l
AUTOIMMUNE DISEASES 195and controlled. This is because the insulating cover or sheath of the
nerve fibers, the myelin, is being destroyed by an autoimmune reaction.
Think of what would happen to your household wiring if the electrical
insulation became thin or was stripped away, leaving bare wires. The
electrical Signals would be short-circuited. That is what happens with
MS; the wayward electrical signals may destroy cells and "burn" patches
of neighboring tissue, leaVing little scars or bits of sclerotic tissue. These
"burns" can become serious and ultimately destroy the body.
The initial research showing an effect of diet on MS goes back more
than half a century to the research of Dr. Roy Swank, who began his
work in Norway and at the Montreal Neurological Institute during the
1940s. Later, Dr. Swank headed the Division of Neurology at the Uni-
versity of Oregon Medical Schoo1.^43
Dr. Swank became interested in the dietary connection when he
learned that MS appeared to be more common in the northern cli-
matesY There is a huge difference in MS prevalence as one moves away
from the equator: MS is over 100 times more prevalent in the far north
than at the equator,l° and seven times more prevalent in south Australia
(closer to the South Pole) than in north Australia.^44 This distribution is
very similar to the distribution of other autoimmune diseases, including
Type 1 diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis. 45 , 46
Although some scientists speculated that magnetic fields might be
responsible for the disease, Dr. Swank thought it was diet, especially
animal-based foods high in saturated fats.^43 He found that inland dairy-
consuming areas of Norway had higher rates of MS than coastal fish-con-
suming areas.
Dr. Swank conducted his best-known trial on 144 MS patients re-
cruited from the Montreal Neurological Institute. He kept records on
these patients for the next thirty-four yearsY He advised his patients
to consume a diet low in saturated fat, most of whom did, but many
of whom did not. He then classified them as good dieters or poor diet-
ers, based on whether they consumed less than 20 glday or more than
20 glday of saturated fat. (For comparison, a bacon cheeseburger with
condiments has about sixteen grams of saturated fat. One small frozen
chicken pot pie has almost ten grams of saturated fat.)
As the study continued, Dr. Swank found that progreSSion of disease
was greatly reduced by the low-saturated fat diet, which worked even
for people with initially advanced conditions. He summarized his work
in 1990,47 concluding that for the sub-group of patients who began the