This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Community: Knowledge & Support

Hi All,

I came across one of NASA's latest training apparatuses (VASPER) -- designed to increase HGH production in the body for less intense workouts with greater results.... anyhow on one of their pages http://www.vasper.com/learn-more-about-vasper/core-cooling/ they state:



Got my to thinking.... I've heard of cooling vests before and that some MS patients get a little relief of symptoms from them... could it be because they allow the blood to store more oxygen and deliver it to the brain?

Anyone here use cooling vests?

I don't know, but I know I'm going to be wearing my vest on trike rides and to the gym from now on!

_________________
"Try - Just A Little Bit Harder" - Janis Joplin
CCSVI procedure Albany Aug 2010
'_MS' is over - if you want it
Patients sans/without patience

Core cooling works. Just drinking a glass, half crushed ice and half water, that I let stand for a few minutes to get really, really cold makes me stronger in minutes. the difference is amazing. Mind you, the improvements are short lived.

The converse, that higher core body temperatures reduce oxygen in the blood, might partially explain heat intolerance and the increase in relapses in the spring or summer.

Unfortunately the MS body is not so simple as this implies. Nerve conduction varies with core temperature so this needs to be considered along side this research on O2.

Cooling vests work well for some pwMS so worth a try if you find heat a problem. However, the reasons are not just O2 in blood.

MarkW

_________________
Mark Walker - Oxfordshire, England. Registered Pharmacist (UK). 10 years of study around MS.
Mark's CCSVI Report 7-Mar-11:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/8359854/MS-experts-in-Britain-have-to-open-their-minds.html

I'm thinking this could be another benefit of caloric restriction (link to other thread) -- reducing your calorie needs while maintaining sufficient nutrition seems to lower core body temperature of people (slowing down their metabolism)

No, not just O2 in blood. What causes the low O2 (slow and low flow with reflux) also causes the heat problem: the inability to distribute heat by distributing the heated blood, by vein dilation, because of lack of smooth muscle control. It can't even be done, if there is no smooth muscle or other flow control mechanism. That may be due again to hypoxia, or E1 or some other agent, or low glucose or some pathogen, or it may be something congenital (common and likely), which fails after some years of success, or it may be diet, or it may be trauma. Even, in our wildest imaginations, autoimmune response to who knows what. We're learning how to improve it a bit, though. Sometime a lot.

_________________
"Try - Just A Little Bit Harder" - Janis Joplin
CCSVI procedure Albany Aug 2010
'_MS' is over - if you want it
Patients sans/without patience

With MS, it's never simple, it is!

O2 in the blood; nerve conduction varying with the temperature; impaired autonomic system with decreases in sweating that negatively impact ability to disperse heat; and I am sure there are more.

Your list leaves out what I thought I had just suggested was a main one: inability to distribute heat via blood due to impaired endothelial control of the diameters of veins and arteries, which is the principle physical mechanism affecting resistance to blood flow in them.

Maybe you meant the words "autonomic system" to include it; it is certainly not voluntary. Temperature stasis is controlled in other ways: by sweat, as you say, for one, but also by vein/artery dilation/contraction.

_________________
"Try - Just A Little Bit Harder" - Janis Joplin
CCSVI procedure Albany Aug 2010
'_MS' is over - if you want it
Patients sans/without patience

I left it out because I don't fully understand....
The area with the stenotic valve is impaired in that way, how far from it would such effects be felt? I remember reading that blood leaves the brain hotter than it arrived but I don't know how valid that is. You've been asking about the lack of smooth muscle cells in the small blood vessels of the brain itself?

I don't have any authorities to quote. I read at one web site that veins in the brain have no smooth muscle. Until I find out different, I'm willing to entertain that notion.

It's also my belief that heat rises, and the top of the head is the main exit point, which is why in winter it's a good idea to wear a hat.

Imagine though, what fine control we must have to maintain such a constant temperature, to three digits of accuracy. It has to be even better to protect gestation, so maybe that's one of the things that makes pregnancy improve the "MS" situation.

You'd need thermocouples or the like plastered all over your body to prove it, but I bet the cooling system for a lot more than just your brain is on the blink in "MS"/CCSVI. I feel it a lot of places when I get too hot.

E1, alpha-B-crystallin, aka heat shock protein (induced by heat), other things may influence remote smooth muscle control, as well as local endothelium signals.

_________________
"Try - Just A Little Bit Harder" - Janis Joplin
CCSVI procedure Albany Aug 2010
'_MS' is over - if you want it
Patients sans/without patience

Hi

I use a core cooler, it makes such a huge differance.

I use my kids gel ones they use for mountain biking. You soak it in water for a few ours before using it, and it bloats up, then you wrap it around your neck and it keeps your body temp down
They work for a few hours, and then just resoak it. It doubles my range on a bike, as does ice water.

I drink alot of ice water while working out too, my gym is in the chilly basement which is great.

Sucking ice cubes and holding them on the roof of you mouth is another good trick for a quick cool.
My ability and strength come right back when I cool off in the shower.
We went to see U2 at the skydome in Toronto a few weeks ago and the humidex was 42Celcius, took alot of beer, to last through Bono.
Scotland

Also just recently found this... RTX core cooling device -- relieves fatigue by cooling your blood circulation

discovery channel video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2j6UyGEyACg

stanford article regarding athletic performance
http://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/maga ... /cool.html

The stanford article is from 6 years ago, so it's been known for quite a while that core cooling reduces muscular fatigue...