Taking steps to ward off MS symptoms
BY MARK BARBELIUK, 07 Apr, 2009 06:01 PM
FIVE months ago, Violet Wasson started to experience all the outward symptoms of multiple sclerosis.
"There were all the signs of cognitive dysfunction,'' she explained.
"I knew there was something seriously wrong.''
The 40-year-old from Yarrawarrah went to a doctor who thought she might be suffering anxiety and depression.
But the tingling in Mrs Wasson's fingers and toes only increased and the left side of her body was numb the day before an important exam.
Mrs Wasson, a complementary medicine practitioner who runs Vital Health at Sutherland, had a sneaking suspicion her condition was a lot more serious.
"I studied these symptoms and thought it might be either a stroke or MS,'' she said.
"I went into the exam and my brain wasn't working at all.''
Mrs Wasson did not let the matter rest and had a CT scan and MRI.
She then went to a neurosurgeon who said while she had an initial episode of demyelination in the brain, which was suggestive of MS, she had not experienced a second episode that was required for a diagnosis.
Mrs Wasson said "it was a difficult time'', made worse by the way MS was classified and diagnosed, leaving people in limbo.
Mrs Wasson and her husband Troy also had to decide around that time whether to proceed with plans to open Vital Health.
Unprepared to wait for another episode before a formal diagnosis of MS could be made, she instead embarked on a self-help program to slow the disease's progression.
"I started high doses of fish oil, lecithin to rebuild damaged myelin protein, antioxidants and vitamins E and D3,'' she said.
Mrs Wasson also referred to Western Australian George Jelinek's book, Taking Control of Multiple Sclerosis.
Professor Jelinek, an MS sufferer, writes about both conventional and natural therapies and believes alternative medicines have a place in the health regimen of someone with MS.
Mrs Wasson prescribes to this theory and said it was important anyone who thought they might suffer from MS to start working on preventative health remedies straight away.
"We have a large population of young people in this no man's land of having developed an initial episode of MS, but unable to pursue treatment or prevention because the neurologist is unable to call it such until there are two or more episodes, which can be anywhere between months to years apart,'' she said.
"Given the very debilitating nature of this disease once it progresses, it would seem to me that early intervention would be of benefit.
"I believe complementary medicine offers that to people as well as helping to manage symptoms in developed cases of MS.''