This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Community: Knowledge & Support

I have had numbness in my right pinkie since July that has gotten more progressive. It comes and goes throughout the day with no known injury. I am now also starting to get pain in my forearm. I contacted my neuro (I have a movement disorder-cervical dystonia-that affects the muscles in the neck). Thinking the problem might be neck related, the neuro ordered a cervical MRI and an EMG. Neither showed anything significant. Betwen my ...

I know this is not "MS related" but certainly could be (read on FOX NEWS website last week). Briefly, a lady with asthma so severe she was given 6 months to live. On a "hunch", her doctor performed a lung biopsy and found, guess what? A bacteria--which he treated with antibiotics. The lady has improved dramatically. What is interesting, however, is that he tested all of his patients and found 50% had this bacterial infection. ...

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Does anyone know of a Neuro (or other Doc) in Colorado who has prescribed, or will prescribe, statins for someone who does NOT have high cholesterol, but who does have MS?

Not a nice story, but you do see these stories every now and then. If some of the drugs in the pipeline come good, hopefully none of us should be in this position. But it emphasises what a cruel disease this is if some would opt for death rather than go on with it.

Ian


Gardener admits helping wife die

A landscape gardener has admitted aiding and abetting the suicide of his wife, who ...

Bottled sunshine: The value of vitamin D
Why does flu break out as the nights draw in? Scientists have seen the light - we don't get enough of it.
By Jeremy Laurance
Published: 13 September 2006
Every winter, as the nights draw in and the weather grows cold, people start to cough, sniffle and run a fever. Patients crowd doctors' surgeries and sales of painkillers, hot lemon drinks and cough syrup soar. Flu is back. ...

HHV-6 hasn't come up for a while, but it's interesting that they are testing anti-viral compounds against HHV-6. It isn't MS-specific right now, but they mention MS.



Efficacy of antiviral compounds in human herpesvirus-6-infected glial cells.

J Neurovirol. 2006 Aug;12(4):284-93.
Akhyani N, Fotheringham J, Yao K, Rashti F, Jacobson S.
Viral Immunology Section, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.

The beta-herpesvirus human herpesvirus-6 (HHV-6) is becoming increasingly ...

I have seen the video of the theory of how this works. The one thing that is not clear, is how they identify the cells that attack myelin? Do they use myelin from the patient? any old myelin laying round the lab? or what? or is this their little secret.

Although, not MS specific, and I am reading into it things the hypothesis isnt aiming for...

... results in too few T cells, and the body tries to correct this by inducing a vigorous expansion of the remaining T cells, creating a more autoreactive population.

http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/20040315203720data_trunc_sys.shtml

I read this as another theory of how our immune cells become auto-reactive.

They believe they should be able to rebuild the immune system of patients who are receiving transplants so donor material is not rejected.

http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/20050710220541data_trunc_sys.shtml

Now the story is not particular to MS, but it would seem to me, that if you could rebuild an immune system not to attack a transplanted organ, avoiding attacks on myelin shouldn't be that much harder.