Posted by Urs on August 19, 1998 at 12:43:01:
In Reply to: latest research in UK posted by Simon on August 17, 1998 at 23:28:38:
Hi Simon
Thanks for your reference to the study. It's good to hear that some basic works are made on this field.
I understand very well your statement about criticizing the doctors and I agree that a general criticism is worthwhile. But I think that criticizing specific points is needed and should be accepted. Consider the following case:
Most of us declare that drinking alcohol often triggers an attack. On the other hand medical studies (1956, 1972) reported a low incidence of alcohol. Who is right ? I'm sure that both are right but the medical science uses "the patients' misinterpretations" to explain the contradictory results of the studies. Believe me, my hair stood on end when I read this argumentation. For me it's obvious that for the patients alcohol means beer, wine, cocktails etc. but a scientist has to use pure alcohol for his tests because a mix of substances would not show valid results. Am I wrong when I criticize such cheap explanations which despise the patients' observations and which make further investigations unnecessary ?
Another problem you mentioned are diets. If a sufferer finds a diet which helps himself he is not able to prove it. All he can do is to post it to other sufferers and to hope that some of them try it and report the positive or negative results. With a new drug too you have no guarantee that it helps but as a diet is not an expensive drug, what do you loose by trying it ?
My diet that I already posted is to avoid any kind of sugar. Besides not consuming any sweets or sweet beverages I also avoid milk and fruit. I made this decision more than 3 weeks ago and the effect was amazing. Before that day I had attacks almost daily at 2 p.m., often at 9 p.m. and sometimes at 1 a.m. and I needed a lot of Imitrex. Since then I'm far away from Imitrex and I can work normally. I know that I'm still in a bout. As long as eating something that contains a small amount of sugar (which also happened by mistake) triggers a light attack I continue my diet. Sorry, but I don't want to provoke a full blown attack only to prove to myself that my diet works and that the current bout still continues.
Painfree days to you all.
Urs