Meet Mona and Anna
Study # 1: Understanding unexpected courses of multiple sclerosis among patients using complementary and alternative medicine: A travel from recipient to explorer (Salamonsen et al, 2010)
The study evaluated 12 MS patients, with two cases, Mona and Anna, being described in great details. Researchers explored the “unexpected improvements of MS symptoms related to patients’ use of CAM.”
As a common theme, all these people with MS who experienced dramatic improvements believed that the improvement is the result of their own efforts. Researchers found that they changed their position from being “recipients” (taking a passive role as a patient and following the treatment) to “explorers” (they decided to actively take control of their health and explore various therapies).
The most frequently used CAM modalities in the interview group were acupuncture and nutrition, followed by homeopathy, massage and healing.
These “exceptional best course of MS” were linked with 4 major changes:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2900149/
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They lost bodily competence
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They developed responsibility
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They took control of their health
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They chose to use complementary and alternative medicine (CAM)
Meet Mona and Anna
Mona’s success story
Mona is a 54-year-old woman who received the diagnosis of MS in 1989, and considered a case of SP MS at the time of the interview (in 2007).
Mona used various therapies such as homoeopathy, healing, massage, reflexology, dietary changes, Tibetan medicine, Feldenkrais, anthroposophical medicine, chelation treatment and art therapy.
A few details about Mona’s childhood and youth.
She had serious responsibilities early in life. She took care of her manic-depressive mother and her alcoholic father and she also got married in her 20s and had two children.
She experienced significant emotional traumas in 1989, which is the year when she received the MS diagnosis. During this year, she was finishing college and she was also in the process of getting divorced and her mother died in a dramatic fire.
Due to her symptoms, Mona was admitted to the hospital and she received cortisone treatment. She returned home with a partial paralysis which kept her bedridden for several weeks. She remembers reading the book Love, Medicine and Miracles by Bernie Siegel.
She makes radical changes related to the way she sees MS, her role in recovery, as well as lifestyle changes.
“There I got confirmation to start my inner work; visualisations, using music, relaxation. I told myself that my children should not have a mother to care for like I have had myself.” A few weeks later Mona decides to stop cortisone because she was experiencing serious side effects. While still in bed, she uses visualization, music therapy and autogenic training. Gradually her condition improved and she was back on her feet. The following 16 years she relied on CAM only.
Her feelings about having MS “To me the diagnosis meant loss – loss of body – loss of a lot. I got divorced and had financial problems. MS means a lot of strong anxiety – what happens inside? I have spent a lot of energy not wanting to have MS.”
The role of stress and emotional traumas, according to Mona: “Today I see that heavy mental pressure over time was what set the MS off, so preventing stress is my best medicine.”
Mona decided to make healthy changes in her life – she started to eat healthy foods, moved to the countryside, has re-married, got involved in enjoyable and creative projects and started to avoid tasks that are too big.
Assuming responsibility and taking control of her health was also an essential step to reverse her condition.
“If I hadn’t taken all these alternative therapies and walked the road I have walked, I would have been in a wheelchair a long time ago. … I feel that I’m starting to own more of my story even though a lot is still too painful to relate to.”
Anna’s success story
Anna is a 49-year-old woman, and she received the diagnosis of MS in 1991. At the time of the interview (2007) her diagnosis was SP (secondary progressive) MS. She used some CAM therapies but not as often and did not rely on them as much as Mona. For example, she received acupuncture, nutrition and a special treatment involving “signal substances” such as dopamine, noradrenaline acetylcholine and serotonin used in a non-conventional way. (my note here: she is using Dr. Birgitta Brunes protocol for MS).
Anna also took responsibility early on in life – she was a very active athlete and used to push herself physically and mentally. At the time of diagnosis, she was married with one child, working fulltime in conventional health care. Anna started to notice symptoms earlier in life, which she linked to dental fillings. “At the age of 13 I was hospitalised – after having received 13 amalgam fillings within one week a short time before. I had a really bad headache, a lot of other strange reactions …”
Anna got the diagnosis of nerve optic inflammation in 1986 and the diagnosis of MS in 1991, after experiencing relapses and being left paralysed in one arm. She was treated with cortisone and had no problems for several years. Her second child in born 1993. Both children had health problems, and had very little help from her husband as he was travelling most of the time. She tried her best to live as before, but it was too exhausting.
All MS relapses were treated with cortisone for 5 years after the diagnosis before ß-interferon was introduced on the market at that time. Her condition dramatically worsened while being on ß-interferon for three years – from working part time to being 100% disabled, with paralyses in arms and legs, blindness in one eye, using catheter and having serious difficulties with concentration.
“The doctors treated me like a patient who could not do anything herself. They always just said that “there is nothing you can do, this just follows its course,” but for me that didn’t make sense. As a health care provider, I thought there is a whole lot that patients can do themselves.”
Anna decided to take control of her health. She explored various CAM therapies and started to use them in an alternative health care centre (It looks that Anna is talking here again about Dr Brunes)
“It was like coming home, it was fantastic. This doctor told me the first time she saw me that I was responsible for my own life, and that I had the possibility to make changes in living my life with MS.”
Like Mona, Anna started to rest more and have a rethink of how she could live with MS. She learned how to say “No” from time to time. Her husband declined to help her, suggesting dealing with MS by herself. She divorced him in 2002.
At the time of the interview (2007) Anna has no MS relapses. After having taken responsibility for her condition, exploring CAM and started to use alternative therapies, Anna’s case was reviewed by MDs and neurologist and deemed as exceptional because she experienced significant improvement in symptoms 10 years after the onset of MS.
Let’s recap what these cases of reversed MS have in common:
1.They lost bodily competence, experiencing partial paralysis. Overall, the diagnosis and symptoms had a significant impact on self image, career, personal life/relationships; Facing their loss of bodily competence, Anna and Mona started to focus on developing responsibility
2.They developed responsibility by learning how to handle their MS, beyond finding a treatment. They assessed their lives, looking at the triggers that likely contributed to their course of MS. Triggers included physical and mental overloads over a long period of time or childhood/youth traumas. Furthermore, they claimed to own and influence the progression of the disease, and developed responsibility for the way they lived in the past, for their present and future.
3.They took control of their health instead of being controlled by the medications; this is one of the most important step in the process of healing and experiencing “exceptional best course of MS” according to the Mona and Anna; using CAM modalities (and not just prescription drugs) also reflects the choice of taking control of their health.
4.They choose to use complementary and alternative medicine (CAM); one reason for choosing CAM is obviously the result of taking control of their health. Another reason is because conventional medicine either failed to yield results or caused significant side effects. CAM modalities are not final, as they are open to explore new therapies.