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Joined: Jan 28, 2005 Posts: 658 Location: Northern Ontario, Canada
Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 8:05 am Post subject: question # 1000 it seems like
Quote:
Of course, since I'm "into" the importance of plasticity, there is also the possibility that her MS and resulting damage continues ominously at a rate in which plasticity is able to it's job and keep her from noticing the damage as it accumulates.
this is so well put bob we are all under attack all the time it's just that when our own bodies can't keep up with the repairs we start to notice the disability. do u think bob that even though u take a drug that stops the severe attacks that some get the disease is still at work in a milder form which current mri's can't detect ?(the inflamation that is). _________________ ~i guess i know i just hate how it sounds~
Read the post by dignan about gray matter atrophy. It discusses how people with the progressive disease have more gray matter atrophy (shrinkage) than RRMS people and that lesions are not the major player once a person is out of the early stages.
You would need to get your brain weighed every once in a while instead of going through an MRI and looking for lesions to get a better idea of how much you have progressed.
Joined: May 04, 2006 Posts: 3137 Location: Mid-Michigan
Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 11:01 am Post subject: Re: question # 1000 it seems like
robbie wrote:
we are all under attack all the time it's just that when our own bodies can't keep up with the repairs we start to notice the disability.
I absolutely 100% agree and I think that's nothing more than common sense. We all know that we have a healing process/plasticity and that it's purpose is to keep us up and running. Why on earth would we think that it WOULDN'T play a big part in MS damage and our perception of MS damage......yet the masking ability of plasticity has never been a serious consideration in MS research.
robbie wrote:
do u think bob that even though u take a drug that stops the severe attacks that some get the disease is still at work in a milder form which current mri's can't detect ?(the inflammation that is).
Absolutely and it's easy to notice the differences by viewing the results of the crabs vs Tysabri (suppression at best is only capable of varying degrees of slowing down the MS disease process) vs things like Campath/Revimmune/Tovaxin which are feasibly capable of entirely stopping the MS disease process. At 50%-70% effectiveness even some people on Tysabri are claiming to experience reversal/improvement of symptoms so it's easy to believe that degree of improvement partially might hinge on degree of relief from damage that the healing process/plasticity is allowed.
Admittedly this whole reversal/improvement of symptoms is and can only be a guessing game right now because it involves unknown degrees of improvement due to reduction of inflammation AND healing of actual neuronal damage and type of damage and amounts of damage as well as healing ability is different from person to person.
All this is happening in an environment when our only tool is EDSS testing. EDSS is kind of like your horoscope in that it's interesting to read and consider but is hopelessly inadequate to identify the "what, where, why and how much" answers needed in regards to the relationship of inflammation vs neuronal damage and their percentage of responsibility for symptoms or improvement of symptoms in any given situation.
Bob _________________ Wife diagnosed with MS in Feb. 2006 and is a participant in the Tovaxin IIb clinical trial.
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