Abstract of the 6th International Workshop On Phosphate And Other Minerals
Verona, June 24-26, 1983
Phosphorus Deficiency and Multiple Sclerosis
- Bergengren
Institute of Pathology, University of Umeå, Sweden
The cause of MS is yet unknown but many are supporting a virus hypothesis, suggesting a reduced immune defense. The fact that P deficiency implies reduced immune defense indicates a common denominator between this hypothesis and my own. Older literature records many data on P metabolism: (1) One author states experimentally produced demyelination in rats by deficiency of either B1 or P. (2) General loss of phospholipids in the demyelinized areas is reported by many authors.(3) The quantity of loss of phospholipids is proportional to the degree of demyelination. (4) In advanced cases there are heavy losses of material causing the entire brain to shrink. (5) Analyses of the brains of MS patients showed that the gray matter contained 77%, and the white matter 85% of the normal brain’s phosphorus. (6) Plaque-affected areas show significant losses of lipid inorganic P and wholly acid-soluble P. Can it be that the organism exceptionally tends to compensate P deficiency by withdrawal of P from the CNS? That this may be the case is shown by the established proliferation of new veins from the affected centers in the spinal marrow. That damage to the CNS can be caused by deficiency of a nutritional factor was shown by the sudden outbreak in Austria in the 50’s of a new, malignant neurological disease in horses that had been given an unvaried fodder, rich in carbohydrates and poor in minerals. The result was a breakthrough of the blood-brain barrier with demyelination of the white matter. Thanks to improved fodder the disease ceased to exist. I have been treating 15 MS patients with phosphated salts over a long period of time. All of them have escaped a worsened condition.
