MIcronutrients and Improved Function in MS

Progressive multiple sclerosis and micronutrients – is raw food superior to cooked food?


I am often asked whether raw food is superior to cooked food for micronutrient availability for patients with MS. The basic guide I provide is that food taken directly from the plant is the very best for you. If you cook food, the lower temper in steaming or a very low (180 degree) roast is the next best. The other key item is to eat any fluid or juice from the cooking (which is where all the water soluble nutrients have gone.


Micronutrients are critical for brain health. Unfortunately the average western diet is deficient in most vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids and amino acids which have recommended daily allowances. The reason for this is the reliance on cheap sources of calories in grains which have most often had the germ and husk of the grain removed.
Very few vegetables are consumed. The animals are increasingly raised in high density farm factories with minimal exposure to green grass or sunshine. The consequence is that the meat has minimal omega 3 fatty acid, vitamin and mineral content.

Are nutrients lost with cooking? That depends on high the cooking temperature and how long. Immediately fresh and still raw when you eat the food means that cooking has not leached any of the micronutrients out of it. But some of the micronutrients may not be available to you because our bodies can’t digest all of the cell walls in plants. If you cook below the boiling point and drink all the juice – the food is generally more digestible and you have not lost much of the micronutrients. However – some of the compounds that are very helpful to us will gradually be lost with prolonged cooking. Cooking above the boiling point of water, particularly frying tends to oxidize many of the compounds in food. When that occurs many of the anti-oxidants in food have become oxidized – and therefore their anti-oxidant benefit to us is gone.

Bottom line – Raw retains the nutrients in the food. Cooking gently makes the nutrients more available because the food has been partially digested by cooking. Frying oxidizes many of the helpful compounds. Prolonged high temperatures cooking likewise can breakdown micronutrients. My advice is to increase your micronutrients through more vegetables and fruits. Eat them raw or cooked according to your personal preference. But if you cook, always drink the juice. Never throw it away.

Vitamin D and MS disease activity

In this blog I will comment on the role of vitamin D in multiple sclerosis. Multiple studies have demonstrated an association of low vitamin D levels and increased risk of multiple sclerosis diagnosis and greater severity of symptoms.

We also have more and more evidence that vitamin D is important to health immune function. Furthermore there is an epidemic of vitamin D deficiency. People spend less time outdoors. When they do go outside people apply sun screen to protect them from the sun to decrease the risk of skin cancer. The problem is that sun screen also blocks the skin's ability to make vitamin D. That explains why we have an epidemic of vitamin D deficiency in our children, young adults and those over sixty-five. Thus far every group that has been measured has had an alarming rate of vitamin D deficiency.

If someone has MS or has a family member with MS it is likely that they would benefit by taking supplemental vitamin D. What dose should they take? The recommended daily allowance for vitamin D has been set for only 400 international units (IU). That was when scientists had believed vitamin D's only role was related to bone health. The dose of 400IU was the dose of vitamin D which prevented spontaneous bone fractures.   However vitamin D affects more than bones. The brain is filled with Vitamin D receptors and vitamin D is important to normal immune function.

There is increasing evidence the recommended daily allowance is much too low. If one was outside during the summer long enough so that their skin was slightly pink, but not enough to have even a mild sun burn, 20,000 IU of vitamin D would have been made in the skin. Researchers have recently given MS patients higher doses of vitamin D and then examined the patients for evidence of toxicity and of decreased MS disease activity. Their conclusion was that doses of 10,000 IU each day were well tolerated. Furthermore patients who had been given 10,000 IU experienced less disease activity as measured by the ability to tasks of daily living and the molecular markers of MS related inflammation. 

Based on those study findings taking 10,000 IU per day of vitamin D is likely safe and likely beneficial. Using tanning beds to maintain a tan without burning is an alternative strategy to maintaining adequate vitamin D levels.  Having your personal physician check your calcium level would confirm that the high dose of vitamin D is not causing problems for you. Ensuring that you have sufficient vitamin D is an important strategy to minimize disease activity if one has or is at risk of having MS.

Connections Between Food, Mitochondria and Chronic Disease

In this post I will review the connection between micronutrients, mitochondria and multiple sclerosis. The link between the food you eat, the micronutrient content of that food, and multiple sclerosis is reviewed. The specific micronutrients needed for optimal mitochondrial health is reviewed and general diet recommendations are provided.

The brain and spinal cord depend entirely on mitochondria to the make the molecules of adenosine tri-phosphate or ATP which are used to drive everything that our brain cells must do to function. The chemical plant which makes ATP molecules is the mitochondria. Two important cofactors are needed to make ATP. These are B vitamins and coenzyme Q10. And like all manufacturing processes there is some left over trash at the end which is free radicals. And like any other factory, when the trash is not removed the chemical plant eventually blows up. The defense against free radicals is antioxidants. When the mitochondria are short on the B vitamins and coenzyme Q less ATP is made and more trash is made per ATP molecule generated. When less antioxidants are around free radicals are not neutralized and instead begin to damage the brain cell.

There is a growing medical literature which indicates that mitochondria are not healthy in multiple sclerosis and are contributing to the damage which is occurring, particularly in progressive MS. Eating to ensure one’s mitochondria have plenty of micronutrients is something under the individual’s control and is not going to conflict your current treatment.

It is important for cells to have a ready supply of intracellular anti-oxidants. It is the colored vegetables and fruits that have the most anti-oxidants.

Our Health= Micronutrients consumed – empty calories consumed.

Which one of those most closely describes your diet, or your children’s diet?

Chronic Disease= Few micronutrients (vegetables + fruits)- empty calories (French fries, potatoes, white bread, candy, soda, pastries etc.)

Optimal mental and physical healthy= Many fruits + vegetables, some fish, occasional organ meats – no empty calories.

The more micronutrients in your diet – the minerals like iron, magnesium, copper, manganese, calcium, vitamins both known and not yet discovered, and the antioxidants to help your cells get rid of the trash- the more easily it is for the cell to do all the things the DNA wants it to do.

I am in internal medicine- occasionally I give an antibiotic that cures someone of their infection. Mostly I give medicines that control symptoms- such as lowering blood pressure, improving blood sugar control, or lowering cholesterol. If someone wants to have optimal health- then they must provide their cells with as many micronutrients as possible.

Genes turn on and off according to our diets. That means if we eat diets poor in micronutrients- genes turn on which accelerate the degeneration of our bodies- worsening of diabetes, high blood pressure or obesity for example. If we eat diets rich in micronutrients – genes turn on that often lead to regression of disease.

Bottom line= optimal health requires optimal nutrition.

Physicians mostly can only control symptoms. For your mitochondria, your cells and your body’s to work most effectively – eat more micronutrients.

Diet recommendations: Each day maximize your micronutrients-

9 cups of vegetables and fruits 3 cups should be dark green or from the cabbage family,3 cups should be deeply colored, for example red, orange, or blue, and 3 cups of your choice but do not include potatoes or corn in the 9 cups.

Organ meats once a week or wheat germ daily for coenzyme Q

Fish or seafood three times a week

When you eat –

Have 3 cups of vegetables and fruit first, then your protein source, then whatever else it is that you want to eat. Remember –unless your are doing physical activity – your body was designed to maintain itself without any grains/ starchy potatoes. If you are physically active – then additional carbohydrates make sense. If you have any chronic disease – any calorie you eat that is not packed with micronutrients is a calorie that took you farther away from your goal of optimal health.

Activity – difficult to sustain if it is not part of your daily life. People who are most successful are those who have incorporated more walking, physicality into the their routines either before or during work hours. Moving (walking or jogging) one’s body 3 miles a day is optimal.

Sustaining the effort – people who lose weight and keep eating 9 or more cups of vegetables and fruit, and walked or jogged 20 miles in a week are the most successful at maintaining weight loss.

Supplements – Food is the best. Do not think can supplements replace the micronutrients from 9 cups of vegetables and fruits. If you cannot eat fish however –take fish oil or flax oil. If you cannot eat organ meats once a week or wheat germ daily, take coenzyme Q10 supplements. If you have chronic disease – improving the health and nutrition for your mitochondria is an excellent place to start.

Terry Wahls, MD