This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Community: Knowledge & Support

A new therapy with great potential to be used in conjunction with CCSVI treatment one day.

http://www.montelnetwork.com/#|episode| ... 4040000000

I see it is called the Wisconsin Project. It has to have something to do with cheese, right?

For some reason that link doesn't want to work so I'll try this http://tinyurl.com/27ov7dp

I don't see the connection to CCSVI, but an incredible project nonetheless. I look forward to the published article!

Very interesting, totally off the wall (like CCSVI), new way of attacking MS. Looks very promising. I wonder why Montel hasn't also embraced CCSVI?

Worth watching - the Wisconsin Project approach is novel, exciting and promising. Thanks so much for posting this - another cause for hope!!

A multi-pronged approach to MS will be needed for most pwMS, I believe, and the Wisconsin approach may become an important part of the solution for some (many?) of us. I, for one, will be staying tuned to this.

Perhaps a re-post not under CCSVI will find more/different readers?

Thanks again!

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CCSVI:  Making Sense of MS

The video made my computer crash.

What's the gist of it?

Why hasn't Montel embraced CCSVI ? - I think it's because he was getting too much money from pharmaceutical companies for taking their treatments, somewhat like the MS Societies. Now here's something else he can possibly make big bucks from - a tongue stimulator to reactivate brain cells, Sounds very interesting and I just have to wonder which of the big corporations will buy the patent from the inventors and have Montel as their frontman to market it.

Oops, that was awfully skeptical

I could be wrong, maybe Montel will give one away to everybody with MS.

concerned, it involves customized stimulation of the tongue, which activates parts of the brain, along with specific occupational/physical therapy. It's enabled some (MS) patients to regain motor functions like walking, balance, singing, etc. The film clip shows a woman with MS who experienced dramatic improvements in walking.

I found a newspaper article from Dec. 2009 on it - hope this doesn't also crash your computer: http://www.rrstar.com/top_stories/x1145 ... d-patients .

Some excerpts from the article:

"Its aim is to restore functions lost to multiple sclerosis by improving the brain’s ability to reorganize its activity and allow the patient to regain muscle control.

The treatment involves sending electrical stimulation to the patient’s brain through an electrode-covered oral device called a PoNS, which is held on the tongue, and a set of customized physical and occupational therapy exercises.

University of Wisconsin engineer and scientist Kurt Kaczmarek, PH.D., who conducts the project with biomedical engineer Mitchell Tyler and neuroscientist Dr. Yuri Danilov, said the research deals with the concept of neuroplasticity, the idea that the brain can reorganize its functions in response to learning or experience. The UW project was started in 1983 by the late Dr. Paul Bach-y-Rita, who had been conducting studies of sensory substitution since the 1960s to determine whether the brain, deprived of one sense, could learn to use other senses to compensate for or replace the lost sense.

The PoNS device provides a customized electrical stimulus to the tongue. The stimulus is optimized to maximize the brain’s ability to recover function lost to injury or disease when combined with the special exercises. Kaczmarek said the optimal time for using the stimulation training is “a couple of times a day for 20 to 35 minutes at a time.

“We discovered early on,” he said, “that if someone uses the system for a few minutes, they will have a pretty good remedial time of reduction of symptoms. Longer use results in longer beneficial effect. It is likely that some users may progress to near-normal function after weeks, months, or years of dedicated PoNS device use in conjunction with the exercises, but this prediction is extrapolated from our earlier research.”


"Tyler, whose own balance issues because of an ear infection in 2000 changed the direction of the research from vision applications for balance, said the project has been more successful than anticipated.

“We believe we have tapped into a way to encourage the brain to heal itself,” Tyler said. “We have pretty good evidence that we encourage the brain to recover normal function whether the reason for the disruption is traumatic, neurodegenerative or developmental.”

The research also has explored applications for Parkinson’s disease, stroke, traumatic brain injury with promising results and the project’s scientists believe treatment of autism, arterial lateral sclerosis, cerebral palsy and other neurological disorders may be possible."

"Kaczmarek said that after their two-week sessions in the lab, all of the multiple sclerosis subjects in the study showed improvements in sensory organization, balance, posture, gait and neural function as well as in physical, cognitive and psychological abilities.

Partnership for Cures gave the pilot project a $54,000 grant, and donated an additional $2,000 to the project lab’s account at the University of Wisconsin Foundation. An anonymous donor gave $394,000 to the UW Foundation account, which is funding the ongoing work at the lab. Partnership for Cures spoke in favor of the work at the lab when the anonymous donation was being considered.

Husmann, Provenzano and Brandes all are involved in trying to raise money to continue the project, which to date has been self-supporting through grants from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the University of Wisconsin Foundation and Partnership for Cures.

Despite its success, Kaczmarek said, the project is unable to accept more subjects, and without further funding, probably won’t survive past next summer."

concerned, I don't know the project's current status. Haven't read up on this yet, but I'm familiar with the concept of brain neuroplasticity, and I'm guessing that the technique may enable the brain to find alternate routes (bypassing damaged or dead neurons) to perform various functions. I hope the researchers find more funding!

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CCSVI:  Making Sense of MS

Dr. Norman Doidge wrote about this in his excellent book-The Brain that Changes Itself. Using electrical stimulation of the tongue to rewire the brain. It's allowed blind people to "see" and is being used to help people regain balance and mobility. Not a fan of how Montel always makes it about himself and his drama....instead of about the scientists and THEIR hard work. Whatever. It's still terrific science and the understanding of brain plasticity is the future.

And there's no cheese involved....that would be very, very unSwank
cheer

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Husband dx RRMS 3/07
dx dual jugular vein stenosis (CCSVI) 4/09
dual stents placed 5/09
CCSVI in MS

Hmmm... My girlfriend has The Brain that Changes Itself, I'll check it out.

Sounds kinda interesting, but it also kinda reminds me of John Lithgow in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai.

My dad has vertigo issues due to an inner ear infection, I'll tell him to check it out as well.

-d

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dx rrms august 2009 (dx CFS spring 1988) off avonex after 3 months
treated katowice 24-25 march 2010 - best thing that ever happened - check tracking thread

.

Thanks for posting that video link, Lyon. I just watched it and it is just SO interesting to see all of this research and discovery happening. Lots going on...

Thank you very much for posting this ! I found it really interesting and even if it's not CCSVI related, we need to stay open to anything that has the potential to help us fight this damn disease !!!
The more weapons we have, the better !