Episode 32 - Kathryn Simpson: The MS Solution

Transcript

Unidentified Female:     This program is brought to you by Personal Life Media dot com.

Teri Hausman:              Hi, I’m Teri Struck, host of “Beauty Now.”  Today, we’re really lucky to have the author of “The MS Solution,” Kathryn Simpson.

Kathryn Simpson:         The progression of the disease actually mimics the progressive loss of hormones.  So, even though many of us get our...our MS diagnosed, or start the symptoms of MS in our mid-thirties, we... within ten or fifteen years, fifty percent of us will actually become what they call “progressive,” which is when we have chronic symptoms.  But diet is so huge, I can’t even tell you.  So many of us become so inflammatory because we’re eating a diet of mainly refined carbs.  Unfortunately, when we start getting sick, we try to manage it through diet.  Most of us with MS don’t make digestive enzymes or gastric acid.  So, we can’t digest protein well.  So many times just missing that one critical test, that’s what really makes the difference.  I lost my dear father uh, to a neurodegenerative disease.  I look back, and I see such clear signs of endocrine involvement with him as well that I think, “Oh my gosh, if I just could have done those tests and intervened...”

(Musical interlude)

Teri Hausman:              Welcome Kathryn.

Kathryn Simpson:         Well Teri, thank you so much for having me.  I...I love your show.  It’s a great resource for women.  And I’m delighted to be here.

Teri Hausman:              Thanks for talking with us, and first I want to start with saying that what struck me about your book is that it’s full of other information, like thyroid, lupus...  There’s so much other things that you can learn from your book.  Tell us how you started this book, and why you came to write it.

Kathryn Simpson:         Well uh, I’d love to say that I just became passionately interested in all things endocrinin, and decided to change the world.  Unfortunately, Teri, uh, like...like many people that are... that, you know, have passionate causes, I was driven to it.  I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis about eight years ago, and uh, had a pretty progressive uh, case of the disease, and was losing functionality fast.  So, it was a sink or swim situation for me.  I had to figure out what was going on, and stop it before, you know, I ended up uh, you know, in a wheel chair or something worse.

Teri Hausman:              Well, how did you figure out that this was the root of your problem?

Kathryn Simpson:         Uh, that was... that was... that... I’d love to say that uh, again, that I just uh, am...am brilliant, and...and know all these things, but...

Teri Hausman:              (laughs)

Kathryn Simpson:         It was... I was lucky.  I was very, very lucky.  My background includes...you...you mentioned that I was a nurse.  Unfortunately, I’m not a registered nurse.  I...

Teri Hausman:              Oh, I’m sorry.

Kathryn Simpson:         I love nurses, I think they’re one of the most critical health professionals out there.  I actually came from a...a corporate executive background.  I was a Vice President and CEO of companies in the bio-technology world.  So, I was lucky to see first hand all kinds of scientific medical breakthroughs.  I didn’t uh, come from a place where uh, you know, scientific terminology, medical terminology was overwhelming to me.  I’d been involved in a lot of research and development projects, seeing just tremendous things happen.  Uh, you know, day to day.  So, when I started feeling bad, and...and got diagnosed with this.  It wasn’t as intimidating to me as...as I...I think probably would be to most people.  And I basically just dove into the research.  I uh, I read everything I possibly could.  This was at the very early days of the internet, so there actually wasn’t as much there as there is now, which is a wonderful resource for people.  But, you know what I did, Teri?  Is I looked at a couple of key things.  I started looking at, you know, when you...you start any research project, you sort of start with the basic elements.  And I... I did the basic research on Multiple Sclerosis, and I found a couple key points.  Do you mind if I go through those?

Teri Hausman:              No, please do.

Kathryn Simpson:         Uh, I found that MS is approximately four times more prevalent in women than men.  If you look around, you see far more women have MS, and have...than men do.  Uh, and as with any disease, you mentioned Lupus, that’s a good one, Fibromyalgia...  All these diseases that are really clustered, they have far more women than men.  Uh, those are really hormonal in nature.  So I thought, “Okay, well that’s one clue.”  Then I looked at the mean age of onset of MS is thirty-two.  Uh, and uh, we’ve all heard, most of us that had our kids late, as...as I did, having uh, you know, sort of a wild corporate life, I didn’t have my first child ‘til I was thirty-four.  And e...you know, our OBGYN’s will tell us, “Have your kids before you’re thirty-five.”  There’s a big shift in fertility levels at that age.  We never really know why, but we all sort of hear that...that, you know, admonishment.  So, we...we realize that the first drop in hormones happens mid... early-mid thirties.  Uh, then we also have seen...  This is something that everybody has known, many doctors, research scientists, and...and whatnot, that MS goes...goes into remission when we’re pregnant.  We, almost all of us, I think to a woman, actually gets far, far, far healthier during pregnancy, and lose all of our symptoms of MS.  So we see that uh, with this reduction in symptoms, there’s got to be something hormonal happening.  And, conversely, when we have our babies, postpartum, we get generally exacerbations, which are periods where our symptoms get far, far worse.  So, you know, what does that tell us?  I mean that’s pretty obvious.  Uh, thirdly, the progression of the disease... or fourthly, the progression of the disease actually mimics the loss... the progressive loss of hormone.  So, even though many of us get our...our MS diagnosed, or start the symptoms of MS in our mid-thirties, we, within ten or fifteen years, fifty percent of us will actually become what they call “progressive,” which is when we have chronic symptoms.  As opposed to just having, you know, a isolated case of...of...for in... in my instance I had Bell’s Palsy when I was twenty-six.  So I had facial paralysis, and then it went away.  Some...many people will get uh, loss of vision, or inability to walk, and then miraculously that will just go away.  But what “progressive” means is you get the symptoms, they come and they don’t leave.  And that happens to fifty percent of us within ten to fifteen years of being diagnosed.  An additional forty percent, so almost all of us are progressive within twenty-five years.  And, Teri, if you back up and look at the numbers, that puts us dead... you know, dead smack at menopause.  Uh, and uh, finally, the...the...the real uh, awakening, if...if you will, for me was looking at the symptoms of MS.  When you go to your neurologist, they’ll just tell you sort of the basic things like loss of balance and coordination, numbness, tingling, those kinds of things.  But if you look at the list of MS symptoms, which is pretty much common across the board, uh, which is uh, insomnia, numbness, loss of dexterity, loss of balance, bladder and bowel problems, which are very common, esophageal reflux, fatigue, which is, unfortunately, uh...you know, a real big one for most of us.  Uh, loss of vision, back pain, all those things.  You put the list together for MS, and the list of hormone loss, and you know what, Teri?  They’re exactly the same.

Teri Hausman:              So, do you explain the therapy in your book?

Kathryn Simpson:         Uh, yes.  So after doing all that, and figuring out, “Oh my gosh, there’s... you know, there’s a problem here with...with hormones,” I went through and got everything uh, uh tested.  And that was not an easy path, and I don’t mean to trivialize that for your listeners, because it’s hard.  It’s a...it’s a newly emerging science.  It’s a newly emerging field, and to find a doctor that will do this is tough.  But the wonderful thing is, it’s very quantifiable.  So, what I list in the book are all the tests that need to be done, and then further, in the appendix....appendix, I actually have charts of what the levels should be for  a healthy, functioning endocrine system, for both men and women because, of course, although we all have the same hormones, we have very different levels of things like testosterone and estrogen and so forth.  So, I have put out in a...in a...in a, you know, I... I hope, easy to understand chart format, what you should be looking for when you get those blood tests back.  So, hopefully, w...if...if you’re listeners get a chance to get their hands on the book and read it, it’s really a template to, “Here are the tests that you need to take.  Here’s why those tests are important,” and I...I don’t know if you want to have a little discussion about that.  But that’s...that’s... see, there are some sort of esoteric issues around testing that you need to understand if you have a neurodegenerative disease, as opposed to just sort of, you know, loss of hormones.  Basic....

Teri Hausman:              Well I think if you have any disease you should get tested.  I mean, I’ve learned that with my poor mom this year.  Found out, you know, she had a back ache for two or three months, and it turned out she had cancer all over her body.  And she had been tested for mammograms and everything else, but the doctor just didn’t order chest x-rays and those kinds of things.  So, I think that goes with your overall health.  So it’s a really good point that you’re bringing up, and I really want to stress that for everybody.  To get tested.

Kathryn Simpson:         You are so... you are so right.  And... and so many times just missing that one... or those one or two critical tests, uh, even though you might do like a general check up, or some global testing, that’s what really makes the difference.  And I’m...I’m so sorry to hear about your mom.  Uh, and we...we look at that, I... I lost my dear father uh, to a neurodegenerative disease, uh which is uh, called Progressive Supernuclear Palsy, very much like ALS.

Teri Hausman:              Oh well.

Kathryn Simpson:         Which is a...

Teri Hausman:              That’s horrible, I’m sorry.

Kathryn Simpson:         Which is a bad one to have.  Uh, and I...

Teri Hausman:              Very bad.

Kathryn Simpson:         ....watched him uh, you know, get worse and worse and worse and worse.  And it... and unfortunately was not myself afflicted until after he had died.  So, I was not able to help him.  But I look back and I see such clear signs of endocrine involvement with him as well, that I think “Oh my gosh, if I just could have done those tests and intervened, and given him....”  The root of my problem turned out to be uh, thyroid and adrenal.  Uh, clearly when I was... I...I lost all my ovarian function, that exacerbated the situation.  But what I have seen, and in my book I tried to put a lot of information about the...the current clinical studies that are out there, and animal studies.  There’s a whole lot of research that’s available.  Uh and for some reason or other, you know, the uh, more traditional research was not really connecting the dots yet.  There’s a wonderful study that’s being done at UCLA now.  Uh, in the neurological research group, that’s...that’s treating MS with estriol, which is a type of estrogen.  Uh, so there’s starting to be a little bit of awareness that the endocrine system is very important to...to our nerve function.  And I’m very heartened to see that.  But really what you have to do is to piece together all these little studies that are out there.  There’s a lot of studies that have been done that show that thyroid is very, very important in nerve health.  But what it shows, particularly MS, in uh, MS, is that the of... there’s...there’s several different types of thyroid hormone.  Uh, and I won’t use the fancy Latin names, we just shorten them to T3 and T4...

Teri Hausman:              That’d be nice. (chuckles)

Kathryn Simpson:         Uh, because yeah, you know, I...I don’t remember half the time...half the time myself.  And what...what, the way that it works is that we have uh, a much greater amount of the T4 hormone in our body, but it actually has to be converted to T3, which is the active form of thyroid in our body.  So, if we are not able to...to make that conversion uh, which is...it can be for a lot of reasons.  It can be genetic, it can be because we have uh, insufficient adrenal function.  There’s a lot of reasons we can’t make the conversion, but the bottom line is, is that the clinical studies show that those of us with MS have virtually no T3.  Now...you...you’re asking, “Why in the world is she telling me all this boring stuff?”  But the...the critical part is that doctors do not test for T3.  Doctors... if you go to your doctor and say, “You know what?  I have all these symptoms and signs of low thyroid...” which are, you know, back pain is almost always low thyroid.  You know, as we age...

Teri Hausman:              That’s interesting...

Kathryn Simpson:         ...we need testing...

Teri Hausman:              I’ve never heard of that.  That... ‘Cause I always thought that low thyroid was cold hands and feet, and fatigue, and loss of hair...thinning hair.

Kathryn Simpson:         Uhuh.

Teri Hausman:              So, can you tell us some more symptoms that women can check?  Because uh, I think somebody told me “Oh, well maybe it’s your thyroid.”  So I went and got checked, but the doctor, I guess, didn’t do the NK Assay test, which is... You can explain that.  What...what is that?  That is a more intense test.  So, she said my thyroid was fine.  Come to find out it wasn’t.

Kathryn Simpson:         That’s ex... You are making... you have experience first hand.  You’re...your...

Teri Hausman:              Right.

Kathryn Simpson:         ....self.  The...the...the tragedy, which is th...thyroid treatment in this country, which is they just look at... and...and I don’t knock doctors, I have....

Teri Hausman:              No, me neither.

Kathryn Simpson:         ...some friends that are doctors, and they are in a very tough position, uh, legally, you know, and every...and everything else.  And particularly with the, you know, the struggle to manage health care.  Uh, but the signs of hypothyroidism that I think that people are not as aware of, is that, you know, anemia is a sign of hypothyroidism.  Anxiety.  Any...a....  There are more T3 receptors in our brain than anywhere else in our body.  So if those T... T3 receptors, which are the... kind of the...the mechanism that turns on thyroid function, are not being stimulated effectively, uh, basically we get depression.  We get anxiety.  We can even... even look like we have bipolar and schizophrenia.  It’s... you know, it’s very, very... uh, I work with a wonderful researcher in the UK, Dr. Pete Fulgurant.  He’s one of the top thyroid specialists, and he said that seventy-five percent of everybody in a mental institution really just has low thyroid function. (Laughs)

Teri Hausman:              Really?  That’s amazing.

Kathryn Simpson:         He’s a...he’s a wild character, and he says all these wonderful things, but it’s backed up with thirty years of research.  Uh, so that, you know, most... you know, if you uh, have those kinds of uh, depression or... oh, or mental problems, that’s the first thing you should do is get your thyroid checked.  Back or leg pain, Teri, is almost always thyroid, because the sciatic bundle, the... in the lower back is fed by thyroid hormone.  So, if it’s not being stimulated, that starts demyelinating, which means the...which is...which is the ideology of...of one of the big problems in MS.  The myelin is the fatty sheet that covers the nerve, which is sort of like an electrical wire.  It’s the, you know, it’s the coating...

Teri Hausman:              And that’s down your back?

Kathryn Simpson:         And...and that...  Well, myelin is on every nerve in your body, but the sciatic nerve is...is the largest nerve bundle, and when we start losing that myelin coating, if you will, we... you know, everything starts...it’s like an electrical cord in your house.  If you lose the coating it, you know, you’re gonna start getting shocks.  You’re gonna start...it basically will stop working at a point in time, because it’s no longer conducting like it should.  So, uh, you know it’s very important to look at, you know how... how these different hormones effect nerve cells, uh...

Teri Hausman:              You know what?  And I want to keep that thought, because we’re gonna have to take a short break.  I can’t believe how fast this show is going.  We’re gonna have to have you back for another one.  We’re gonna take a quick break, and we’re gonna be back talking with Kathryn Simpson about your hormones, MS, and different types of diseases that you can get, and how you can fight it with her book.

(Musical Interlude)

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(Musical Interlude)

Teri Hausman:              Hi, this is Teri Struck, host of “Beauty Now,” and we’re back with Kathryn Simpson, the author of “The MS Solution.”  Welcome back Kathryn.

Kathryn Simpson:         I’m delighted to be here.

Teri Hausman:              Well we were just talking about the myelin...in sheath, am I saying that right?

Kathryn Simpson:         You sure are.

Teri Hausman:              On your... in your back, which is a coating, and you were just saying how that gets affected.  So, continue on.

Kathryn Simpson:         Well uh, again, myelin... the myelin sheath, which surrounds all our nerves, is what...what unfortunately is uh, starts fraying.  Uh, to use a non te...technical word.  And actually starts uh, our nerves start losing the ability to conduct signals, and that’s when we start having uh... so many of us have it...leg involvement.  We have a hard time walking.  My problems were in my hands uh, first.  And uh, I’ve reversed all of that.  The only symptom I have of my many, many, many symptoms, is I still have just a tiny bit of residual numbness in my right hand.  But given that I couldn’t write uh, about three years ago, I feel so very fortunate.  I was not able to really move my fingers at all.  So, uh, well I’m here to say that even if you have had a loss... a lot of loss of nerve function, the earlier that you address it the better, because we can... uh, the nerves can atrophy.  Uh, but if we get the right stimulation and... in form of the hormones that we need, you can bring that function back.  Uh...

Teri Hausman:              But the bottom line, Kathryn, is that you’re saying, “Get tested.” Right?  To see what your deficiencies are?

Kathryn Simpson:         Yes.

Teri Hausman:              Okay, and then you’re gonna get a...a program just for you.  How can our listeners find doctors that specialize in these types of hormones?

Kathryn Simpson:         I put in the back, and uh, again, it’s...it’s not always that easy.  Uh...

Teri Hausman:              Right.

Kathryn Simpson:         I put in the back of the book some doctor locators.  Uh, right now uh, unfortunately, the endocrine specialist...specialty which is... is... is a wonderful one, and the neurological specialty for things that are, you know, surgery and those thing...those sorts of uh, very cut and dried things, are very, they’re...they’re great.  There’s nobody better.  But when you’re looking at... at sort of resuscitating the endocrine function, you really... I find that the...the better... the better doctor to go to is maybe a GP, family practice, or something that...that positions themselves as a sort of alternative specialist.  Those are the people that belong to groups like the American College for the advancement of medicine.  I’ve put the list of these groups in the back of the book, with the web sites.  Most of them have doctor locators, so you can type your zip code in.  It’ll give you a list of doctors in your area.  And then what I recommend you do, because so many of the doc...these doctors have very different approaches, and very different skill sets, is that you... you give yourself a morning, and you call each doctor, and you do... you interview them or their office staff, and say, you know, “What is your... do you have experience in hormone uh, treatment?  Do you work with people that have these diseases?”  And just try to figure out if they sound like they have the right... the right approach to... to uh, to treatment.  And after you’ve read the book, I think you’ll have a pretty good understanding, because I really tried to put in there what is the cause of MS, which in my belief is in...inflammation in the body.  Wh... and what causes inflammation?  Loss of key hormones.  What are those key hormones?  Adrenal, thyroid, gonadal, which is ovaries or testes depending upon your gender.  Uh, and what levels do you need to have.  So once you kind of understand all of that, you... selecting a doctor and working with a doctor will ho...hopefully be easier.  Uh, again this is a comple... very, very new field, just emerging.  And so it is very important that you spend the time up front to find the right doctor.

Teri Hausman:              Well, what can you do besides medication and those kinds of things to prevent inflammation in the body?  Do you have any key foods that you like to eat?

Kathryn Simpson:         Uh, diet is so huge, I can’t even tell you.  So many of us become so inflammatory because we’re eating a diet of mainly refined carbs.  Uh, and I... Unfortunately, when we start getting sick, we try to manage it through diet.  And I tried all kinds of wild things, and I’m, you know, again I’ve... I’ve tried everything, because I was not willing to just start losing functionality.  So, I’ve pretty much tried... before I found out about hormones, I...I tried the diet path.  And uh, I p... most of us with MS don’t make digestive enzymes or gastric acid.  So, we can’t digest protein well.   Particularly animal uh, protein  So I became a vegetarian.  Unfortunately, Teri, my idea of a vegetarian was, you know, pesto. (laughs) I would....

Teri Hausman:              I like pesto.

Kathryn Simpson:         I love pesto, but pesto is really simply refined carbs.  I mean...

Teri Hausman:              Right.

Kathryn Simpson:         I mean, with a little, you know...

Teri Hausman:              With pastas, right?  So that’s...

Kathryn Simpson:         Little there... That’s not it.  So, you know I was not... I did all the wrong things.  Uh, and... and again, I did it because I... when I ate a piece of meat it...it felt like trying to digest a... a gerbil.  I just couldn’t do it.  So uh, many of us with neurodegenerative diseases start really uh, picking the wrong foods, because our digestive system is not working correctly.  And then when we start repairing it uh, then things start getting on, you know, back on line.  But...but the bottom line is, you should not eat refined carbs.  You just shouldn’t do it.  You should really look at anything that’s more complex.  Brown rice instead of white rice uh, vegetables instead of pastry.  I mean these are all things that, you know, we all know.  Uh, but we don’t... When we have a neurodegenerative disease, we don’t have the latitude as healthy young people do, to eat whatever they want.  We need to make sure that we’re getting proper nutrition.  There are some supplements that will resuscitate uh, our DNA.  That will resuscitate our...our mitochondria, if you will, uh, that I’ve listed in the back of the book, that are pretty important.  Amino acids and so forth.  So, even if we’re not getting amino acids, which are the building blocks for... for our body to function correctly, from our foods, we can supplement them until we can get things back on track and start being able to derive more benefit from our food.

Teri Hausman:              What are a couple of the...the supplements you take every day?

Kathryn Simpson:         Uh, well L-Lysidal carn... carnitine.  G...Glutamine.  There’s a bunch of aminos, Taurine.  You...you need to really, again, measure levels of these things.  And, fortunately, testing science has moved so far uh, from even, you know, the days that I first star... was... you know, first sick and diagnosed, that you can go in and get a test of all your amino acids.  I did that early on in the process, when I was trying to look at how my system was functioning, and I was under the range of every single amino acid.  All... all nineteen, except for one.  I mean, I didn’t even get into the range.  So, I obviously was deriving no benefit whatsoever from any of the food I was eating.  Very easy test to take.  You go in, it’s a quick blood test, and you can find out what aminos you’re deficient in.  Again, people with MS have very low levels of B... B vitamins.  It’s quantified clinical study after clinical study.  So, you need to get the B vitamins uh, measured, and get those put back in your... if you’re low.  Pretty much oh... you know, across...

Teri Hausman:              You like B12 shots?  Do you...

Kathryn Simpson:         You know, I used B12 shots for many years.  I no longer need any of that, because with the reinstallment of my uh, of my endocrine system by using these hormones... uh, hormones, I don’t... my... my body does everything it needs to do.  I have very nice, high levels of B12 produced endogenously.  In other words, I make it myself.  But until you can get your body back to where it’s functioning well, you do need to do what you can with supplementation.

Teri Hausman:              So, when... How do you really...  So you’re gonna find these doctors in the back of your book, and then you’re gonna ask them, “Do you test for amino acids?”

Kathryn Simpson:         Uhuh.  What... what I would do, because those are... that’s... that’s secondary.  What you really need to do to stop the progression of this disease, is to find out if they are willing and able, and knowledgeable to work with en...with hormones.  That is...that is hurdle number one.  All the aminos and...and the uh, vitamins and the minerals, and those kinds of things, that’s...that’s a very wonderful complement to this, but it will... I have found, in my particular case and many other, I did start a clinic in my local area here, with a physician partner.  It’s just now really dedicated only to research.  We don’t... we don’t see patients.  Uh, because it...it’s, you know, our focus is really to find out as much as we can about the science.   But uh, you know, the...the bottom line is that uh, we... you... you really have to work with the endocrine system by the time you get diagnosed with a disease like MS.  I think most of us, if we’d started finding out these deficiencies when we were much younger, and we had supported ourselves, we probably never would have had to go to this extent.  But by the time we get neurodegenerative symptoms, you know, my sense, and I don’t want to say this across the board, but it...it does require a little bit more herculean efforts.  Normally, you have to have some thyroid supplementation, some adrenal supplementation, uh, and...and really sex hormones, which would be testosterone for men and estrogen or progesterone for women.

Teri Hausman:              That was my next question.  How does it differ for the men as the women?

Kathryn Simpson:         It’s... It... It’s... It’s intriguing.  It’s very different.  Men normally have a very different path with MS, uh, through MS than women do.  Women uh, far more women get it, as we discussed earlier, but they tend to have a...uh, not as...not as uh, tough a path.  Men tend to get it, become progressive very quickly, and go downhill very quickly.  Women on the other hand will get it and live with it for thirty years, getting ever yet increasing disabled, but not... it won’t kill them.  Uh, so what...what...  And the reason that, you know, I think that is, is because we do uh, a...the men, when they run out of uh, they start having gonadal problems, they don’t have the other hormones to support.  We women are sort of programmed for a loss of hormones.  I mean, we all lose our hormones at menopause.  Our ovaries shut down.  We stop making estrodial and prog... or estrogen and progesterone.  So, there’s a very different biochemical make up between the two genders.  But it does come down to the same thing.  Men have problems with testosterone, uh, and women have problems with, you know, estrogen and progesterone.  But both genders have problems with thyroid and adrenal.  And the adrenal hormones that are so critical are cortisol.  And I do uh, myself, supplement.  Very low dose bio-identical cortisol, which is very important.  Which, cortisol is the stress hormone.

Teri Hausman:              So tell us how that works.

Kathryn Simpson:         Well the stress hormone is critical for...for uh, e...everything, whether it’s a subclinical tooth infection, or whether it’s, you know a...a life threatening or neurological disease.  Our body controls inflammation, and controls our immune system through a... a chemical... through a hormone called cortisol, and adrenaline.  Uh, cortisol is sort of the...  Adrenaline is the fight or flight, where you produce it in great bursts, and then, you know, then it kind of goes away.  But cortisol, you have to have a certain nice level all the time in order to keep inflammation at bay in your body.  What happens, what we’ve seen in clinical studies on MS, and other degenerative diseases, is that we probably, most of us, pumped a huge amount of cortisol in our early years, and then we ran out, which is normally the path, is you, you know, your go-go years of your twenties and thirties, you’re pumping, pumping, pumping, and then your adrenals are maybe not as robust genetically as everyone else’s, and you lose the ability to produce enough.  So, inflammation starts getting out of control, and we start seeing the nerves break down.  So, that’s a real critical hormone.  DHEA, most of us have heard of that.  That’s a hormone that’s become well known.  It’s actually over the counter.  Cortisol is a prescription drug.  DHEA you can buy over the counter.  There’s been a lot of clinical studies recently showing it’s ben...benefit in MS.  Uh, so that’s one thing.  We like to look at the levels.  Ldosterone, which is another adrenal hormone, is an important one to measure.  And uh, all the pituitary hormones, which is our regulatory endocrine gland, which basically monitors and drives all the other glands underneath it.  It’s kind of like the... the CEO, if you will, and it tells all the other glands, you know, when they need to produce hormones.  So, those hormones are important to measure as well and, again, I’ve...I’ve spelled all of those out in the book.  So, it, you know, it’s a nice a list.  There’s, you know, probably twenty things you should get measured.  But you go in, and you come out understanding if your endocrine system is...is, you know, is...is a issue in your MS.

Teri Hausman:              So, the bottom line of what I’m hearing, is research your specialist, get a pad and paper with your book, and write down everything that you think that you need, for you individually.  Our listeners.  And then contact the back of your book and find out everything that you need to know.

Kathryn Simpson:         That is exactly it.  And hopefully, you know, it’s...it’s...it’s sort of a connect the dot approach, because I know when I was going through it, it, you know, per... one of the problems with MS is we get confused, we get cognitive issues.  Uh, I could only really think straight for the morning, and after that I was just... I had terrible chronic fatigue.  So, I’d be lying on the bed.  So, I’d get myself all organized, and I’d get my pad of paper, and I’d, you know, get on it first thing in the morning, and I had a couple good hours.  And most of us are in that same boat.  So, you’ve got to try to get a good plan, and organization in place, and do what you can.  And picking that right doctor, I can’t stress enough.  That’s going to be your partner through this process.  And it may not be the first doctor you talk to, it may be the ninth doctor your talk to.  Uh, again, I don’t want to be discouraging.  Hopefully, that...that won’t happen to too many people.  But, again, keep going until you get to somebody who said, “No, I absolutely get it.  This makes sense,” and maybe would be even interested in reading the book.  You could, you know, bring it in and say, “Please read this so we can both be on the same page.”

Teri Hausman:              And the last thing I want to say, because we’ve run out of time, is also that, read this book whether you think you have MS or not, because there’s so many other hormone things in the book.  Uh, and she’s also talking about lupus, thyroid, a lot of different, really useful information.  Thank you so much Kathryn, we’re gonna have to have you back, because we... I can’t believe how fast this show went.  We’ve run out of time, but if you guys would like transcripts of today’s show, you go to personal life media dot com.  We’re gonna link you to Kathryn’s website, so that you can actually order her book, and she’s gonna tell you how to do that.  And also, if you have any other show ideas, please e-mail me at [email protected].  Show ideas, comments, questions, concerns, we could forward you to Kathryn Simpson’s website, and thanks again Kathryn for being with us.  It was a really good show, and a lot of really useful information.

Kathryn Simpson:         Great, and the website is uh, www.themssolution.com, and you can...

Teri Hausman:              Great.

Kathryn Simpson:         ...buy right on the website.

Teri Hausman:              Thanks so much, or you can go to Personal Life Media dot com and we’ll link you to her website.  Thanks a lot.

Kathryn Simpson:         Thank you Teri.

Teri Hausman:              And we’ll have you back.

Kathryn Simpson:         Alrighty.  Bye-bye.

Teri Hausman:              Bye-bye.