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Courts, I've been on rebif for over 6 years now. I don't experience any side effects except for some mild injection site reactions (slightly red and sore for a day or so after some injections). Some people get really bad flu-like symptoms and generally feel like crap on the stuff, but others don't h...

Courts, sorry to hear about your problems. If I was in your situation, I'd try the interferon. I'm a bit biased as I'm on rebif and have been doing well (though I can't say whether or not the rebif has anything to do with it, maybe I'm just lucky). There definitely seem to be responders and non-resp...

Thanks for posting this rainer. Since the release of research suggesting more of a role for astrocytes in the early MS disease process, it has appeared that there hasn't been as much research on astrocytes as there could have been. I hope that is changing.

This news is big, Gabby Hayes big. New, sought-after standard for diagnosis within neurology June 15, 2010 -- For the first time, researchers from Sweden and the US have succeeded in identifying the majority of the detectable proteins in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of healthy human beings. The adv...

meet, welcome to TIMS. I think symptom resolution time can vary widely. From personal exerience, my sensory symptoms resolved quite quickly, over the course of a couple of months, without steroids. But then there were some residual effects that eventually went away over the course of the following y...

Sharon, thanks for the link, I'll have to check it out.

On the ongoing RRMS studies (I guess they are extension studies), I THINK participants are all now getting 0.5mg. From what I can see in clinicaltrials.gov, that's how it looks.

Sounds like a good idea to me. That would get an answer a lot faster since the existing trials have already recruited all of their participants.

Another very interesting study on the role of astrocytes. Nothing is ever simple or easy with MS research, but this looks like a promising line of enquiry. Primary loss and dysfunction of astrocytes may trigger demyelination, as seen in neuromyelitis optica, an inflammatory disease of the central ne...

I know, I know, the news has already been posted in a couple of other threads, but I just wanted to highlight one thing that I think is a great idea (I think the FDA panel stole it from me, I'm sure they're all dedicated readers of the thisisms forums) ...panelists questioned whether an even lower d...

Phil, I really liked his analysis of solar too, it makes me feel more optimistic about the future health of the planet. Cheer, I haven't been following him since his sythesizer days, but starting with his book, "The Age of Spiritual Machines" in the late 90s, I've been paying attention. I ...

Here's a link to part one of a talk Ray Kurzweil recently gave on the effects that information technology is having on progress in biological / health sciences. He's a smart cookie, so I hope his thesis is right. Parts 2-4 are also on Youtube, if anybody is interested. I believe that the kinds of ti...

Interesting article about the UK hookworm trial and B cells. Out of the shadows: our unknown immune system New Scientist -- DELIBERATE infection with a blood-sucking worm seems an odd way to treat multiple sclerosis (MS). Yet more surprising is what this experiment may tell us about a "shadow&q...

Here are a couple of other things that could (maybe) help: vitamin B12 and DHEA. B12 http://www.thisisms.com/ftopicp-8834.html DHEA J Immunol. 2001 Dec 15;167(12):7094-101. Links Administration of dehydroepiandrosterone suppresses experimental allergic encephalomyelitis in SJL/J mice.Du C, Khalil MW...

Nickmare, I'm really sorry to hear about your fiance's situation. There aren't any formally approved treatments for remyelination. A while ago the remyelination issue came up and I found a couple of possibilities. Also in the same thread (http://www.thisisms.com/ftopic-4093-days0-orderasc-remyelinat...

Thanks scorpion, the results sound promising. It has been a long time coming. Bromley first mentioned this trial in late 2006. 3.5 years seems like a long time for an early stage trial, but I guess this is just how long it takes. Let's hope they get all the funding they need to proceed to a very lar...