This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Community: Knowledge & Support

Dear Dr Flanagan, do you think that chronic sinusitis may result in optic neuritis in some cases?
I 've heard of people saying so and i am only asking cause i got a problem with my sinuses for as long as i can remember.

Have a nice week.

Hello everyone, Lora thanks for the explanation regarding the images. Who would have thought to use the TV screen as a view box. Great idea. Mark could you please tell me what your signs and symptoms were prior to the liberation procedure?
Costumenational, There is absolutely no connection between the air sinuses (paranasal sinuses) and MS, especially in your case. If sinuses were the problem we could cure MS tomorrow. The mechanism of injury and the location of the lesions make it very clear what caused MS signs and symptoms in your case. It would be great if I could use the x-ray you posted here when I cover whiplash trauma and its impact on myelin in the cord and brain. Everything about you is fire. While I don't know the particulars of your sinus condition, I would venture to guess that you have thick secretions due to heat, which dries them out, as opposed to thin and runny sinuses people get in cold weather for example. For now you need to focus on getting your head back on straight. When C2 is back under the knowledge bone bump in your skull we can talk about dealing with the sinuses.

Dear Dr Flanagan...this is getting kind of scary. How could you know that?

Anyway, i had to ask since i read numerous posts where optic neuritis has been assigned to sinuses problems by doctors regardless of MS. Check the first one by babiezuique on this page for instance:

http://www.thisisms.com/ftopic-13994-15.html

I have no knowledge of brain anatomy whatsoever so i must insist since it's not only about me: are there sinuses close to the optic nerve? It doesn't sound logical to me that sinusitis can interfere with the optic nerve in any case but it seems there are physicians that argue with this.

I ll send you my x rays whenever you want.
By the way, is there any case you were a psychic in a previous life or something?

It comes from knowledge and experience built upon thousands of years of personal observations by astute trained physicians and sages. You live in warm arid climate. You have sun in the background on your website. You have fire in your words. You like strong colors. You like motorbikes that spit fire and thunder. You are creative, which is fire, and you live on a volcanic island. That's just for starters. According to ancient Chinese doctors you are on fire. Rather than fire, according to the ancient Greeks you are "in flames." You needing cooling fire purging type herbs, which are antiinflammatory.

Blocked air sinuses can cause uncomfortable pressure in the facial areas but not demyelination or optic neuritis. The optic nerve lies over the sphenoid air sinus. It is nowhere near the frontal, maxillary and ethmoid air sinuses. While it is highly unlikely to be affected by the paranasal air sinues, the optic nerve can very much be affected by the dural sinuses which are not air sinuses but extra strong venous tunnels created from the dura mater of the brain.

The paranasal air sinuses are connected to each other and outside air and are very much affected by ambient pressure such as in deep sea diving and flying in airplanes. They do not, however, connect to the brain directly. There is a layer of bone between the sphenoid sinus and the cranial vault and optic nerve above it. The air sinuses are not elastic for the most part. The can't expand. Optic neuritis is caused by the weight of the frontal lobe bearing down on it not the sphenoid sinuses pressing upward. You would have to stick a high pressure hose up your nose and blow real hard to bend the sphenoid sinus. Infections of the sphenoid sinus on the other hand is a completely different story. Facial infections can definitely get into the brain. But the affects of infections are easy to spot because they are local.

Thank you VERY much for the detailed description Dear Dr. Flanagan. Optic neuritis is a big chapter and every piece of information may help us find the right questions to ask our physicians...

No need to mention that you got my number in aspects of character.

Thank you very much.

Hi Dr. Flanagan,

I just read through your terrific posts and will edit the summary accordingly. I can't thank you enough for your feedback. I'm hoping to add more links throughout the summary.

My liberation was on 8/9/10, and because sleeping and dreaming are my only improvements, I started looking beyond CCSVI for more pieces to my puzzle. Thankfully, my friend blossom introduced me to your work.

Your research greatly interests me because: 1) All aspects of your theories make intuitive sense to me just like CCSVI does, 2) A past broken cervical vertebra from a downhill slalom ski accident, which was not attended to at the time nor anytime thereafter, might, according to your theories, be a very important piece to my puzzle, and 3) This may be just coincidental and inconsequential, but my posture at the extact level of my transverse myelitis has been terrible my entire life.

Since reading your work, I've straightened out my posture, and I find that I'm taking fuller, deeper breaths, that I've gained almost an inch back in height, and that holding the correct posture, which produced extremely sore muscles at first, becomes more automatic with every passing day -- since I started doing this, all levels of my neck are cracking and creaking, hopefully for the better?

I've never been to a chiropractor, but I'm now looking for one. Is there any advice you can give me about what I should look for in a doctor given my history?

Thank you again

~HP

Dr Flanagan,

I have always been deemed a strange case because i'm not atypical of having anything in specific. I'm categorised as having MS and CFS but i've always felt that my problems were somewhere within bad circulation and my back and neck. It was only when I got very ill very suddenly at 20 after a stressful period that I realised i'd actually been ill all my life (if you're born with something, you don't know anyone else feels any different). Main symptoms are fatigue, seemingly weak immne system, gastric problems, vision problems, derealisation 24/7 (most unheard of), just weakness all over really. The MS mobility/sensation symptoms have been mild in comparison. I have had varicose veins since I was 10.

I'd like to ask about the fact that I have NEVER been able to look upwards or tip my head upside down without seeing red and passing out. I also have horrendous pressure within my skull and get lumps and bumps appearing around where the brain stem turns into the neck quite often. Brutal migraines since I became very ill too.
I'm a 30y/o female, 5'9", and I have a long neck and fairly long body. Does this very vague description ring alarm bells of anything to look for with you?

I confess I have never been to a chiropracter or osteopath because i'm terrified of anyone moving anything in my back or neck because they are so sensitive. But if you believe the cranial pressure might indicate towards something in particular, I will read up and certainly do so. This is a very thought provoking thread!

Thank you very much for your time if you can spare it to answer.

_________________
28/07/10, 04/10/10, 16/11/10 - Dopplers x3 Ireland, Poland, Scotland.
12/10/10 - 1st procedure, Poland. Symptoms worsened. No improvement.
Verdict: I urge caution + am taking a back seat watching research ATM.
13/02/12 - Started Wheldon ABX protocol.

Hello everyone, I could do a study here. So MS Hope has a family history of neurodegenerative diseaes I would love to dig into. Fernando has scoliosis and a heel lift helped his Lhermitte's sign. Costumenational wrecked his motorcycle in 2000 and put a wicked kink in his upper cervical spine. Center of Gravity didn't tell me his history except that he inadvertanly stumbled into a chiropractic office and hasn't had a relapse since. Whyarewehere has a husband with MS and TOS. I would love to see his spine and check for curves. Lora was in a car accident that knocked out of her lower teeth and she was thrown from a horse and struck her head on shale putting a gash in it. Curious has a slight scoliosis and a wicked kyphosis which is a backwards or reverese curve in his cervical spine that put a nasty kink in his jugulars where they bent backwards as well. Dania say she feels better when she tilts her head backward and looks up but feels like someone shuts off the light switch when she looks down. Poet was in a skiing accident and broke a cervical vertebra and the Interupted is a tall lady with a long neck who has MS and CFS and feels bumps in the back of her neck at the base of the skull, which sounds like significant muscle tension and she get migraine type symptoms. Does anyone see a pattern here. Oh, I forgot to mention a private message in which the patient like Lora was thrown from a horse twenty years ago and now as significant spondylosis and stenosis in her lower cervical spine covering several segments. You people are a terrific study because there are so many of you in one spot. There has got to be a way of assembling all this extremely relevant information.

Poet, I don't know the particulars of your signs and symptoms but the old fracture in your cervical spine from the Slalom ski accident makes me want to lean towards upper cervical. Are your symptoms in the brain or are they in the extremities or brain and extremities? How is your balance and gait?

Interupted, Based on what you told me, you only have possible MS at best. I could get you fixed in no time. You definitely have circulatory problems. You have cervical problems that are affecting the vertebral arteries that enter the brain right where you feel those lumps and bumps that due to muscle tension. I could be wrong but I picture you as on the lean side. Do you have low blood pressure as well? How is your pulse rate?

You need a good chiropractor to start with to get rid of the mechanical pressure in your neck. You are also a thirty year old female and your Chi is low. I suspect you need tonic herbs to build up your blood or nervous system or both. You need someone to do a thorough case history paying particular attention to your cycle and female problems. Shop around carefully for a chiropractor and look for one who is gentle. A female doctor might be a good choice in your case. Let me know if I can help.

Costumenational, you should read Poet's history. You share a lot in common. Poet has transverse myelitis. You fall into the transverse myelitis category as well. Poet broke his neck. You almost broke your neck. Poet says that his posture at the transverse myelitis level is terrible and your head has been terribly tilted to the left since the crash ten years ago. Poet if you have them, I would love to see your plain view cervical x-rays.

Hello Dear Doctor Flanagan. How can you say something like that? We both have MS and we should be on drugs. This is known for many many years, haven't you heard?

Seriously, i ve read it and a wild guess would be that many others have already done so. Maybe some success stories will arise soon enough, with people feeling even a bit better. I d love for me to be the first though

When I was diagnosed 2 years ago, first thing my lovely mother did was to remind me about that awful motorbike accident. I remember my negativity and my anger when she insisted through the following months. After all, i had already visited the top MS specialists and I knew better. You can only imagine her reaction when she saw the x rays Dr Koontz took. She was ready to realign my neck using a chair or something and of course i don't blame her.
Anyway, I guess mothers know better since for me it was just a bump in the head while for her, seeing her son on a hospital bed not being able to remember a thing was something more than that. I think it is worth to mention that having open minded and supportive loved ones is more than important.

I wish I could bumb onto a topic like this one 10 years ago. A wild guess would be that my life would be way better today.

Nevertheless, I consider my story a success story and even though this kind of publicity is certainly the worst one would want, I want for others to explore the possibility of having cervical subluxations. It is extremely hard for me to imagine that I am a unique case and unfortunately, I know first hand that the "liberation" treatment can only help some of us. For me, it was a very good thing but not the solution. Same goes for drugs. Or should I take it further and say what I really think of MS drugs? Wrong place to do it. All in all, i can't totally blame those who keep a distance from the latest developments in the field. As long as they are not disrespectful that is...

I am extremely happy to see that my predictions are coming true. I can only hope for more to share their stories. Zamboni turned the shift and the world is now listening.

I have a confession to make though: I don't see chiropractic adjustments as the solution to all of our problems. God knows i d love it to be but i am positive that there are many MS variants with vascular and "osteo" being only the first two that will reveal their faces. Sorry but i don't see a reason not to be honest with the man who saved my life.
In addition to that, even in my case, i suspect there might be other factors contributing to this MS outburst due to my cervical subluxation. Genetic, enviromental, smoking, stress, none of the above...you name it. But then again, who am I to tell?

I can only suspect that we are all treated the same way due to cost. One line of treatment means more money for the pharma lobbies and less work for the neurologists. The thing is that maybe some of us have a real chance...

If indeed I was a Spartan general I would only follow one simple kind of strategy: believe only what you can see. And in my case YOU OPENED MY EYES WIDE.



http://uprightdoctor.wordpress.com/abou ... comment-32

I really can't believe my luck.

Now I beg you to stick around until others might be helped too.

Please forgive my boring speech. But many of us (myself included) like it simple.

Mothers are naturally intuitive. Babies don't tell you what is wrong. You have to use observation, instincts and intuition. It's their intuition that makes mothers such a pain in the neck. They have eyes in the back of their heads. How many times have you heard. "I told you so." I don't blame your mother for wanting to hit you over the head but could you ask her to hold off until your neck is in better shape and then use a soft glove not a chair.

I would like to make it perfectly clear that in no way do I suggest that chiropractic care is the answer to all MS cases. That's absurd. I would have recommended the liberation procedure to some of my patients, and not just MS patients. CurIous, for example, was most likely born with structural curve problems. More than stenosis, it looks to me as though his jugulars were totally kinked where they wind around in front of Atlas. CurIous has a terrible backward curve called a kyphosis at this critical juncture. (You have a sideward bend) There are many genetic design issues in the skull and spine that cannot be corrected with the best chiropractic methods. I have seen many. The liberation procedure offers the best hope and I believe it will get much better and for far more neurodegenerative conditions than I can discuss here. In fact, I believe it will offer an alternative to CSF shunts but that's a different story.

Umm... especially in my case i think we are talking billions.



As absurd as it may sound, it s a VERY good thing you clarified it. Weird people are stalking...