I'd had a pretty severe episode in

the years that followed our first meeting at Queen Square. I asked him

point blank if he'd ever encountered such a spectacular remission and he

freely admitted that he hadn't.

What then am I suggesting to victims of Multiple Sclerosis? Certainly not

the possibility of a cure. I offer, if you like, an approach to the problem

which in my own case I believe to have been responsible for the improvement

in my body and which I believe may help others.

What now follow are the details of the regime which I still adhere to since

I AM CONVINCED THAT SHOULD I EVEN MOMENTARILY RELAX I MIGHT WELL RETURN TO

MY FORMER UNENVIABLE CONDITION.

To some extent, of course, I have altered it to conform to the findings of

my allergy test. This means that I have eliminated a few other foods to

which I am slightly allergic.

Anyone who takes an allergy test should do the same but the diet I have

developed over the years remains in substance the diet I follow and

recommend to others.

DIET

It is important that I should point out here that, through no wish of my

own, I have become known to many people as " the gluten-free diet man " , with

the implication that the banning of gluten is the be-all and end-all of my

approach to Multiple Sclerosis. NOTHING COULD BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH. A

gluten-free diet on its own could in fact be extremely harmful, leading,

among other things, to a serious loss of B vitamins in which sclerotics are

already deficient and to a serious loss of weight. You must remember that

the removal of gluten from your diet - although often essential is only one

aspect of the complete approach.

I believe that the dietary approach to degenerative conditions should take

the form of a five-pronged attack:

1. No gluten or dairy.

2. No foods to which you are allergic.

3. Low sugars.

4. Low animal fats. High unsaturated fats.

5. Making good possible vitamin and mineral deficiencies.

Individual reactions to an allergy test may stress one or other aspect of

this as the most important, but I remain convinced that it will be found

generally applicable. I base this opinion on the fact that so many MS

sufferers seemed to react positively to my specific diet after a long

enough trial. I see now that other types of metabolic imbalance may cause

the same symptoms in people genetically prone to weakness in the nervous

system but it remains true that many seem to share my particular set of

allergies and deficiencies.

It is medically accepted that certain conditions are caused or aggravated

by the consumption of certain foods. For example: coeliac disease linked

with cereals, diabetes and hypoglycaemia linked with sugar, cardiovascular

conditions linked with dairy fats.

My regime is based on the belief that Multiple Sclerosis falls into the

same category, but again it must be stressed that this opinion is not

shared by medical authority. If I am right, IT IS SURELY POSSIBLE THAT YOU

ARE EATING FOODS TO WHICH YOU MAY BE ALLERGIC AND WHICH MAY BE DOING YOU

HARM. I believe that by eating the correct foods you will have a good

chance of improving your condition. As with so much in life, SUCCESS MUST

DEPEND ON YOUR OWN DETERMINATION and there can be no half-hearted

approximation to the rules. Watch every dish you eat lest it contain one of

the substances you believe to be harmful. If you are tempted to cheat,

remember you are only cheating yourself.

Once you have corrected your diet, you will find it almost as easy to

follow as your present one. That too is only a matter of habit. Good or bad

eating habits - the choice is yours.

SUPPLEMENTARY VITAMINS AND MINERALS

As I have said earlier, it is important that anyone following a diet should

not, by cutting out the undesirable foods I mention later, deprive

themselves of the beneficial vitamins and minerals those foods contain

along with their harmful ingredients. For example, milk - which I believe

to be harmful to many of us - is, at the same time, a valuable source of

Vitamins B2, B12, and Calcium.

The ideal way to counter this problem is, of course, to eat other foods

which contain the necessary vitamins and minerals but which are not in any

way harmful due to the presence of deleterious ingredients. However, as I

soon discovered, this is not always possible and, furthermore, one may find

that some of these foods are unacceptable purely from the point of view of

personal taste. (How many of us, for example, can stomach a daily ration of

raw chopped liver?)

It was to combat these difficulties that, with the assistance and guidance

of a doctor friend, I set about formulating a broad spectrum of the

vitamins and minerals most likely to be lost as a result of rigid adherence

to a diet. I list below the ingredients that we settled upon.

Vitamin Bl: 25 mg.

Vitamin B2: 15 mg.

Vitamin B6: 75 mg.

Vitamin B12: 250 mcg.

Vitamin C: 300 mg.

Vitamin E: 200 iu.

Chorine Bitartrate: 120 mg.

Calcium Gluconate: 900 mg.

Calcium-D-Pantothente: 150 mg.

Folic Acid: 200 mcg.

Lecithin from flax: 300 mg.

Magnesium Carbonate: 900 mg.

Nicotinamide: 500 mg.

Inositol: 120 mg.

All excipients from biological natural sources. What is important is that

you should not underestimate or neglect the importance of this aspect of a

balanced diet.

WHAT TO AVOID

In this section I deal specifically with the foods I cut out from my own

diet because I believed they were doing me harm, i.e. those that contain

either gluten, high animal fats or refined sugar. The list looks formidable

and will almost certainly involve fundamental changes in your present

eating habits but you will see that the range of good, nourishing and tasty

foods still available to you is very wide and permits plenty of variation

in your daily menus.

YOU MUST CUT OUT GLUTEN RIGIDLY. That means you should avoid all use of

WHEAT, BARLEY, OATS, and RYE, all of which contain gluten, and this

includes foods made from or containing these grains or the gluten from

them, such as Weetabix, Shredded Wheat, Wheat Germ Flakes, Froment,

All-Bran, white and brown bread, cakes, puddings, biscuits, porridge, rye

and wheat crispbreads, all kinds of pasta, semolina, Bisto, etc. Eat

nothing that has even a pinch of flour in it. In this respect your diet

must be as strict as that of someone suffering from coeliac disease.

In my opinion you would be wise to take this precaution even if gluten

sensitivity is not yet apparent in your system.

Also, completely cut out all refined sugar. This is advice I would give to

anyone whether or not sugar is shown to be an allergen. Nowadays, most

medical authorities would agree on this.

It is possible that honey and fructose (fruit sugar) may me less damaging

to your system.

You should severely limit your intake of animal fats. CUT OUT ALL DAIRY

PRODUCTS AND MARGARINES. Use olive oil, sunflower or safflower seed oil for

cooking and salads.

Fried foods are the hardest to digest, so please try to reduce your intake.

AVOID ALL HIGHLY-SATURATED FATS SUCH AS BEEF, PORK, HAM, GOOSE, DUCK,

MUTTON AND LAMB FATS. Bacon, too, should be avoided. Whenever you can, eat

offal (liver, kidney, tongue, sweetbread, etc.) in preference to meat. Eat

free-range animals (venison, rabbit, poultry) in preference to domestic

animals. Always remove the fat from your meat.

In domestic animals, the ratio of adipose (harmful) fat to structural

(essential) fat can be 50 to one. In free-range animals it is 2 to one.

Beer, gin, whisky, vodka, sweetened fruit juices and bottled fizzy drinks

are not permitted.

Some of the above recommendations may conflict with the results of your own

judgment. In effect, I am putting you in charge of your own body. I have

told you what I did to achieve the control and improvement of my own

condition. I have also given you access to a scientific method of helping

you to make your own decisions. I can do no more.

UNFORTUNATELY, I CANNOT SAY " DO THIS " , " DON'T DO THAT " . INDIVIDUAL

RESPONSES TO THE FOODS WE EAT USUALLY VARY TOO WIDELY FOR ANY GENERAL RULES

TO BE APPROPRIATE.

This is why I am always suspicious of diets which are alleged to control

specific degenerative diseases. There is always a diet for an individual

with such a disease, but it is for the individual not for the disease. A

DIET MUST ALWAYS BE TAILOR-MADE TO SUIT A SPECIFIC METABOLISM.

GENERAL HEALTH HINTS

Whenever possible eat foods as fresh as possible. Eat raw vegetables, such

as shredded cabbage, raw grated carrots and beetroot. Eat fresh fruits

every day too - they give you live enzymes which aid digestion.

Fruit and vegetable juices are a fine " liquid meal " . Fresh juices can be

extracted from vegetables with a juice extractor or you can purchase them

in a health food shop. Natural (unsweetened) juices are sugar free and can

give you an additional daily intake of Vitamin C.

Remember, your degenerative condition has taken many years to show itself,

so you won't improve overnight.

As a last thought, please remember that if you have taken an allergy test,

this last section has to be adapted to conform to it.

I am confident that you will find that most of what I suggest will still be

applicable. Ideally a diet, as I said, has to be tailor-made, as it were,

to suit each individual. But I believe the diet I describe will be a basis

from which to elaborate your own.

PATIENCE, PERSEVERANCE AND DILIGENT APPLICATION ARE NEEDED. But the total

freedom from symptoms which I achieved is worth any effort. Of that I can

assure you.

ADDED THOUGHTS

Remember that YOUR PROBLEM IS BASICALLY ONE OF ALLERGIES AND DEFICIENCIES.

You are not suffering from a disease in the usual sense of the word. You

are suffering from your own particular and unique imbalance (your own

personal lack of this or addiction to that) which has its own specific

causes and remedies. Your job is to find out what these individual

metabolic problems (be they allergies, or mineral or vitamin shortages)

happen to be and then to correct them.

Fortunately many doctors, clinics and medical centres are now oriented

towards nutrition as a causative factor in degenerative disease and, while

they may not yet have abandoned the concept that MS is an entity in itself,

they can be of immense help. You have to use your own judgment and decide

what to accept in their recommendations and what to doubt.

Never forget that my salvation was my realisation that I was not a " living

cadaver " as my doctors seemed to believe but was in fact a biochemical

process going wrong. It was by correcting the biochemical process known as

MacDougall that I regained total normality and relief from my MS

symptoms.

The results of my allergy test were significant to me for two reasons. They

showed that all symptoms of MS had disappeared and I had identified my

major allergies - grains (gluten), milk products, sugar, oranges, tomatoes,

tobacco. They also identified a few other allergies of which I had not been

aware, particularly onions, rice, corn and apples.

It will be interesting to observe if their absence from my diet will bring

about further improvement.

Among the commonest allergies mentioned by specialists are wheat, oats,

rye, barley, dairy products, cocoa, chocolate, and sugar all of which are

foods which I cut out of the regime I devised for myself. Other foods which

seem to cause problems for some people are: shellfish, eggs, red meat (I

now cut that out too). But YOU HAVE TO FIND OUT FOR YOURSELF WHAT YOUR OWN

WORST ENEMIES HAPPEN TO BE.

In my opinion there is no mysterious undiscovered physical cause of MS -

rather only the predictable and easily understood reaction of your

metabolic processes (particularly your autoimmune system, that is your

white blood cells) to the presence of alien foodstuffs in your bloodstream.

Stop feeling panicky and begin the long slow and arduous climb back to a

healthy life.

I did just that more than twenty years ago when I was working in the dark

with nothing much more to go on than hope and a well trained sense of the

logic of things. If I could do it then, on my own, you can certainly do it

now with all the help that is available. So go to it!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Playwright, film writer, composer, lyricist, musician and a Professor of

Theatre Arts, MacDougall was born in Bearsden, Dumbartonshire in

1910. His father, a headmaster in Glasgow, and his mother, a teacher, had

hoped that their son would make a career in Administrative Education in

Scotland. However, after studying at Glasgow University and graduating in

law, he turned to writing and composing as a career and soon had numerous

successes to his credit. He wrote plays, revues and sketches for the

B.B.C., and music and lyrics for five revues at the Prince of Wales Theatre

and two Crazy Gang Shows at the London Palladium.

It was inevitable that his talents would be snapped up by the busy British

film studios. His pen was prolific and over the next few years he had no

less than 26 screen credits to his name including " Midnight Menace " , " This

Man is News " and " This Man in Paris " . At the famous Ealing Studios, he

wrote several films, one of which was to become a screen classic - " The Man

in the White Suit " which starred Alec Guinness and for which MacDougall

received an Academy Award nomination. Other films followed including " The

Gentle Gunman " (starring Dirk Bogarde and Mills), " The Mouse That

Roared " (starring Sellers) and " A Touch of Larceny " (starring

Mason and ).

Constant demands from the film studios did not mean that MacDougall

neglected his first love, the theatre. His play, " To Dorothy, A Son " (later

filmed with Winters starring), was a smash hit. It ran for 18

months as did " Escapade " (which was later filmed with Mills and

Alastair Sim).

It was just after " Escapade " had opened (in 1953) that MacDougall was

admitted to hospital for diagnosis of a strange deterioration in his

eyesight and ability to walk properly. Multiple Sclerosis was diagnosed but

the truth was kept from him. Only his wife, , was told of his

condition while he was told he had " inflammation of the nerves " .

Slowly MacDougall's condition worsened until he was a helpless invalid

confined to a wheelchair.

Defiant of his condition, he continued to work as best he could, dictating

and using a tape recorder. By these means he wrote " The Facts of Life " and

" A Touch of Larceny " .

Not content to accept the steady deterioration in his condition without

question, it was inevitable that before long he learnt the truth - that he

had Multiple Sclerosis.

Refusing to believe that his condition was hopeless, MacDougall set out to

learn all he could of the known treatments for degenerative complaints and

came to the conclusion that a dietary approach might help him.

So began many years of experiment on his own body, the results of which are

told in this story.

MacDougall is today in good health and as active as any normal man of his

age. Whether this return to normality is simply a remission, or, as he

maintains, a self-induced, controlled remission, is bound to be a matter

for argument whenever his theories are discussed.

Whatever the case, as MacDougall says, his approach to MS seems to have

helped him and his greatest wish is that it will help others too.

EDITOR'S NOTE

Mr. MacDougall died a few years ago in his eighties. He had no MS symptoms

at the time of his death. There can be little doubt that MacDougall

defeated MS through his dietary changes. Science is slowly catching up with

his intuitive insights of 40 years ago. MacDougall's dietary regime is

basically the same as what is now called the " Paleolithic Diet " which is

being recommended by some nutritionists as the best defense against many

" lifestyle " diseases such as heart disease and cancer.

Unfortunately most MS neurologists still stubbornly ignore Mr. MacDougall's

successful methods. Thus little has changed since Mr. MacDougall abandoned

his neurologist 40 years ago and beat MS through logic and a dedication to

his deduced dietary therapy. Obviously clinical trials to test the efficacy

of a low fat, allergy free diet with supplements are required. I can only

suggest that you lobby your national MS Society to promote and fund such

research.

Finally I would like to thank the directors of Regenics Inc. of Great

Britain for generously allowing me to put this edited version of the

MacDougall story on the World Wide Web.

A.F. Embry