Multiple Sclerosis Breakthrough

Multiple Sclerosis Breakthrough

Liberalman

#1Nov 21st, 2009

Multiple Sclerosis Breakthrough

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/researchers-labour-of-love-leads-to-breakthrough-in-treating-ms/article1372414/

“Using ultrasound to examine the vessels leading in and out of the brain, Dr. Zamboni made a startling find: In more than 90 per cent of people with multiple sclerosis, including his spouse, the veins draining blood from the brain were malformed or blocked. In people without MS, they were not.”

This says it all where there has been billions of dollars spent on research on MS and it took a doctor who was trying to save a specific person almost no time to solve the mystery.

I wonder how many other diseases that billions of dollars are spent where a simple re-evaluation would put the researchers on the right track.

Last edited by Liberalman; Nov 21st, 2009 at 09:39 AM..Reason: ....

Curiosity

Re: Multiple Sclerosis Breakthrough

Nov 21st, 2009

What wonderful news for a member of my own family

I have a niece with MS - I have already e-mailed the article to her - but she is always on top of new medical breakthroughs so she may already know about the
research being done.

It would be wonderful for her - she says life is such a "drag" with her MS, although grateful she is not as debilitated as so many people are - but she says just once she would like to be in a "hurry" about something and be able to accomplish it....

Thanks for posting it Liberalman....

JLM

Re: Multiple Sclerosis Breakthrough

Nov 21st, 2009

Absolutely good news, this terrible disease affects a lot of people in the prime of life. Maybe this break through will lead to treatment of other debillitating and deadly diseases, like the even more feared Lou Gehrig's Disease

Gemini911

Re: Multiple Sclerosis Breakthrough

Nov 21st, 2009

This is great news! I have a very dear friend with MS- I will pass the info along to her, thanks!

VanIsle

Re: Multiple Sclerosis Breakthrough

Nov 21st, 2009

I truly hope it is the great news everyone seems to feel it is. My niece died at age 35 from MS - never seen in our family or her Dad's before. She had what was known as rapid MS - attacked both sides of her brain. Most have one side of the brain attacked. My husband's sister has had MS since she was 19 years old. She is 75 years old now and has been completely bed ridden for at least the last 15 of those with nothing more than the ability to move her hand up to rub her nose if it's itchy.
My sister used to say that everytime funds were low for MS research, an article such as this one would come out so that everyone would pour more money into research. She got so that she would not even read them because it just got her hopes up that my niece might get well and instead - she died.

JLM

Re: Multiple Sclerosis Breakthrough

Nov 21st, 2009

Quote: Originally Posted by VanIsle

I truly hope it is the great news everyone seems to feel it is. My niece died at age 35 from MS - never seen in our family or her Dad's before. She had what was known as rapid MS - attacked both sides of her brain. Most have one side of the brain attacked. My husband's sister has had MS since she was 19 years old. She is 75 years old now and has been completely bed ridden for at least the last 15 of those with nothing more than the ability to move her hand up to rub her nose if it's itchy.
My sister used to say that everytime funds were low for MS research, an article such as this one would come out so that everyone would pour more money into research. She got so that she would not even read them because it just got her hopes up that my niece might get well and instead - she died.

Unfortunately but thank God, very rarely, there are cases like your niece. A fellow who worked for the same outfit as I did, contracted it in his early 30s quite suddenly and went down hill fairly fast until he died at about age 43. My aunt on the other hand lived with a form of it for 40 years although badly crippled she lived until age 92..............you just can't never tell. Her husband died of Lou Gehrig's disease at age 67- that one is a real bastard.

AnnaG

Re: Multiple Sclerosis Breakthrough

Nov 21st, 2009

I am passing this along to a couple friends who have MS. Thanks, LM.

taxslave

Re: Multiple Sclerosis Breakthrough

Nov 21st, 2009

Big Pharma has no financial interest in finding a cure for any disease. Neither do most of the well paid fund raisers that all societies have. This was a man with a mission not a bean counter looking for quarterly profits.

Johnnny

Re: Multiple Sclerosis Breakthrough

Nov 21st, 2009

mabye this is one of those people you read about in the history books

kryptic

#10

Re: Multiple Sclerosis Breakthrough

Nov 22nd, 2009

I sure do hope this is a true breakthrough, it is a nasty disease, 2 members of my family have it, 1 is still alive, but I wouldn't call it that, she is hooked to more machines then I can count and weighs nothing.

I tend to agree with taxslave and VanIsle on things like this tho.

VanIsle

#11

Re: Multiple Sclerosis Breakthrough

Nov 22nd, 2009

Quote: Originally Posted by taxslave

Big Pharma has no financial interest in finding a cure for any disease. Neither do most of the well paid fund raisers that all societies have. This was a man with a mission not a bean counter looking for quarterly profits.

This was a man with a mission. I hope big pharma doesn't squash it as most of us believe they have done with many other things. I cannot help but wonder how it would be for my sister-in-law if she could just use her arms. Imagine suddenly having the simple ability of being able to just feed yourself. To her, that in itself would be a miracle. There is surgery out there that my grandson could have that would give him deep brain implants that would enable him to have the full use of his arms. He probably still would not walk but the system stops him from having that surgery. Thousands of dollars get spent on his care for things like wheel chairs to meds to computers and TA's. Thousands of people with MS are in care homes. Surgery may be able to help thousands of those people but I don't yet believe it's going to happen any time soon. I think the only way it may come close to happening is if people across the world rally for it.

Tonington

#12

Re: Multiple Sclerosis Breakthrough

Nov 22nd, 2009

Quote: Originally Posted by taxslave

Big Pharma has no financial interest in finding a cure for any disease. Neither do most of the well paid fund raisers that all societies have. This was a man with a mission not a bean counter looking for quarterly profits.

If the cure doesn't require drugs, and is brought about by surgery, then we don't need pharmaceutical involvement. Big Pharma is powerless to stop science being publicized in journals, with surgical results.

taxslave

#13

Re: Multiple Sclerosis Breakthrough

Nov 22nd, 2009

Quote: Originally Posted by Tonington

If the cure doesn't require drugs, and is brought about by surgery, then we don't need pharmaceutical involvement. Big Pharma is powerless to stop science being publicized in journals, with surgical results.

Big Pharma is involved with anything to do with medical research. They really like transplants because it requires a lifetime of drug therapy.

Tonington

#14

Re: Multiple Sclerosis Breakthrough

Nov 22nd, 2009

This surgery requires no drugs. Big Pharma can't stop other researchers from studying this method. If they can't do that, they can't really stop it from being used as a treatment if those studies prove to be successful.

CocoChanel

#15

Re: Multiple Sclerosis Breakthrough

Jan 11th, 2010

Quote: Originally Posted by Tonington

This surgery requires no drugs. Big Pharma can't stop other researchers from studying this method. If they can't do that, they can't really stop it from being used as a treatment if those studies prove to be successful.

I started reading about MS because I have a sister in law who just got diagnosed, and I want to give her ideas about how to move forward. Since I started, I've been meeting people who have MS, and many of them are wondering if the MS Societies and the pharmaceutical companies are too close? Does anyone know this to be a fact?

AnnaG

#16

Re: Multiple Sclerosis Breakthrough

Jan 11th, 2010

Quote: Originally Posted by CocoChanel

I started reading about MS because I have a sister in law who just got diagnosed, and I want to give her ideas about how to move forward. Since I started, I've been meeting people who have MS, and many of them are wondering if the MS Societies and the pharmaceutical companies are too close? Does anyone know this to be a fact?

I think if anyone knows what's going on about it, it would be these people:

--

VanIsle

#17

Re: Multiple Sclerosis Breakthrough

Jan 12th, 2010

Shortly after this thread opened I had a customer who was at my till, in a wheel chair. It was a slow time and the two of us got talking. I asked her if she had MS. She said she did so I explained that my niece had had it and that my sister-in-law has had it since she was 19 and is now 75 yrs. old. Then I asked if she had heard about the new surgery that we were talking about on here because it hit email like crazy. She said she had heard. She also said that her doctor told her that she shouldn't get too excited about it because right now, the only place it's being done is in Italy and that Italy's health care system is much like our own and the wait times are endless. He also told her that while it works for some people, it certainly doesn't work for everyone. She was of the feeling that it will be a number of years before it reaches Canada and we probably all know why.

JLM

#18

Re: Multiple Sclerosis Breakthrough

Jan 12th, 2010

Quote: Originally Posted by VanIsle

Shortly after this thread opened I had a customer who was at my till, in a wheel chair. It was a slow time and the two of us got talking. I asked her if she had MS. She said she did so I explained that my niece had had it and that my sister-in-law has had it since she was 19 and is now 75 yrs. old. Then I asked if she had heard about the new surgery that we were talking about on here because it hit email like crazy. She said she had heard. She also said that her doctor told her that she shouldn't get too excited about it because right now, the only place it's being done is in Italy and that Italy's health care system is much like our own and the wait times are endless. He also told her that while it works for some people, it certainly doesn't work for everyone. She was of the feeling that it will be a number of years before it reaches Canada and we probably all know why.

I'll take the risk of butting in here and make a comment about something I really know nothing about. I'm just wondering if perhaps Canada's standards for drug qualifications aren't higher than Italy's. Is it possible that while Italy is curing a few patients it's also killing a few? This may be an area where S.J.'s statistics might come in handy.

VanIsle

#19

Re: Multiple Sclerosis Breakthrough

Jan 12th, 2010

Quote: Originally Posted by JLM

I'll take the risk of butting in here and make a comment about something I really know nothing about. I'm just wondering if perhaps Canada's standards for drug qualifications aren't higher than Italy's. Is it possible that while Italy is curing a few patients it's also killing a few? This may be an area where S.J.'s statistics might come in handy.

That was not the impression the lady gave me. I have to wonder why you would think that.

AnnaG

#20

Re: Multiple Sclerosis Breakthrough

Jan 12th, 2010

Quote: Originally Posted by JLM

I'll take the risk of butting in here and make a comment about something I really know nothing about. I'm just wondering if perhaps Canada's standards for drug qualifications aren't higher than Italy's. Is it possible that while Italy is curing a few patients it's also killing a few? This may be an area where S.J.'s statistics might come in handy.

I don't trust his statistics. He has too much tendency to add opinion and he hardly posts anything to support his claims.

If anything I think Canada is overly cautious with relatively extreme ailments. If someone has something that doesn't seriously affect their health and some new drug comes into the picture that would fix the problem, fine, be overly cautious. But if something is affecting asomeone in a severe way and something comes along that might cure them, Canada seems to putter around with the idea of introducing the stuff for decades before letting it loose. How long after radiation treatments for certain cancers came out before Canuckville decided it might work on Canadians? It's like those bureaucrats thing Canadians and Americans are different species or something. If this procedure (and its not drug therapy) solves MS in some cases I think it should be used and if it has a side effect and the side effect is decidely less than the MS, what's the big deal. Especially after Canada allows over-the-counter drugs to be sold here where the cure for a sniffle has a side-effect list a foot long. Scuse me but I'll suffer with the sniffle and save myself the tummy cramps, diarrhea, nausea, drowsiness, dizziness, etc.

JLM

#21

Re: Multiple Sclerosis Breakthrough

Jan 14th, 2010

"That was not the impression the lady gave me. I have to wonder why you would think that."

For two reasons, one is there is generally a reason behind everything and two is I know that some jurisdictions are much more stricter than others when it comes to passing out drugs. We already know that a high percentage of drugs marketed are garbage or at the very least unnecessary (generally speaking there is an alternative cure to prescription drugs.) It's also possible the lady you were talking to was presenting the good side. While I'm on here about this there was a discussion on CBC radio last night about screening for pre cancerous conditions. Anyway the bottom line is don't fall for it, it causes more problems than it cures. Your body has the amazing ability to tell you when you are sick. It seems we are just overwhelmed these days with this "drugstore mentality".

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