alcohol and nerves

Dear Norb,

My treating doctor gave me some real good advice about alcohol and reasons to avoid it in conditions such as MS and CIDP:

Alcohol is sugar and alcohol tends to give you a buzz quickly indicating that this sugar enters the nervous system rapidly just like barbituates and other medications to mediate neurological or neuropsychiatric conditions. What this means is that sugar alcohol crosses the blood brain barrier quickly.

This barrier is compromised in individuals that have conditions such as ours, there is a build up of protein in our CNS this sugar binds to these proteins making the toxin build up even more harmful and there is no way for the nervous system to clense itself from this build up. It is not like the other parts of our body that can be filtered through organs such as our kidneys and liver. This allows for this build up to remain in the tissue of the nerves causing further demylination.

There are neurotoxin absorbing supplements that can be quite effective and natural antioxidants one of which is blueberries are really effective in removing these free radical molecules from your CNS.

I have personally had one sip of cognac and one glass of wine in the last 1.5 years I eat a diet that is immune boosting and avoid all sources of food or drink that can cause my condition to worsen. Despite all of these efforts I am still deteriorating. You have to see for yourself and how you feel if your body is giving you signals that this does not feel right I would not drink if having a glass of wine once in a long while seems to feel okay then I would indulge. You are the best judge but as far as alcohol goes it definitely has a negative effect on CNS tissue.

They say a glass of wine is good for you but indvidulas with compromised blood brain barriers instead of wine it is healthy to have at least 3 teaspoons of red or white wine vinegar daily and this has the same effect of improving vascular functioning that a glass of wine a day does for someone who is healthy. Improved vascular functioning results in better cardiac functioning, more energy less Chronic Fatigue. There are a lot of other supplemets to help with that aspect of care but it is best to stay away from alcohol.

Hope this helps,

Best wishes,

Gopal