Multiple Sclerosis: The History of a Disease
Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 12:48 pm
People new to MS often ask what they can do. I think an understanding of history is important in every situation. To that end, I recommend that everyone start a library concerning MS and I think this book, Multiple Sclerosis: The History of a Disease by T. Jock Murray, OC, MD, is a good first acquisition.
It starts at the beginning with recognition of the disease, lists names and contributions of scientists, and offers a chronology of treatments.
I especially like the quote from Tracy Putnam, 1938: "Empiric forms of treatment have encouraged the optimist but a rational treatment can scarcely be expected before the pathogenesis of the disease is understood." This is also my basic belief! (As it must also be for The Accelerated Cure folks!)
Chapter 11, "Searching for a Cause of MS," and Chapter 13, "The Nature of the MS Plaque," offer much good information.
Did you know that as early as 1863 Eduard Rindfleisch suggested that MS is due to inflammation in the blood vessels and found these at the center of each sclerotic patch? Even Jean-Martin Charcot (big name in MS history of the 1860s!) gave a lecture with case drawings showing "thickening and obstruction of the small blood vessels." (By the way, insulin is known to thicken the walls of blood vessels!)
It starts at the beginning with recognition of the disease, lists names and contributions of scientists, and offers a chronology of treatments.
I especially like the quote from Tracy Putnam, 1938: "Empiric forms of treatment have encouraged the optimist but a rational treatment can scarcely be expected before the pathogenesis of the disease is understood." This is also my basic belief! (As it must also be for The Accelerated Cure folks!)
Chapter 11, "Searching for a Cause of MS," and Chapter 13, "The Nature of the MS Plaque," offer much good information.
Did you know that as early as 1863 Eduard Rindfleisch suggested that MS is due to inflammation in the blood vessels and found these at the center of each sclerotic patch? Even Jean-Martin Charcot (big name in MS history of the 1860s!) gave a lecture with case drawings showing "thickening and obstruction of the small blood vessels." (By the way, insulin is known to thicken the walls of blood vessels!)