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Myelin Sheath and Multiple Sclerosis

Myelin surrounds your nerve fibers. In case of multiple sclerosis, this sheath is partly destroyed why MS is called a demyelinating disease. It is one of the multiple causes of MS.

Your nervous system is a tremendous network conducting information, i.e. electric nerve impulses through your body.

You can compare this with a wire system in a house only much bigger. Each single wire is isolated with a soft plastic (dielectric) to prevent short circuits with other wires or the surrounding.

In your body, it works similar. It uses electricity to transport information with high-speed to the most distant locations in your body.

The nerve fibers also need isolation but in the human body, it is made of myelin.

This sheath forms a layer around the axon of neurons. These are nerve cells designed to transmit information by electrical and chemical signals. Neurons are the core components of the nervous system.

Between each neuron is a synaptic gap. Information flowing through your nerve pathways has to overcome these gaps.

This needs a further medium, the neurotransmitters, which are chemical molecules. Initially assumed they were only in the brain it was later proven that they are throughout the body.

We prepared a small video to illustrate this quite difficult process as easy as possible.

Click on the blue graphic to start it.

The neurotransmitters play a major role in the nervous conduction. As said, they are chemical molecules.

Food again has a strong impact on the body's chemistry.

Depending on what we eat it changes for instance the pH-value to either more acid or alkaline. Accordingly, it can influence the neurotransmitters' function.

The insulating sheath is in contrast to the dielectric of electric wires not continuous but interrupted by tiny little gaps, the nodes of ranvier.

The distance between two insulated areas is 1 micrometer, which is the one thousandth part of a millimeter, really small. This micro distance is without effect on the isolating function.

multiple sclerosis myelin nodes od ranvier

Myelin has a further effect. In these isolated nerve fibers, the speed of transportation is much higher than in uninsulated ones.

When the insulating layer gets damaged, what has been discovered to be the case with MS the velocity of flow slows dramatically down.

Research has been looking for years for an explanation what could cause this damage with the goal to find a solution to repair the myelin. There are two possibilities.

Bacteria and viruses destroy the insulation. If this would be the case, they might find a pharmaceutical killing these organisms.
It could be an autoimmune disorder where the body's own cells attack the myelin sheath.

Until now, it lacks sufficient evidence and they could not confirm either one without a shadow of a doubt.

In recent years science discovered that, certain cells of the nervous system have the ability to produce new, properly functioning myelin. Theses cells are believed to be the key to restore the insulating sheath. It still needs lots of studies to answer the question, how they could be built and how to get them into the body and specifically into those areas where they should start there restoring work.

Like often in science, it is all still quite vague and many questions are open. Of course, it gives hope but who knows when this will turn into a treatment. At present, it is of little assistance to you.

One question is still unanswered. What does myelin actually consist of?

It is a combination of lipids and protein in a ratio of 75/80 to 25/20 percent in favor of the lipids. The published numbers vary a bit.

Now here is a very interesting aspect that has been obviously not yet asked. If myelin consists mostly of lipids, i.e. fat what could have the power to dissolve it and could this be possible?

Degreasers are in general made out of chemicals.

As we absorb a lot of chemicals with our food there could be components or combinations of them that act as a fat solvent in the human body.

What substantiates this assumption is that MS developed progressively to the increasing industrial production of food containing. Most of them contain some kind of chemicals, some of them even high quantities.

At the University of Oldenburg, Germany they found confirmed that these additives can build new combinations within the human organism and nobody can say what effect they will have and it would be impossible to determine this with our current knowledge and technical equipment.

Chances are that some of the chemicals we consume or combinations of them act as fat solvents. We are unable to avoid chemicals in our days. We breath them with the air, they are contained in water, they are in food, not to talk of all the many conveniences of cleaning agents etc. The least we can do however is depleting them to reduce the risk emanating from them.

However, as thousands have been cured by changing their diet it truly suggests that a wrong diet can have a negative impact on the myelin and the nervous conduction.

This should be investigated more intensely however, who would sponsor such research to show that some certain components in figs, cauliflower, walnuts or any other food bring about the cure of MS.

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