Myelin repair has the potential to be a Blockbuster class of drugs. But there are ways our body repairs myelin already.
I saw the breaking news announcement trumpeted on an MS Facebook Page. New myelin repair drug in stage 4 clinical trials!
The comments were bursting.
People clamoured to get the details, desperate to get on the trial.
I couldn’t let it slide. “We can do this already,” I commented.
Then I realised that wasn’t very helpful if you don’t know how.
So I added another comment.
I listed some foods that help repair myelin and a study link. And some activities we can do that have been proven to increase the number of OPC stem cells that are prerequisite to making myelin—all free and easy stuff.
To be extra helpful, I even speculated on whether the new drug might be using a certain food as its active ingredient.
The FB page didn’t even publish it.
Ouch.
Did I bust their trade secret?
No problem. I’ll share my research and lived experience on how to repair myelin. I’ll even link you to the evidence so you can check it out yourself.
How to Support Your Own Myelin Repair
Eat medicinal mushrooms
Japan and China have been using mushrooms as food and medicine since antiquity. The most effective for myelin repair seems to be Shiitake, Lion’s Mane, and Reishi. Add these mushrooms to your diet to help repair myelin.
There’s lots of research, but here’s a favourite from the Journal of Immunology Research in 2022.
Here’s a simple but more detailed 2024 post, Remyelinating Mushrooms
Move your body to boost OPCs
Exercise is the best thing to boost the number of stem cells that make myelin. They’re called OPCs — (oligodendrocyte precursor cells). The part of myelin that gets damaged is the oligodendrocyte layer. It’s the outermost layer.
Walking is probably the best way for most people.
I saw this in the Guardian, a new trend in Japan. High Intensity Interval Walking. (HiiW). You walk fast for a stretch, then slow down. So simple. A Japanese shiitake lunch, followed by a Japanese-style power-walk. Cultural! 😆
If you couldn’t be stuffed, try and get a big belly laugh in. Laughing is exercise without exercise. I’m enjoying Fisk at the moment. Let me just say, ‘gavel is our safe word.’ 😂 Use exercise and laughter to help repair myelin.
Calm your body’s inflammation
This is key as well. So much food in packets and boxes contains vegetable oil of some kind. Have you ever tried to find a packaged food that didn’t have vegetable oil? Vegetable oil could be sunflower, safflower, rape seed, grape seed, soybean, Crisco, or any oil. There are hardly any!
The problem is, vegetable oil triggers inflammation, creates oxidative stress, and conjures free radicals. Add vegetable oil (except olive oil and avocado oil) to your Eat Never List. Read Time for an Oil Change for the details.
If we’re trying to repair myelin while pouring a flammable oil on it, it’s like trying to stop two wild horses running in opposite directions.
Stay away from vegetable oil (which could be any plant or seed) unless it’s the barest trace. Use olive oil or no oil.
It’s like trying to stop two wild horses running in opposite directions.
Calm your fire with real, whole food, like a banana. No packaging. The packaging is the peel. Try different fruits, green, leafy vegetables, nuts, rice, and whole grains.
Drink water or green tea. No sugar. No cow’s milk. Coffee and tea are fine. Calm the inflammation in your body to repair myelin.
Calm the Nervous System
The nervous system is highly reactive. It’s hard to calm it down, but a very effective way is through Yoga Nidra. Close your eyes and breathe deeply and slowly.
I like Ally Boothroyd, who has all different lengths of Yoga Nidra videos so you can easily fit one into your busy schedule. They’re all free.
Surrender to her gentle, Canadian voice telling you what to do. Instead of trying to clear your mind, follow the voice that tells you where to place your attention. Do what she says.
By focusing on consecutive parts of the body, you deeply relax. Your foot eases off the pedal of fight-flight-freeze. We stimulate the vagus nerve and enter the rest and digest, the garden of tranquillity. Calm your nervous system to repair myelin.
This week, I was reading an old book about Yoga Nidra. It was by Swami Satyananda Saraswati, who started the Manrove Mountain ashram I used to go to. In a study, people who regularly practiced yoga nidra had EEG brain scans.
The scan data showed them in an Alpha state of relaxed awareness, and simultaneously in the Delta state of deep restful sleep and repair. Yoga nidra is amazing.
Following this, only if you can, I recommend some time in nature.
Wrapping up
The prescription for supporting myelin repair is simple.
- Seek the simplest food the way nature intended. That’s whole food, including mushrooms and fungi.
2. Move your body the way nature intended — by walking.
3. Calm those horses of inflammation.
4. Relax intentionally. Go into your calmest state of nature possible. If you can, go into nature itself.
Ancient systems of medicine have simple self-care. Modern western medicine simply doesn’t have the answers (yet).
So don’t hold your breath waiting for the remyelinating blockbuster drug. It’s possibly what I have just shared. But maybe less effective and more expensive.😀
You can heal the damage and thrive. I know it’s possible because I’ve done it. If I can do it, that means you can do it. I believe in you.
Be well XO
How have you helped repair your myelin?
Everyone with MS is healing or has healed myelin already.
What do you do to repair your myelin?
Have you ever had a bad MS flareup but were able to recover?
What worked best for you?
