are you a vegetarian?

Well, multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disorder. Researchers have found that the presence of parasitic worms (helminthes) coincides with decreased incidents and remissions of autoimmune reactions, and not cooking food that should be cooked may help you get yourself some wriggly little passengers, so it's possible the two are related.

Helminths are known to interact with host immune systems. Eliminating them has been observed to lead to inflammatory conditions flaring up, so it's not just that people with weak immune systems are less likely to have autoimmune reactions and more likely to have worms. While their's an obvious self-defense aspect to their interaction with host immune systems, there's a theory that over the course of human evolution, helminths were ever-present (it's estimated that about 40% of humanity still carries them around). Given that we have evolved with their presence, their absence may leave our immune system a little off balance, unsure what to do without either an infestation to fight or their secretions that tell us "these are not the 'todes you are looking for...." This is one aspect of the so-called Hygiene Hypothesis to explain higher incidents of inflammatory/autoimmune disorders in Western/First World countries.

The YouTube channel SciShow did an episode on this just yesterday, for a light introduction. If you want something more technical, check out the BMC Medicine summary covering the research and this PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases article on why we shouldn't consider this case-closed and go infesting ourselves with parasitic worms, at least not just yet. Internal microbiomes are complicated and essentially black boxes - we observe what we put in our mouths and what results, but they're often subjective observations, susceptible to the placebo effect, and often with a sample size of one. Even clinically, we're not observing the biological or chemical processes directly.

People who adopt a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle often make significant changes from their previous habits (not just diet, but exercise or their interpersonal relationships), making it hard to tell what change is really driving their perceived change in overall health. Just trying to generally eat healthier would be a huge improvement for many people (my fellow Americans in particular), especially as it can lead to a reduction in obesity-related conditions and improved self-image. I wouldn't advise people to not try to eat healthier, but at the same time I take personal testimonials with a grain of salt - spontaneous remission is a real thing for most conditions, even if it correlates to things people are doing to try to cure themselves, and feels exactly the same as any other cure.

If it tastes good, sure why not. I don't care about where food comes from, I care how it tastes and meat grosses me out aka I am not vegetarian because of the animals/environment (tho that is an added bonus), I am vegetarian because I just can't stand to look at meat I guess?

If you have any more questions feel free to ask anytime, I shall answer when I see them :)