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Increased iron accumulation occurs in the earliest stages of demyelinating disease



An ultra-high field susceptibility mapping study in Clinically Isolated Syndrome

Abstract

Objective: To determine, using ultra-high field magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), whether changes in iron content occur in the earliest phases of demyelinating disease, by quantifying the magnetic susceptibility of deep grey matter structures in patients with Clinically Isolated Syndrome (CIS) that is suggestive of multiple sclerosis (MS), as compared with age-matched healthy subjects.... Read More - http://www.msrc.co.uk/index.cfm/fuseact ... ageid/3519

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The Multiple Sclerosis Resource Centre

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Isn't increased iron levels in the brain one of the major side effects of CCSVI?

Yes, Harry--it is part of CCSVI.
Studying CIS is very helpful in learning about how MS progresses. We've had several papers come out in the last couple of years, looking at the changes that occur to normal appearing white matter and gray matter BEFORE there is demylination and lesions. And the very first changes noted in the CIS brain, when compared to normals are:
1. Slowed blood flow, also known as hypoperfusion
2. Iron deposition into brain tissue.

The interesting fact is that these processes happen (in varying stages) in all neurodegenerative diseases. As Dr. Peter Stys has written in "Will the Real Multiple Sclerosis Please Stand Up", http://www.nature.com/nrn/journal/v13/n ... n3275.html it may due to the age of the patient at the onset of disease process which determines whether the patient develops MS, Parkinson's or Alzheimer's, since t cell activation in cytodegeneration happens in younger people, when the immune system is more active.

There will be a review of this science posted on CCSVI Alliance soon. The researchers at the International Society of Neurovascular Disease are modeling and studying how CCSVI could be involved in neurodegenerative disease. We're learning more,
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

Thanks for that update and info, Cheer.

And yet we have some people out there that continue to state research in CCSVI and its association to MS is a waste of time and money!! How sad.

Harry

All nerves need iron, oxygen etc. to function. Surely a diseased, inflamed or stressed nerve is far more likely to have problems metabolising iron in the normal way - and the iron may be accumulating as a result of this faulty metabolism. These acccumulations begin right away and gradually build up, and in some neurological problems start up a viscious circle. This is because unwanted iron is a potent cause of oxidative stress - it brings disruption and death to nerve cells and damages the vasculature.

Iron accumulation and vascular damage are most likely both symptoms of MS rather than the cause - but this doesn't mean they should not be taken seriously and treated.

I believe the presence of dormant herpes in it's various forms is the factor that interferes with both nerve cell metabolism and normal immune response and that this will be established beyond doubt in the very near future. If so many of the pieces of the MS jigsaw would then fit together.

We already know that some people are born with defective genes that cause faulty iron metabolism of nerve cells. This happens in Friedriech's Ataxia, a disease that was often mistaken for MS before MRI scans were invented.

gainsbourg

I think it works like this:

The iron does not accumulate "in the brain" itself but on the vessel walls of the finest capillaries...
And what happens then is that the functioning of key receptors in the endothelium which have many important functions (cellular feeding, transcription) weakens..
This is happening in the early stages.
A bacterial or virus infection (that block the VDR) on top of that will create conditions to a point where the immune system signals there is something going wrong.
And you get RR.

The second phase for MS is a different mechanism altogether.
It comes up from the gut..

see also the first posting on general-discussion-f1/topic15188.html

This field needs a paradigm change.
The barriers are largely culturally rooted.
The book of Thomas Kuhn on The structure of scientific revolutions fully applies here, what a beautiful book...
http://www.amazon.com/Structure-Scienti ... evolutions
This paradigm change is not going to happen overnight.
We may need our own Arab Spring..