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Just stubled over this one today. Might this be an additional/alternative explanation for the mechanism of action of steroids in MS relapse?

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 172636.htm

--Frank

On the steroid note... after my first attack I received IV + pills steroid treatment. I don't believe it did anything for my symptoms as it still took months for my numb legs to pass but I did get an incredible high towards the end of my steroid treatment. It felt like the world was so crisp. I could think super clearly and I felt full of energy.. It was also like someone came and stole my ability to procrastinate--there was a fire burning under my ass 24/7 to get things done. I got more done in that week than any other time in my life LOL

After my first relapse, I got IV treatment again but no pills that time, and this too had no apparent effect on my symptoms. This time I did not get the clear/crisp mind and lack of procrastination.

Has anyone else had similar experiences with steroid treatments?

Frank good find! I see where that is going and it seems like it may have something to do with it overall, as in; if you had a relapse and it was accompanied by inflamed veins, then alleviating that would improve blood flow too...

Daniel, steroids are well known for their nervous energy aspect. They re not good for you long term but in a bolus like that it is an interesting experience isn't it?

I would guess the other way, as Zamboni explicitly tested people who were taking steroids for a relapse, and they also failed the doppler tests. ie to me, steroids did not appear to make actual flow changes.

I have been meaning to post something RE steroids and CCSVI for some time now. A few years back I did a thread regarding the BBB & steroids, as at the time, I found numerous articles that implied/showed steroids worked so well for MS because they were VERY effective at shutting down the BBB's integrity issues.

I was thinking, that maybe, if you can, taking a shot of steroids at the time of the vascular operation, this would shut down the BBB's leakage in a quick manual way, as opposed to waiting for it to naturally heal, now that the causal factor (CCSVI) has been fixed. Which I am guessing/proposing is the reason that Zamboni had patients take between 4 hrs and 4 days to recover from a relapse; ie it took different lengths of time for their tight junctions to "tighten up".

Maybe this is also why PP & SP patients take longer to recover, their BBB has more long lasting damage, and thus will not "close back up" as naturally and quickly as hoped.

The other "link" with steroids and CCSVI i'd like to make (stretching), is the research that was done that found long term, pulsed steroids gave progressive patients HUGE reductions in EDSS's. I'm going to go out on a limb and propose that the steroids shut down the leaky BBB, and the CCSVI took longer to re-instate the "leakiness" (sorry for the technical terms...).

Please note all the "maybe's" and "possiblies" and "think's" in the above post.