This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Community: Knowledge & Support

I love this site...but have to ask. Do you think they will find the cure for this illness. I have to believe they will but everyone on here knows so much about studies and current ideas I just had to ask.

It seems to have eluded the medical world so far and I will be going on Thursday to see my Consultant. To be honest I find it a waste of time as never get any answers or information. Just go there and go home then the GP receives a letter summing it all up, for their records.

Can lesions ever be reversed....oh I can dream. I have forgotten what it was to 'just be' a person that walks without thinking. Is the answer to this illness within our grasp do you think?

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Yes. There will be a cure. I think a cure is going to come in two parts. Part A is stop the neurons from being damaged anymore. Part B is regrow the neurons. If you really think about it, both are really quite different topics. Ken

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My Starting Point
Understanding MS 101: Doctor Talk and People Talk<br /><br />

Perhaps. But the drug companies make so much money off of MS they will keep it under wraps as long as possible.

Sorry to feel so negative but I have waited so-o long for fampridine to become available and I see it being put off constantly.

ellen

No i don't think there will be, not in this life time anyway

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Had ms for over 19 years now.

As a card-carrying member of the optimist club, I think a cure will happen, no matter how you define "cure". I think it's a question of when, not if.

I still think that the most significant roadblock to a cure right now is imaging -- i.e. seeing what is actually happening in our grey and white matter over time, and watching changes taking place at a molecular level in real time. Rapid imaging advances are being made, so that makes me more optimistic.

I do for sure. Especially after what I have been reading in the CCVI post under the general topic and docs like those at JH.

It's beginning to look more like MS is a venous blockage issue as much as it is a autoimmunity. Almost a chicken and egg scenario. Especially when you see the results some of the people who are getting unblocked and rebooted.

I don't know. But, I think rebooting is the closest we have so far. And that doesn't tell us much about the disease, yet. It's just the H-Bomb because the bullets keep missing the target.

So much time has been spent researching animal models which may or may not have to do with MS, and active lesions, which is only one aspect of MS, that I feel time finding a cure was wasted.

Finding the cause, as opposed to cure, may be a better route to healing.
I saw some pretty astounding evidence of cause yesterday.
AC

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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

I've followed MS research for over 40 years and have seen a lot come and go during this time. I can't count the number of times I've heard the docs say ..." the answer is just around the corner." Well, it's a VERY big corner!!

Before anyone can "cure" a disease, one has to know what causes it. And despite decades of research, nobody has been able to come up with that cause. Almost all of the big dollars in MS research have been spent trying to conquer the disease by following the "auto-immune" theory. Yet, this still can't be proven. Every medication so far is based on altering the MS patient's immune system and we all know the results have been all over the map. What works a bit for one patient can be severely detrimental to the next.

Unfortunately the vast majority of MS research dollars are spent by big pharma because they have the money. And their goal is to make huge profits so long term expensive drugs are their answer. They even spend millions of their dollars trying to prove their drug is better than the competitor's ! How sad.

So to answer your question, I think that a "cure" for MS is still a very long time away as long as the present course is followed and I don't see much happening to change that. While there have been improvements in treating the symptoms of MS, it's cause and cure still elude the docs. As my wife's neuro once told me a few years ago, the answer will likely be stumbled upon by some researcher. Let's hope the "stumble" happens sooner rather than later. I've seen the suffering and family damage done by this disease for far too many years and would like nothing better than to see a stop to this.

Harry

Hi dear Harry-
Our posts crossed in cyberspace. I agree with you 100%. I believe the researcher who found the cause is living in Italy, Dr. Paulo Zamboni. He is a vascular doc, not a neurologist. He found blockage in the jugular and azygos veins of every MS patient he tested, and is now removing those blocks with stents in 100 patients and seeing healing.

My husband was tested at Stanford U. yesterday, (by one of the top vascular surgeons in the states, not a neurologist) and has blockage in both jugular veins. This surgeon has met with Dr. Zamboni, and is now testing more MS patients. He will treat Jeff with a stent next month. For more info, read the very long CCSVI thread.

I remember reading about your dear Marge's autopsy, and all of the spinal lesions they found after she passed. It really affected me, Harry. With Magnetic Resonance Venography, the vascular doctors can see how the blockage in the vein along the spine corresponds to lesion formation. My Jeff has only cerebral lesions, since his blockage is very high in the jugulars. We saw everything (his whole brain and spine) on the computer screen yesterday.

Hope you are well, and thank you for all of your positive and informative words over the years. Your postings on alternative treatments Marge employed really inspired me-
Joan

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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

Cheer -- really glad to hear about your successful visit to Stanford -- on the causality thing, that's even messier than defining "cure". We don't know what causes MS, we don't know a lot of things about MS, but on the other hand, we do know a lot of things about MS. There is a much higher incidence in women than men, incidence generally increases with distance from the equator, there are certain genes that appear to be associated with MS, etc. How does the venous issue fit with all of this?

I don't have the answers, but I think for science to figure it all out, a lot of work still needs to be done. I have a hard time seeing how the venous issue is the prime mover.

More women than men suffer from osteoporosis and varicose veins (both connected to venous stenosis). Venous blockage is more prevalent in certain populations and the MS gene may turn out to be implicated. These populations tend to settle in industrialized areas, further from the equator. We could wait for the ten years of research it may take for science to prove the link, ...but as Dr. Dake said yesterday, jugular stenosis is not good, it is hurting Jeff now, creating a break in his blood brain barrier, it will be worse as time goes on, and he has nothing to lose and everything to gain by having a stent put in.
I'll go away for a bit, dignan. Don't want to overstate this
but it is all your fault for finding the research-
AC

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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

Joan,

Thank you very much for the kind message. I'm delighted that you have enjoyed my posts.

As another comment to your info on the possible vascular causes of MS....Dr. Hinton Jonez, back in the later 40's and early 50's, treated thousands and thousands of patients with IV histamine. He had discovered that MS patients suffered from hypoxia...decrease in blood flow to the brain. When operating on these patients, he noticed that their brain had a blue tint but those MS patients getting histamine had a normal red hue in the same area. We know that the H2 part of histamine is a big vasodilator so there is obviously something lacking in MS patients when it comes to their vascular systems. I suppose this is one reason that some MS patients who use Prokarin find a big improvement in their symptoms.

Take care.

Harry

Cheer, your suggestions about how this all fits together could prove to be exactly right. Time will tell. I'm definitely not, in any way, minimizing the research Zamboni is doing or the potential value of having the procedure done. I'm excited about it. It's just the word "cause" that I'm careful about.