Multiple Sclerosis: A Revival of Hope
by Jonathan V. Wright, MD©
reprinted from Nutrition and Healing newsletter, October 1999
Imagine watching a woman with multiple sclerosis of many years duration (who had previously needed a "walker" to help her get around) walking unaided several times around a room at good speed, and with no balance problems. Imagine listening to her say she’s sleeping better, her energy is much improved, and that she’s able to think more clearly. She attributes her dramatic improvement to the natural amino acid derivative she’s been using for the previous two to three weeks. Imagine hearing another woman, much more seriously afflicted, report that she’s able to feed herself again, and that her friends and relatives had all noticed her speech is easier to understand. Both of these improvements occurred within a month of starting the "new" natural amino acid derivative.
Your editor has seen and listened to both these women in just the last month. One of your editor's colleagues at Tahoma Clinic, Dr. George Gillson, MD, PhD, reports that at first checkback (approximately six weeks of treatment) for 19 individuals with multiple sclerosis, eleven noted dramatic improvement, three reported one or more significant improvements in symptoms, (including reduced numbness, better motor control, improved speech, much better sleeping, and more energy), one had no change, and four had no change associated with poor absorption of the natural amino acid derivative, poor patch adhesion, or an interfering drug.
The nurse responsible for the revival of the use of the natural amino acid derivative (a now mostly symptom-free MS sufferer herself) has collected verbal reports from over 200 individuals diagnosed with "MS" who've used the natural amino acid derivative: 72% report at least one significant improvement in symptoms, and some many more.
The Natural Amino Acid Derivative
The natural amino acid derivative is histamine, a very small and simple molecule made by every human (and animal) body from the naturally occurring (and conditionally essential) amino acid histidine. Yes, that's the same histamine that most of us are told is the "bad guy" of the allergy world, against which we're all urged to swallow the latest patent (and prescription-only, until the patent expires) "antihistamine" medication. Apparently, individuals with MS either don't make enough histamine in their own bodies, or just need more. Perhaps both. No one knows for certain.
Isn't it premature to be writing about symptom improvement in MS based on verbal reports of only 200+ individuals, and only 10 reporting back so far to Tahoma Clinic? Results achieved with...of all things...histamine? Isn't it all too new ....and perhaps wacky....to get our hopes up? Please refer back to title of this report (A Revival of Hope), and then let's travel back in time to St. Joseph's Hospital, in Tacoma, Washington. The year is 1950; the reporter is Miriam Zeller Gross, who published the article from which the following paragraphs are excerpted from McCall's Magazine for December of that year.
"At St. Joseph's Hospital, multiple sclerosis is being arrested in one victim in six. Others get blessed relief. Many leave their beds for the first time in years. One man unable to move so much as a toe for seven years walked again within a week after leaving the hospital.....two patients....had been diagnosed as totally blind...Today both enjoy normal vision. Most of the 100 patients with whom I talked at the Clinic told stories that hold the drama of people suddenly reprieved from a death sentence.
Take Mrs. Alice Meinert. This young mother was stricken shortly after New Year's Day in 1947. By May, she could not get out of bed. For a year she grew steadily worse. Her father heard about the Clinic in Tacoma (not Tahoma Clinic, which was founded in 1973--ed.). He urged that his daughter be sent there. But the attending physician pooh-poohed the idea, and acting on his advice, Mrs. Meinert's husband refused.
The father took legal action and gained custody of his daughter �?a step accomplished through the farseeing wisdom of Judge Chester A. Batchelor of the King County Court, Seattle.
Four days after she reached the Tacoma clinic, Mrs. Meinert took her first steps in more than a year. One week later she walked from the house to the street and got into an automobile unaided.....her condition has improved steadily. She does her own housework, looks after her child, and appears in every way to be a well, happy woman."
Dr. Hinton Jonez
In 1946, Hinton Jonez, MD a Tacoma general practitioner, was invited by the Sisters of St. Joseph's Hospital to open an MS clinic in a hospital wing. The Sisters had observed improvements in several individuals with MS hospitalized at St. Joseph's under Dr. Jonez�?care. The had observed that the mainstay of Dr. Jonez' treatment was injectable histamine, and knew that injectable histamine could cause adverse effects, including severe headaches or stomach aches with considerable cramping if injected at the wrong dose or speed of administration. There were even reports of deaths from too much histamine injected too rapidly. But Dr. Jonez' patients had had no such adverse effects, and all had improved, so the Sisters were happy when Dr. Jonez volunteered to open a clinic at St. Joseph's dedicated to the treatment of MS.
Dr. Jonez had learned of injectable histamine treatment for MS at a meeting of the American College of Allergy (now called the American College of Allergy and Immunology) from the then-well-known Bayard T. Horton, MD, of the Mayo Clinic (Rochester, Minnesota). According to Dr. Jonez, when discussing allergy and allergy treatment over dinner, Dr. Horton had told him and a group of physicians: "Take multiple sclerosis. There is good reason to believe it is an allergic condition."1 According to Dr. Jonez, Dr. Horton had explained that histamine gives new life to MS victims much as fresh fighting troops revive an exhausted army. "It's too early to say much" Dr. Horton told Dr. Jonez "but we believe we are on the right track."2
Histamine for Allergies?
Some fifty or more years after Dr. Horton's time, we've all been thoroughly convinced by the patent medicine companies propaganda ("advertising") that patented and formerly patented "antihistamines" are the best way to combat allergy. Such was not the case in the 1940s. Dr. Jonez explains3:
"Let me review some 1946 medical history.....the antihistamine drugs were big news that year....pharmaceutical houses worked night and day to rush the latest and most potent antihistaminic drug to doctors and druggists....while most doctors dosed their patients with antihistamines, Dr. Horton did the exact opposite. He administered histamine. And he was getting results. Both allergic conditions and an impressive array of illnesses were yielding to Dr. Horton's histamine treatment.
Mysterious, intolerable headaches disappeared. So did the symptoms of Meniere's disease, characterized by progressive deafness, previously relieved by highly delicate surgery. A host of bizarre eye and ear conditions heretofore thought incurable had also responded to histamine.
Horton's method was in a sense fighting fire with fire, and based on the same line of reasoning as giving cowpox vaccinations to fight smallpox....Instead of suppressing the action of histamine by antihistaminics, he used histamine against histamine."
If these successes were achieved by a respected staff member of the Mayo Clinic in the 1940s, why isn't histamine commonly in use today against allergic diseases? The answers lie in the nature of histamine itself, and in the nature of American medicine.
Histamine is a very "unstable" molecule; it "breaks down" very rapidly. When given orally, it can cause considerable stomach upset and cramping; when given too rapidly or in too great a quantity by injection it can (as noted above) give very unpleasant effects. A few people had actually died after being injected with too much histamine too fast. But administering it properly, Dr. Horton reported that he had given thousands of injections without a single ill effect. So why didn't physicians learn and apply Dr. Horton's methods as Dr. Jonez did?
Histamine's biggest handicap is (and was) that as a molecule produced in human bodies it isn't patentable. Patent medicine (sometimes called "pharmaceutical") companies would not work "night and day" to rush histamine...or news of its latest uses...to doctors and druggists. And in the 1940s, as now, the vast majority of physicians got most of their "new treatment" information from patent medicine companies.
Dr. Jonez First “Case�?/FONT>
Mrs. Johnston had suffered from MS for five years. She was bedridden, unable to move her legs..She was going blind…and had difficulty swallowing.
Dr. Jonez describes her response to histamine treatment:
"[Histamine*] was given slowly, carefully. All the elaborate precautions Horton outlined were observed. He had said that histamine had an unwarranted bad reputation because doctors...gave [it] too rapidly, or used contaminated equipment. They failed to realize that the fault lay in their own ineptness.....
A rosy glow spread over Mrs. Johnston's face, then down her neck and gradually down the arms. “I feel better already�?she said. As the days went by, there was no doubt she was getting better…she could swallow with ease for the first time in months. And to the amazement of her eye specialist, her vision was back to normal…Less than six months after her first dose of histamine, she was walking. Sensation had fully returned to the legs that had appeared hopelessly paralyzed. It began the evening her husband telephoned in great excitement: ‘She can wiggle her toes!’�? The progress was steady. Soon she gave away the wheelchair.�?
Dr. Jonez goes on to explain that the natural course of MS can include unexplained “spontaneous�?remissions, sometimes of long duration. As this was his first case, he couldn’t be certain that the histamine injections had caused Mrs. Johnston’s improvement. However, five years later, after administering some 150,000 doses and observing the results, he wrote: “…histamine is the medication of first choice in multiple sclerosis.�?
Dr. Jonez�?Clinic at St. Joseph’s
After obtaining space at St. Joseph’s, and with the help of the sisters, Dr. Jonez added several features to the basic histamine treatment. As Dr. Horton had told Dr. Jonez that MS was caused by allergy, and since Dr. Jonez�?use of Dr. Horton’s histamine treatment for MS had been successful in many cases, it’s understandable that Dr. Jonez wrote (in a “professional report�?: “At our clinic, complete allergy management is the basis of therapy. On all of our patients, allergy histories are taken and scratch tests [the best tests available at that time �?ed.] are made for sensitivities to foods, epidermals, molds, fungi, pollens, and miscellaneous allergens.�? On the basis of these tests, diets and allergy desensitization programs were individualized for each MS patient. Dr. Jonez emphasized the importance of allergy control as well as histamine treatment: “Almost without exception, our chronic, progressive [MS patients] suffered from food allergies.�? He recounts the case of a patient: “…who was out of his wheelchair three times and back again because he thought a small order of salmon and spinach wouldn’t make any difference.�?
Physical therapy was another important part of Dr. Jonez�?program. The Sisters of St. Joseph’s helped him to make sure physical therapy was done adequately and appropriately for each patient. For patients whose muscles were twisted and contorted with MS spasm, Dr. Jonez prescribed injections of a powerful muscle relaxant to aid in muscle manipulation.
After five years, Dr. Jonez�?multiple sclerosis program was so successful that the Sisters decided to erect a new clinic building, to house what would be named St. Joseph Hospital Clinic for Demyelinating Diseases. The official “groundbreaking�?occurred on December 8, 1951, with opening scheduled for August 15, 1952. Unfortunately, Dr. Horton died, the Sisters could not find one physician on St. Joseph’s staff willing to continue his program, and Dr. Jonez�?clinic and program at St. Joseph’s in Tacoma came to an end.
Other Natural Treatments for MS
At the same time Dr. Jonez was working at St. Joseph’s, another pioneer in effective natural MS treatment, Dr. Roy Swank, was developing his MS diet while on the faculty of the University of Oregon Health Sciences Center. Dr Swank’s diet is high in “unsaturated fatty acids,�?which have been found to aid MS when supplemented alone. Others (including Dr. Jonez) were exploring the use of injectable vitamin B12, as well as injectable adenosine monophosphate (AMP), a natural substance made within every cell of our bodies. During the intervening years, your editor (as well as others) have found that a large proportion of individuals with MS have significant impairments of digestion and assimilation, and that a unique herbal combination can have a significant effect in MS treatment. I have, as well as other Tahoma Clinic physicians, observed DHEA to be a small help for some individuals with MS. All of these valuable natural treatments and aspects of MS will follow the description of the “improved histamine,�?Procarin, the invaluable contribution of Elaine DeLack, RN.
Elaine DeLack, MS, and Procarin9
Elaine developed her first symptoms of MS in 1985 while living in Montana. While pregnant with her son, she developed intermittent difficulty moving her left leg. After delivery, she had variable difficulty moving her left arm and hand. In 1987, an MRI (magnetic resonance image) showed what appeared to be MS lesions in her central nervous system; a second MRI showed more lesions, and the “official diagnosis�?of MS was made in 1988.
She continued to worsen until “making dinner was a chore.�?Finally, she had her self-described “wake-up call�? a fall while carrying her son, who required stitches for his cuts. She knew she needed more help. She received a telephone call from a caring woman who advised her to call Raymond Bjork, MD, a Montana physician, who advised her to try injections of vitamin B12 and adenosine monophosphate (AMP). She tried taking vitamin B12 by mouth; it didn’t help.
She moved with her family to the Seattle area in 1990. She decided to take vitamin B12 by injection, along with AMP. She reports “it really helped,�?and that she could put herself into remission with these natural substance injections.
In 1993, she finished work for her RN, which she had started in Montana before taking “time out�?to care for her children. While working at her first job at a nursing home, she tried to convince the attending physicians to use injections of vitamin B12 and AMP for MS patients. Only one physician would listen; he had the injections given to one of the nursing home residents suffering from MS, who strengthened and went home. Despite this, none of the other physicians would consent to try the injections for their MS patients, telling Elaine “there isn’t enough research.�?/FONT>
So in 1994, she enrolled in a research methods course at the Bothell campus of the University of Washington, determined to find and develop research on injectable vitamin B12 and AMP. She found research showing that histamine stimulated the production of the “intrinsic factor�?by the stomach. She knew that vitamin B12 cannot be absorbed without “intrinsic factor,�?and she recalled that vitamin B12 had not worked for her when she swallowed it, but had been very helpful for her when she injected it. She felt she had found key information. After that, it seemed that in her research “everything led to histamine.�?/FONT>
She started giving herself histamine by injection and with transdermal patches, but found the effects too transient. Further research led her to other natural substances which would slow the body’s breakdown of histamine. She found a combination which helped her eliminate all her own MS symptoms. After first working with Judy Richardson, R.Ph., who helped develop the delivery system, she located George Ballasiotes, R.Ph., and Jim Seymour, R.Ph., at Key Pharmacy, in Kent, Washington, who helped compound and distribute the histamine combination (which she named “Procarin�? more widely. She obtained a “use patent�?for the Procarin; in the course of the patent research she discovered the work of Dr. Jonez. After she obtained her “use patent,�?she formed a company, and raised money for feasibility studies.
Once again, she was frustrated by the unwillingness of many doctors to consider using the Procarin. Even when nothing else was working for their MS patients, they refused to try. Finally, she located Dr. Daniel Nehls, a Tacoma neurosurgeon, who conducted a pilot study with encouraging results.
Tahoma Clinic Gets Involved
In the 1980s, I read Dr. Jonez�?book and professional paper, and spoke to a former patient of his, still “in remission.�?Dr. Jonez�?book “rang true,�?and his former patient was convincing, so we tried injectable histamine at Tahoma Clinic intermittently in the mid-1980s. Unfortunately, we had no inpatient facility available for the slow, continuous infusions mentioned by Dr. Jonez. Our patients didn’t have enough results from the histamine infusions to continue, so we put the project “on the shelf.�?(We were having better results with the allergy work advocated by Dr. Jonez, and other items.)
This summer, George and Jim from Key Pharmacy told Tahoma Clinic physicians about their work with Elaine and Procarin, and about Dr. Nehls�?pilot study. Fortunately, we were aware of Dr. Jonez�?prior histamine work. Having worked with natural medicine since 1973, we knew that Procarin had a very low potential for adverse effects, and that the potential benefits for MS patients were enormous. We started to work with it right away.
We designed standardized, simple to mark questionnaires to be filled out “before�?and “after�?Procarin use, so we could keep track of any changes, for better or worse. A few individuals with MS were kind enough to keep daily journals; the following is excerpted from one of these,10 a woman who started to apply Procarin patches twice daily on July 16, 1999:
July 16: No reaction, no improvement
July 18: Getting out of wheelchair improving, less fatigue.
Able to feed myself, no tremors, able better to support myself in bathroom. Bladder control improvement. Balance improving, to stand longer, comprehension improvement. Didn’t need to take afternoon nap.
July 19: Over-all I’m feeling better, thinking clearer. Talked to relatives on the phone & they note a difference in speech and conversation
July 20: Getting out of wheelchair even better, can stand for longer periods of time, went to P.T., & she noticed how much stronger I was. Less swelling in ankles. Still feeling better.
July 21: Feeling stronger, more energy, thinking clearer. Swelling still less in ankles.Standing longer. Less fatigue. Generally feeling stronger.
July 22: Starting to build muscles in my legs (probably from standing?)
July 23: Starting to get a better appetite. Feeling less fatigue and feeling stronger.
July 24: Same.
July 25: Less numbness in hands and arms. Still don’t take afternoon naps.
July 26: Noticed improvement in legs �?getting stronger. Can make “baby steps.�?Not very much, but improving.
July 27: Went to my P.T. and actually walked with help 20 feet twice. Can move my left leg forward, but can’t on my right side. Was transferring from wheelchair to P.T. table by myself.
July 28: Can stand up longer (hanging onto something). Arms continue to get stronger.
July 29: Same.
July 30: Just keep feeling stronger. Can stand with help longer.
July 31: Just over-all feeling better.
August 1: Stayed up late with a relative last night. Was not as tired. Didn’t have to take a nap. Actually took 3 small steps hanging onto a bar.
August 2: Building muscles in arms and legs. Can stand up straighter if I am hanging onto something or someone. Can look into my husband’s eyes again!
August 3: Have less swelling in my feet and ankles, but more in my right foot. Have more energy to do things around the house.
August 4: Building muscles in arms and legs.
August 5: Feeling stronger. A slight rash on my face. Have had it before. Comes and goes.
August 6: Same.
August 7: Felt stronger. Still rash on my face.
August 8: Fatigued. Exercised a little more than I should have.
August 9: Rash still present.
August 10: Starting to itch at several sites across chest and back. Still feeling stronger. I only seem to start itching after the second patch comes off.
August 11: Used cortisone cream on the sites that itched last night and that helped. Used it also on my face. Rash on my face is practically gone. I am also getting out of my wheelchair better and standing up straighter.
August 12: Took my first steps today!! Yeah! I had to hold onto a bar in our bathroom, but I took 3 steps. Then I yelled for my husband and made 3 steps forward and 3 back. Actually picked my feet up off the ground. Feeling stronger.
August 13: Still can take a few steps. The rash on my face is a lot better.
August 14: I noticed when I have the patches on, I don’t itch. The 8 hours I have the patch off, I seem to start itching where the previous patches have been.
August 15: Still generally feeling better every day. Getting stronger and can exercise longer.
August 16: Didn’t itch at all last night. I have also been eating better. More fish and poultry. I have always eaten fruits and vegetables, just more now.
August 17: Same.
August 18: I have been waking up around 2 AM for the last few nights very hot and sweaty. Almost like having “hot flashes.�?Went to have my hair done and normally I am exhausted by the time we get home. I wasn’t [exhausted] today. I have new hair growth that is not coming in gray, but my natural hair color.
August 19: Able to do more exercises.
August 20: Same.
August 21: Basically the same. Got up early and could do it. Getting out a lot more and feeling like I can.
August 22: Not really feeling tired after yesterday’s adventure.
August 23: Same.
August 24: Still exercising. Feeling stronger.
August 25: Same; still less swelling in my ankles.
(As noted above, of the first ten “return visits�?to Tahoma Clinic by Procarin-aided MS, seven showed at least one significant improvement. Three did not; it may be co-incidental, but all three non-responders were taking Baclofen, a “muscle spasm blocking�?patent medication. But whether the Baclofen interfered with Procarin or not, Procarin is not expected to help 100%.)
Article continued...........
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