More from my MS book--

Looking back at when I probably had the beginnings of multiple sclerosis, my 20s, the first thing I did wrong was to avoid the sun. This was the 70s, and the scare health news of the time was about cancer being caused by excessive exposure to the sun.

I grew up in the years before air-conditioning. My sisters and my friends and I played out all summer long, indeed all year long, in the sunshine. We wore shorts and short sleeve top, giving us the greatest amount of sun exposure possible. We played in the sprinkler in our bathing suits and went to the pool for hours.

Recently, when I went to my neurologist for my regular checkup, she checked me for a vitamin D deficiency and found I had one. She told me to go to the drugstore and buy a vitamin D and to take it regularly.

This deficiency is very common in people with multiple sclerosis. Now I look back on all the years I've spent avoiding the sun for fear of getting skin cancer. I went overboard to avoid swimming pools and sunbathing during the years when most young people spent hours in these pursuits.

When I was in my early 20s and a new journalism graduate, I went to work for the local newspaper in my hometown Lawton, Oklahoma. I worked in the feature department, and one of the assignments I had was to investigate the new type of store that had just opened--a health food store.

I went to the store and met the owner, who was very enthusiastic about the need for vitamin supplements and healthy foods. She loaned me a book by Adelle Davis, the 60s and 70s guru of vitamins and health foods. Mrs. Davis had done much research and, using the studies of her time, knew a great deal of about the efficacy of the different vitamins.

I grew enthusiastic about this subject as I researched it for a series in the paper. I read all her books and began to take vitamins myself. Using her advice, I took cod liver oil (rich in vitamins A and D) by the spoonful daily. I continued taking vitamins for several years until my husband and I began our family. Even then I gave cod liver oil to my babies. Eventually, though, the expense of vitamins to a young family with three children became prohibitive, I thought, and I drifted away from buying them.

Many years later, in some of the earliest material I found after MS diagnosis, I found a doctor who told his patients to take a teaspoon of cod liver oil daily. I did this for several years, but eventually got away from the diet. Although I knew cod liver oil is rich in vitamin D, I did not know the multiple sclerosis connection. I will discuss the Swank diet later.

So what did I do wrong? To begin with, I quit taking vitamins when I reached my 30s and felt I could not afford to them. I quit taking cod liver oil after I had been advised to take it by a multiple sclerosis specialist.

Would my health be different today if I had done all the things right? Yes, I believe it would. Perhaps I would still have multiple sclerosis, but it might never have I manifested itself as strongly had I kept my body well supplied with vitamin D.