Got some devastating news yesterday - I have Multiple Sclerosis

[SheilaT]

98. I had forgotten that MS is an auto-immune disease.

as is alopecia areata, what my sons have.

It seems to me that one of the most defining aspects of all the auto-immune diseases is that they are unpredictable in many ways. And that sometimes they're worse, sometimes they're better.

Here's the caveat to this sort of testimonial: Anyone who assures you they've cured themselves of their auto-immune disease by changing diet or taking supplements or whatever, is fooling themselves. They're simply one of the lucky ones for whom the systems vastly improved, despite what they may have done. If diet or supplements really were the cure, then clinical trials would show clearly show those results.

What's especially interesting about the Dr. Terry Wahl thing, is that if I google it, all I can find is her book, her testimonial, her diet suggestions. Nothing that remotely resembles actual clinical research. Just exactly the sort of pseudo-science, one case proves everything, magical thinking.

Since alopecia is what I'm most familiar with, I can tell you that with that particular condition, people may have been totally bald for years, even decades, and then suddenly begin growing hair. If they've recently tried some new vitamins or diet, they will wrongly attribute the hair growth to the vitamins or the diet. Meanwhile, they enthusiastically tell others to try what they tried and lo and behold, no one else has significant hair growth.

If Dr. Wahl really thinks what she did made a difference, she needs to get the funding for the necessary clinical trials.