al and emotional therapies are available for multiple sclerosis patients, there is currently no known effective treatment (14:163).
Multiple sclerosis is thought to result from some combination of genetic and environmental factors. The genetic etiological component is delineated by twin studies and human leukocyte antigen (HLA) groupings. However, HLA linkage studies tend to have relatively low concordance and penetrance rates. This observation--as well as various investigations involving immigration--indicate that some environmental influence may additionally be at work. The "orthodox view" is that an infective agent--most likely a virus--is responsible for multiple sclerosis pathogenesis (3:214). Unfortunately though, despite considerable technological advances and research over the several decades, a specific infective agent for the disease has yet to be identified. Consequently, various investigators have refocused their energies on alternative hypotheses. Perhaps the foremost of these relate to diet (3:214).
There are various dietary factors which may be involved in the development of multiple sclerosis. For example, these can include both the type and amount of food consumed. However, the role of such influences in multiple sclerosis etiology remains, for the most part, uncertain. Certain researchers believe that diet has little or no importance; whereas, other investigators have implicated either a specific dietary component, deficiency, or excess to multiple sclerosis pathogenesis. Certain of these scientists have even suggested that some difference between multiple sclerosis victims' diets and those of the general population gives rise to the disease (14:174-175).
Perhaps the main proponent of a dietary etiology for multiple sclerosis is R. L. Swank. Based on early epidemiological studies, Swank postulated that excessive dietary animal fat predisposes individuals for the disorder. In addition, follo...