gibbledygook wrote:Hi andrew,
I've been sleeping on an inclined bed since last year, may, I think. I also underwent stent placements at Stanford and enjoyed immediate relief from bladder and night spasm issues for 3 months afterwards. I then became pregnant and my MS symptoms immediately deteriorated and I am now worse than I was even before the stent operation. Do you think that the inclined bed makes blood flow through the jugular veins or through the vertebral veins when supine?
I have asked a number of people to have a scan done on an incline, standing and laying horizontal. This is essential to learn which applies and without it as you are saying we are left with thinking about this answer rather than knowing.
I would hope that both the cerebrospinal veins and the jugular veins would share the circulation while on an incline as opposed to standing, relieving the tension placed on the vessels from the circulating blood. (See H.T. Hammel on Hullet’s theory of osmosis).
The paper extract below, which you have no doubt read, shows how changes in posture can serve to shift blood flow from the cerebrospinal veins to the jugular veins or indeed the opposite in healthy people.
http://www.bentham.org/cnr/openaccessar ... boniII.pdf
Quote: Extracranial Venous Drainage
The cerebral blood is finally collected into the dural
sinuses and in turn redirected towards the main extracranial
venous outflow routes: the IJVs and the vertebral venous
system (Fig. 1). The anatomical pathways of jugular
drainage are well established. The main jugular blood
drainage pathway leads from the SSS and the transverse
sinuses via the sigmoid sinuses into the IJVs, which meet the
superior cava vein via the brachiocephalic vein.
Several ultrasound study of healthy volunteers demonstrated
that the pattern of cerebral venous drainage changes,
even under physiological conditions, depending on the body
position (Valdueza et al., 2000; Doepp et al., 2004;
Schreiber, et al. 2003; Menegatti and Zamboni, 2008).
In the prone position, the outflow through the IJVs is
favored, this assumption was based on angiographic studies
and cerebral blood flow analyses with nitrous oxide, labeled
erythrocytes, and thermodilution techniques (Schreiber et al.,
2003; Nylin et al., 1961; Huber, 1982; Shenkin et al., 1948;
Wilson et al., 1972), which were all performed in a supine
body position. Whereas passing to the upright position transfers
most of the encephalic drainage to the VVs (Valdueza
et al., 2000; Doepp et al., 2004; Menegatti and Zamboni.,
2008).
I have no access to any method of evaluating postural changes in blood flow and apologies for any delay in having hard evidence to answer your excellent question.
If you are reading this and are booked up or considering a scan for CCSVI. Please Please ask for a scan done on an approximate five degree head up angle.