This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Community: Knowledge & Support

The debate within the MS community centered around Tysabri, the FDA, and Big Pharma is thought provoking, to say the least. There are members of this forum who are far more knowledgeable than I will ever be on these topics, and I appreciate their opinions and the sharing of their research.

I believe, however, that there is a fundamental difference in how we are coping individually with MS that underlies the true basis for our opposite opinions. I am not implying that some of us want to be rid of MS more than others, but we have varying personal thresholds for the cost of "freedom". Some of us are willing to take more of a calculated risk in order to be rid of the disease. Whether that attitude is healthy or not is a non-issue. Many factors went into the formation of our individual positions. Neither side is right or wrong, but our unique life experiences have placed us on different ends of the "risk continuum".

In my opinion, this profound emotional component drives the debate far more than the intellectual reasons for our differing opinions.

Denver,

I'm certainly going to agree with you when it comes to the various opinions by MS patients when it comes to how they cope with the disease and their ideas for the different medications that are available.

These varying opinions are as numerous as the different symptoms each MS patient experiences.

I participate in about 10 different MS forums and the differing views that I come across are huge. And my view is different again because I don't suffer from the disease although I have watched my wife struggle with it for over 30 years now. Those of us who don't suffer from MS can only imagine what you are going through!

Harry

I read somewhere that, based upon autopsies, for every four people diagnosed with MS, there's a fifth person who never knows he/she has it. Asymptomatic his/her entire life. Then there are others of us who fill out the rest of the spectrum.

The disease is as variant as the individuals who have it. In fact, some believe it isn't ONE disease, but a syndrome, or a series of different diseases that present with similar symptoms. The list goes on and on.

Everyone does seem to agree on one thing, though. That obligatory "no one knows what causes MS" statement you find at the beginning of every article on the subject. And I'm sure, most of us would agree, we're pretty tired of hearing that particular refrain. (Someone, please know already! )

So until we do know, until we can really solve this frustrating riddle, there will be wide variations in belief, approach, attitude and information.