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meditation in CCSVI in MS

Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2011 1:36 pm
by Cece
http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2011/11/2 ... pt=hp_bn10
A quote from an article on research on meditation:
A new study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is the latest in a hot emerging field of research examining how meditation relates to the brain. It shows that people who are experienced meditators show less activity in the brain's default mode network, when the brain is not engaged in focused thought.
http://ccsvism.xoom.it/ISNVD/Abstract-Hubbard.pdf
A quote from Dr. Hubbard's pre- and post-venoplasty fMRI research from ISNVD last March:
In healthy control subjects, the task evoked activation in an extensive set of brain areas (task-positive network), including visual, parietal, temporal and frontal cortices. In MS patients the task showed significantly reduced (30-70%) activations compared to normal controls. The default (task-negative) network, in particular the medial prefrontal, posterior cingulate and cuneus cortices, also showed pronounced differences in MS patients compared to the normal controls. Specifically, these areas were not suppressed during task performance in contrast to the expected suppression seen in the normal controls. The time course of the BOLD response showed greater decay and a more pronounced undershoot as compared to the control group. Venoplasty resulted in recovery of the task-negative effects in the default network such that the comparison between controls and post-venoplasty MS patients showed no significant differences (t-test, p<0.05). The pair wise t-test of pre- and post-venoplasty activations confirmed that the default network suppression was increased post-venoplasty as compared to pre-venoplasty in the same subjects. The task-positive network on the other hand, did not show significant changes as a result of the procedure.
Default networks means brain activity in areas that are not task-focused. In healthy controls, these areas of the brain quiet down while the areas of the brain involved in the task are being used, but in MS patients, these areas do not quiet down as they should. Dr. Hubbard showed that after CCSVI venoplasty, this changed. MS patients were able to quiet down these default networks, just as the healthy controls did.

I ran across mention of default networks in the article on meditation. Meditation also serves to quiet down the default networks.

Maybe MS patients would benefit from meditation?

Re: meditation in CCSVI in MS

Posted: Tue Nov 29, 2011 11:15 am
by paulmur
Hi Cece. You are not alone in that thought. http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/202689.php

Re: meditation in CCSVI in MS

Posted: Thu Dec 01, 2011 9:48 am
by Nasti
No research or anything else can direct you to the way you should feel after CCSVI, what improvements should there be, etc. Still, the research can make you understand what you feel, and boy do I live now! :)