Good news on the MS research front

I know there's a few on here who know of people with MS.

So, this article raises hope a little MS sufferer walks after stem cell treatment - Telegraph

It's been a good year, what with the blood flow research thing too!

Fingers crossed, as always mate.

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non quod, sed quomodo

Thanks for that.

I heard a really good talk on the radio into MS research the other day.

The further North you go the higher the incidence of MS, so it is more common in Scotland than Southern England, it is very prevelant up in Orkney and Shetland.

It turns out it is also higher amoungst people born in spring who live North.

They reckon it is down to the lack of vitimin D that pregnant mother has in her body. Vitimin D is naturally produced in the body by exposure to sunlight (And food).

They have found vitimin D to be very low in the people in the north if they don't follow a balanced diet including fish, which in the historic past would have played an important part of the diet, but has now been superceeded by crap.

So if you live in the far North (Or far south) are pregnant and carrying the baby through the winter, make sure you get plenty of vitimin D.

Bob

That's great and I have forwarded it in to Penny's sister

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A balanced diet is a pie in each hand.

My 2010 Trackday Instructing List

Not sure if its of interest but this add is at the top of the page

Evangelos Tsesmelis - Multiple Sclerosis - Tiantan Puhua Stem Cell Center

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I spend most my money on Fuel, trackdays, tyres and kneesliders. The rest I just waste

I'm working on a documentary about MS at the moment and went on a three day course about latest treatments etc last month. The vitamin D stuff is very interesting and the researchers I spoke to were advocates of Vit D supplements (I think they said up to 500 units a day, but don't quote me), and try to get Vit D alone, not Vit d with calcium.

The stem cell stuff is extremely interesting but according to the researchers, the data should still be handled with care - not least because the bone marrow transplant process itself carries around a 5% mortality rate (IIRC) because you are left temporarily without most of your immune system.

The new wave of drugs (i.e. not the interferon based ones) that are coming out show some very promising effects and many of them work in a similar way (by dampening down a specific arm of the immune response), and the next few years will prove crucial in assessing how well they arrest MS symptoms and with what side effects.

Some of these treatments are only currently available if you are able to get enrolled on a trial so its worth asking your doc if you would qualify for any trials if you are interested in trying to get hold of the treatments at the earliest possible opportunity.

Oh BTW the MS Soc (and all the researchers I have spoken to) warn heavily the use of "private" stem cell clinics. They look believable but the reason they are based in places like China, Iraq etc, is because they are giving treatments which as are yet unlicensed in any developed country (all stem cell treatments here, in the US and australia are clinical trials).

This is because we don't yet know if they are safe for either the recipients or the population at large. Because they are working outside the normal health care conventions, not only do they not guarantee success, but some health professionals suggest that they probably aren't even giving real stem cell treatment because the risks to them of a backlash if it went wrong are too great. So you might spunk 30K up the wall on an injection of salt water.

One clinic, gave people cells which were grown in cow serum. This is HUGE biological hazard. Avoid the quackery!

Thanks for that Slapper, interesting.

Here's the CCSVI thing - Multiple Sclerosis Society Website - Welcome to the MS Society - CCSVI

The bad news is that some Dutch Doctor has made out that chocolate is the worst thing for MS. Yea - right - Hell hath no fury like a woman denied chocolate.....

Slapper - any idea on an air date?

Elizabeth Quigley, a presenter with BBC Scotland who suffers from MS, did a really good documentary on the prevalance of MS, it's genetic background and where the world's 'hotspots' of MS are (Scotland and where scots emigrated to!). And then how care for MS sufferers differs in different countries. I must get it off the Sky+ box and burn it to a DVD.....

OhWould love a copy if u could? The transferable risk element is really interesting. Points to a complex.cause which encompasses both genetic
and environmental factors.. I am a bit skeptical about the vasc thing but u never know. Did you know about the glandular Fever link. 99% ms sufferers have antibodies, so may be link there. Doc transmission depends securing commission so am seeking broadcaster at the mo. Tis half shot and very interesting. If no funding forthcoming will fund myself and seek festival/theatrical release.

Wouldn't that tend to negate the "lack of vitamin D" theory in favour of a genetic link?

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The Rules of Life:
Rule 1: You can't win. Rule 2: You can't break even. Rule 3: You can't get out of the game alive.

Not nessarcerily, for example in New Zealand most of the Scots went to the South Island around Dunedin, they could have settled further North in the sunshine but liked the South because it reminded them of home, the same goes for Canada, the Scots going for the more Northerly latitudes, the one time they wanted to go to a place in the sun, they buggered it up and all died, far worst they all lost their money and asked for union with England (Sorry about bringing this thread down).

Joking aside, it could easily be both, genentics that leads to predisposition then needing the shortage of Vitimin D to set the trigger.


Bob

Thinking about this for a minute.

Scotland is effectively made up of four distinct populations (5 now).

1 The native British Brythonic speaking group that made up two sub groups. The Picts in the north and the Brythonic (Welsh) speaking natives from Cumbria south west Scotland to north of Glasgow.

2 The Scots who migrated from Ireland and settled mainly in the west and western Highlands speaking Gealic.

3 English in the form of Angles (Very few Saxons) who settled most of the north of England but in Scotland they formed about a 1/4 of the population settling in the eastern lowlands including Edinburgh and other eastern counties up to Perth and around the coast (Giving the whole country the Germanic Scots language)

4 Scandinavians in the far north and coastal areas including Orkney and Shetland.

The fifth would be modern immigrants mainly settled in the rougher parts of Glasgow and surrounds and English taking over the North in recent times.

Given that mixing has undoubtedly happened especially in cities, but in general their would still be pockets of genes in and around certain areas, just as Gaelic is still mainly in the west, and the peoples of the east often cannot understand the accent spoken around Glasgow.

Has any one ever done a study of the prevalence of MS within these ethnic/language groupings or geographic areas within Scotland?



Bob