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Hypothesis : CCSVI in Multiple Sclerosis and why people with MS are so heat sensitive

Ozarkcanoer - November 5, 2009

Temperature sensitivity and selective brain cooling in humans : From Dean Falk - University at Albany, SUNY :

The human brain is an exquisitely heat-sensitive organ. According to noted vascular physiologist, Mary Ann Baker: “A rise of only four or five degrees C above normal begins to disturb brain functions. For example, high fevers in children are sometimes accompanied by convulsions; these are manifestations of the abnormal functioning of the nerve cells of the overheated brain. Indeed, it may be that the temperature of the brain is the single most important factor limiting the survival of man and other animals in hot environments.” Humans lack the special network of arteries and veins (rete mirabile) that helps regulate brain temperature in numerous carnivores and ungulates. The differentially enlarged human brain is especially sensitive to hyperthermia because its high cerebral (compared to resting) metabolic rate generates a relative abundance of heat.

One way in which human brain temperature is regulated is through arterial blood that is delivered into the cranium, which is cooler than the brain it supplies. As the arterial blood circulates it removes heat from the brain, so that venous blood exiting the braincase is warmer than the arterial blood supplying it.

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My hypothesis : CCSVI causes the venous blood to reflux back to the brain, and consequently normal brain cooling via the exiting of venous blood is retarded and consequently partially disables thermal regulation of the brain !!!! "The brain is exquisitely heat-sensitive". From my own experience as a person with MS, as the day passes my fatigue gets worse and my head feels (to me subjectively) hot to the point where it is almost unbearable. It has been known from the 19th century that MS symptoms are heat sensitive. Could it be that MS fatigue and/or heat sensitivity can be explained by CCSVI ?????????

Most feverishly,

ozarkcanoer

Yup- there's a connection, for sure. One of the benefits for Jeff's stenting was vastly improved heat tolerence and improved sweating. He's now able to exercise in the heat. Here's a post from September-

cheerleader wrote:One of the unusual and unexpected side effects of the stent procedure at Stanford - for both Jeff and Sharon- has been increased sweating. Jeff and Sharon were the most physically active MSers to receive stents (so far)...so it is hard to judge if the others will see this side effect. Marie...now that you're back to the elliptical, you working up a "glow"?

This reaction happened to both of them soon after the stenting procedure, and is probably not due to lesion healing, but more likely due to better circulation, oxygenation and faster perfusion time in the brain and specifically the hypothalamus.

Sweating impairment in MS has actually been studied:

Sweating impairment in patients with multiple sclerosis.

Saari A, Tolonen U, Pääkkö E, Suominen K, Jauhiainen J, Sotaniemi KA, Myllylä VV.
Department of Neurology, Oulu University Hospital, Oulu, Finland.
Objectives - To measure sweating in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). Materials and methods - Sweating was measured by an evaporimeter after a heating stimulus in 29 MS patients and in 15 healthy control subjects. Results - The MS patients sweated markedly less than the controls. After 10 min of heating the sweating was significantly lower in the forehead (P = 0.034), feet (right, P = 0.033; left, P = 0.037) and legs (right, P = 0.043; left, P = 0.029) of the MS patients than in those of the controls. After 15 min of heating the difference was statistically significant only in the feet (right, P = 0.043; left, P = 0.029). The Expanded Disability Status Scale score correlated inversely with sweating at 15 min of heating in the left hand (r = 0.42, P < 0.05), and in the left (r = 0.36, P < 0.05) and right foot (r = 0.37, P < 0.05). Conclusions - MS is associated with an impairment in thermoregulatory sweating which seems to be related to the disease severity.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19456306

Autonomic dysfunction (sweating responses) in
multiple sclerosis
M. J. NORONHA, C. J. VAS, AND H. AZIZ
From the Neurological Departments of the General Infirmary at Leeds and
Pinderfields General Hospital, Wakefield

Our results suggest that abnormal thermoregulatory sweating responses occur in multiple sclerosis. Thermal sweating is a reflex. The afferent portion of the arc consists of afferent neurones from dermal receptors and warm blood acting on thermosensitive cells in the hypothalamus. The principal centres for regulation of sweating have not yet been located but probably reside in the hypothalamus near the tem- perature centres. The descending fibres from the hypothalamus and the sympathetic outflow of the thoraco-lumbar cord constitute the efferent portion of the reflex arc.

link

interesting, huh?
cheer

http://www.thisisms.com/ftopict-7540-sweating.html

Slowed perfusion time has been linked to fatigue and heat intolerance in MS patients. By correcting circulation, perfusion time is normalized. Try searching "perfusion" to get some really terrific discussions we've had in the last few months.
Here's a terrific thread started by Shayk on hypoperfusion in MS-
http://www.thisisms.com/ftopict-7708-perfusion.html

cheer

Thanks, cheer, sorry for beating a dead horse, LOL