Psyche said:Hi bosy, have you read Life Without Bread and the Ketogenic thread? There was a time when MS didn't exist, much less to the degree that we see it nowadays. MS actually follows Agrarian societies. While what we eat is not the sole factor, it is the one thing that our bodies receive on a daily basis, deriving from there all the substrates for bodily processes (including reparation) and raw materials for our organs and tissues. "You are what you eat". Check out Life Without Bread ASAP, it has changed the lives of many.
Psyche has a point. So far as I'm aware, Stanislaw Tanchou was the first to use the term "diseases of civilization" in reference to the idea that many of the common ailments within modern societies are the result of people switching to grains for a significant part of their diets.
"Stanislaw Tanchou gave the first formula for predicting cancer risk. It was based on grain consumption and was found to accurately calculate cancer rates in major European cities. The more grain consumed, the greater the rate of cancer." Tanchou made the claim in 1843, to the Paris Medical Society. He also postulated that cancer would likewise never be found in hunter-gatherer populations. This began a search among the populations of hunter-gatherers known to missionary doctors and explorers. This search continued until WWII when the last wild humans were "civilized" in the Arctic and Australia. No cases of cancer were ever found within these populations, although after they adopted the diet of civilization, it became common."
The term "diseases of civilization" is now being used by Dr. Woodrow C. Monte (food scientist) to explain his discovery that methanol (wood alcohol), poisonous to humans, is often found in modern diets as the result of food canning that began on a large scale around two hundred years ago. MS or multiple sclerosis is one of the diseases that he includes in his list of ailments caused by consuming methanol. The methanol is produced by some of the fermentation that often happens during the processing and storage of canned or packaged foods. Basically he says that methanol consumed by people from a number of sources, including cigarette smoke and artificial sweeteners (like aspartame) turns to formaldehyde at various locations in the body, the same kind of formaldehyde that is used to preserve body parts for biology classes. In other words, various parts of the body are turned into a type of plastic and are mummified. According to Dr. Monte, the main reason this has been allowed to continue is that food products are tested on animals, and animals are able to metabolize methanol but humans cannot. He has fought all the way to the US Supreme Court with his discovery but was told that the court relies on the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to tell them what is safe. Dr.Monte explains methanol’s ability to produce various diseases is the result of the genetic differences in people and methanol can easily convert to formaldehyde in an area of one person's body, yet in another person, it can attack somewhere else. I have read that methanol can accumulate in the body depending on how much and how often it is consumed. The human body has some ability to clear itself of methanol but it is very inefficient at doing so since our ancestors rarely came across it in their earlier evolution.
There are a couple of radio shows that present a somewhat easy to understand discussion of his research available at his web site _www.thetruthaboutstuff.com. Look for
Crash! Are You Ready? - George Whitehurst Berry: June 9, 2010
Crash! Are You Ready? - George Whitehurst Berry: June 10, 2010
This URL will take you directly to where you can find them,
_http://thetruthaboutstuff.com/radio.html
There is also a paper written by Dr. Monte called "Methanol: A chemical Trojan horse as the root of the inscrutable U" referred to as PDF 586 at his other web site _www.whilesciencesleeps.com . Look for a link at the bottom of the home page just under an entry with a title of Methanol A Chemical Trojan Horse. It provides a general description of his discovery and how it relates to the many diseases of civilization, including multiple sclerosis or MS, Alzheimer's, atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, Lupus, skin and breast cancer, autism and a number of other diseases.
If it turns out that Dr. Monte's work is significant, and it seems that he is convinced that it is, then for anyone who is smoking, consideration might be given toward switching to an air dried tobacco since the indications are that the methanol that is reported to be in tobacco smoke comes from the fermentation process that is often used in production. There are air dried tobaccos readily available at most tobacco shops from what I understand, and a search on the net produced at least one entry stating that air dried tobaccos contain more nicotine. So as a result, a person may wind up needing less tobacco to get the same results. Also, methanol can come from other environmental sources such as industries producing wood products, and possibly other commercial operations that might use a product containing methanol in some form. For anyone with a borderline health condition, my vote would be to identify all potential sources of methanol and avoid them for a time, then see if things improve or at least stabilize.
Bosy, I hope this information is of some benefit to your father and perhaps others as well. Welcome to the forum and keep us informed on your situation, we might all learn something.