This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Knowledge & Support Community

I don't yet have my MD in anything. And I believe that exercise and nutrition are good for us.
Grafts are prone to graft-related stenosis right where the grafted-on edge of the vein meets the grafted-into edge of the artery. I don't think the stenosis there is because it's a vein or artery but because a grafting surgery is involved. Anytime a blood vessel is literally cut circumferentially, the blood vessel is going to react with an attempt at healing.

It's good information about the nitric oxide and magnesium and inflammation. I don't think we have much control over whether we restenose or not, but if exercise helps even somewhat, then it helps, and that's to the good. Happy 4th, everyone.

Cece--
I don't claim to be an MD, and I'm sorry if that's how my post came off. I've had a lot of conversations about after care for Jeff with MDs and I'm very passionate about aftercare and lifestyle for people treated for CCSVI. It's not just balloon and adios--but too many are treated and not given follow up. Dr. Cooke's recommendations are in his book, The Cardiovascular Cure, and he thought they'd be a good idea for Jeff. His suggestions are backed up by decades of research.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0767908813

Here's a new paper of Dr. Cooke's on nitric oxide and restenosis:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3069795/

I think there's a bit of pushback on lifestyle changes and andecdotal success stories like Ernst's wife--- because it seems like we're "blaming" patients for restenosing, but that's not what this is about. Jeff had intimal hyperplasia after his first treatment--and it was resolved with a 2nd ballooning. He asked what he could do to help prevent this from happening again. He got very serious about exercise, hydration and nutrition. We have a lot of control over our blood vessels, more than you might imagine. We can also control what we ingest and how much we move. It's by no means a guarantee on avoiding restenosis...but why not do the best you can for your body?
happy 4th to you, too!
cheer

one more thing to highlight, re controlling how healing happens:

In vivo, zinc treatment resulted in a 50% reduction in neointimal area and a significant decrease in neointimal/media ratio with no significant change in lumen area.

i got the gist, but tracked down some resources to make sure i was clear on what this info meant:



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunica_media
The tunica media (or just media) ( middle coat ) is the middle layer of an artery or vein.[1]It lies between the tunica intima on the inside and the tunica externa on the outside.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunica_intima
The tunica intima (or just intima) is the innermost layer of an artery or vein. It is made up of one layer of endothelial cells and is supported by an internal elastic lamina. The endothelial cells are in direct contact with the blood flow.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neointima
Neointima typically refers to scar tissue that forms within tubular anatomical structures such as blood vessels, as the intima is the innermost lining of these structures. Neointima can form as a result of vascular surgery such as angioplasty or stent placement. It is actually due to proliferation of smooth muscle cells in the media giving rise to appearance of fused intima and media

which reminds me

Zinc inhibited in vitro SMC [smooth muscle cell] proliferation in a dose-dependent manner.

zinc is well known to be important for wound healing. interesting to look at the effect it can have in this context, this close up.

cheerleader wrote:Cece--
It's not just balloon and adios--but too many are treated and not given follow up.
cheer

Yes, very well said About Dr Dake's comment: " he noted that the patients he treated who remained active and changed their lifestyles to include regular exercise and whole food diets have done the best, now four years since venoplasty--and have not restenosed". So if I understood correctly, Sir Dake's unofficial observation is that lifestyle and hemodynamics (restonis) are probably connected, with CCSVI procedures? This is interesting thing, which should be studies more.

ps. this study also interesting, not with veins but.. "Oxygen-derived free radicals (ODFRs) and subsequent lipid peroxidation may be responsible for myocardial damage associated with ischaemia/reperfusion after percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty"

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8269197

I would like to see a similar graphic showing the internal structure/layers of a vein, and why it is different from an artery. Vein grafts onto arteries sound inherently risky and like you would need all the help you could get.

Zinc-eluting stents may be good if you have to use a stent. Your diet should be high in zinc, and the zinc/iron balance probably matters too.

Diet and exercise seem like they make a lot of difference.

Another thing you could use is UV/sunlight, since it has the effects of stimulating your own production of Vitamin D, and the release of stored nitric oxide from what may be very significant stores in your skin. In combination with exercise, it sounds like release of nitric oxide could be good. This will help with vasodilation, which would be good if your veins were narrowed.

I don't know, after all this time, what vasculitis is. There have been theories that vein damage comes from a pathogen, but I believe that my mother was treated with chemotherapy, steroids, and epoitin (she called it epo), and that the belief was that it was auto-immune. I tend to think epo would be good to help prevent restenosis, but I have no evidence.

In addition to all of the above, I think stem cells should help. I think normally-circulating stem cells are used in healing and that this process is assisted/turbo-charged by exercise/diet. I also think age is a negative factor when i comes to the ability to heal. I am 59, and have just about run out of youthful telomeres and such. Probably my best chance is with stem cell treatment in combination with the CCSVI procedure. I also think that procedure should not be done without IVUS.

None of this sounds extremely easy, and diet and exercise changes are probably the easiest and most within your control.

I wonder how much effect leaded gasoline had. I gleefully breathed it in for much of my life. I wonder what it has been replaced with, and how bad that is for me.

All this aside, climate change is getting more and more likely to kill me. I could get hit by a bus, but I don't get out much.

that's a vein on right and an artery on the left - they are labeled at the bottom...

Yes, I am a small-screen dweller, and I forgot to scroll over to it. Happy now.

good

I think this graphic does a better job of clarifying the difference between tunica intima layer, and the endothelial cell component of that layer.