$18 million in new research projects launched to stop MS

[MSUK]

The US National Multiple Sclerosis Society has committed another $18 million to support up to 65 new MS research projects. These new awards are part of a comprehensive research strategy aimed at stopping MS, restoring function that has been lost, and ending the disease forever...... Read More - http://www.ms-uk.org/index.cfm/MSnews

[Leonard]

quote: "It's critical that all promising paths are pursued to find solutions for everyone affected by MS, says Timothy Coetzee, PhD, Chief Research Officer at the Society. --> exactly, for too long has old thinking and reasoning dictated the agenda..

quote: A Harvard study asking whether low testosterone levels increase the risk of developing MS for men, to determine whether sex hormones can be manipulated to stop MS in its tracks; --> so ye, it is metabolic, they are on the right track..

quote: A multi-center study exploring whether there's a link between microbes in the gut and the risk of developing MS in childhood, for clues to how this link might help to end MS forever; --> the gut relation is definitely there, but what I do not understand is why this is linked with MS in childhood. I thought it was the breaking of the gut lining that occurs from mid-age that is the problem... (unless of course that has already been cleared out and they now at the next step which is childhood onset..)

see also the last several pages of http://www.thisisms.com/forum/general-d ... 15188.html

[cervocuit]

quote: A multi-center study exploring whether there's a link between microbes in the gut and the risk of developing MS in childhood, for clues to how this link might help to end MS forever; --> the gut relation is definitely there, but what I do not understand is why this is linked with MS in childhood. I thought it was the breaking of the gut lining that occurs from mid-age that is the problem... (unless of course that has already been cleared out and they now at the next step which is childhood onset..)

Because the gut flora built up in the infant and is different if we are breastfed or not.
http://thepaleonurse.com/2013/02/10/acq ... he-infant/
Breastfeeding lower the risk of MS
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22951352

[centenarian100]

quote: A multi-center study exploring whether there's a link between microbes in the gut and the risk of developing MS in childhood, for clues to how this link might help to end MS forever; --> the gut relation is definitely there, but what I do not understand is why this is linked with MS in childhood. I thought it was the breaking of the gut lining that occurs from mid-age that is the problem... (unless of course that has already been cleared out and they now at the next step which is childhood onset..)

There is some thinking that environmental factors in early childhood and adolescence may predispose MS.

Check out this quote from a review article on migrant studies in multiple sclerosis:

"Migrants who move from an area where the disease is common to an area where it is rarer show a decrease in rate of disease. By contrast, people who migrate in the opposite direction tend to retain the low risk of their country of origin. Results from the few studies which have examined the effect of age at migration on risk of multiple sclerosis suggest that an individual's risk of the disease is largely established during the first two decades of life."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8966212

[centenarian100]

Breastfeeding lower the risk of MS
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22951352

Sorry to be nitpicky, but this does not demonstrate that beastfeeding lowers the risk of MS.

It only shows that there exists an inverse relationship between breast feeding for > 4 months and future development of multiple sclerosis (adjusting for "age, gender, number of older siblings, number of inhabitants in place of domicile between ages 0 and 6, and daycare attendance between ages 0 and 3.")

The breast feeding topic is controversial.

[cervocuit]

Sorry, i was not talking about women with MS giving breast to feed their baby, which is probably a controversial topic, but the fact that those who were breastfed were 42% less likely to have multiple sclerosis in comparison to those who were not. Ans point out the possible link with the recent research on the gut flora and MS
http://www.mpg.de/4620085/

[HarryZ]

The US National Multiple Sclerosis Society has committed another $18 million to support up to 65 new MS research projects. These new awards are part of a comprehensive research strategy aimed at stopping MS, restoring function that has been lost, and ending the disease forever...... Read More - http://www.ms-uk.org/index.cfm/MSnews

That's about $ 277,000 on average per project....which might pay for the administrative costs!

But it is nice to see that other options are now being considered. Here we are after some 70 years of research and still no known cause or anything close to a cure as yet. Something has to change one of these days, doesn't it?!

Harry