Jul
16
Before I knew anything about the disease, when I heard “Multiple Sclerosis,” I thought of the Jerry Lewis kids in wheelchairs. No, that’s Muscular Dystrophy, but I didn’t know.
Then, as a journalist, when I covered the Multiple Sclerosis celebrity events with movie stars, Dustin Hoffman introduced me to his mother-in-law, and organizers told me they had the disease, and I kept repeating, “Gee, you look great.”
I didn’t know what the face of MS was. Little did I know, I would soon be diagnosed with it.
For years, I went to neurologists and specialists for what I thought was carpal tunnel syndrome. I went to allergists for persistent headaches, optometrists for fuzzy peripheral vision and an acupuncturist for the persistent numbness in my right side.
It wasn’t until I broke my right foot while walking the dogs in the Hollywood Hills and walked on it for half a week after breaking it in three places, and finally a doctor said I shouldn’t have been able to walk on it. I was sent to a special neurologist, who I trust to this day—and then, after getting a second opinion from the world’s leading experts at UCLA, I was confirmed as having Multiple Sclerosis.
read the rest via Multiple Sclerosis 101: What are the symptoms?. Includes good rundown of symptoms and a nice graphic. Good to send to people who need to know what MS is and what it does.
Jul
13
MS patient: Government-run health care system would help patients
Filed Under News, Personal Stories | Leave a Comment
Had you asked Teresa Crowson her thoughts about a government-run health care plan three years ago, she probably would’ve been skeptical.
That was before she was called “clinically probable” for having multiple sclerosis, a chronic, often disabling disease that attacks the central nervous system.
The disease puts her in frequent contact with the health care system, seeing doctors, running tests, taking medications that will continue for the rest of her life. There is no cure.
“I used to think we don’t need to have government involved. It’s just going to cost more,” the 36-year-old Newport News woman said. “I used to say, ‘It doesn’t matter to me.’ But I never thought I would have a chronic illness.”
Crowson said she’s blessed that her husband has great insurance through the city of Newport News, where he works as a firefighter.
But she never knows when something might change. The rising cost of health care is forcing many companies to drop insurance benefits for employees, or to significantly raise the amount of employees’ co-payments for treatment and medications.
“We will always worry about what comes next and will we be prepared for it,” she said.
Even with insurance, the family still has steep co-pays. Once, Crowson underwent five MRIs in a seven-month span.
With a 20 percent co-pay, each one cost about $200 out of pocket.
“I was crying over the bills at that point, and had to ask family members for some support,” she said.
“We can, for the most part, afford it all. I can’t imagine how people without the coverage we have can handle it.”
So the so-called public option — a government-run health care plan at the heart of President Barack Obama’s proposed health care reform — is looking better than it ever has to Crowson.
There are gaps in our current system and people, through no fault of their own, fall through, she said. There has to be a way to make sure they’re taken care of, she said.
“I look at it not as government control, but government support,” Crowson said. “They’re not trying to take over. They’re just trying to promote options.”
read the rest via MS patient: Government-run health care system would help patients – dailypress.com.
Jul
1
Why Repair Of Brain’s Wiring Fails
Filed Under Research | Leave a Comment
Scientists have uncovered new evidence suggesting that damage to nerve cells in people with multiple sclerosis accumulates because the body’s natural mechanism for repair of the nerve coating called “myelin” stalls out.
The study, published July 1, 2009, in the print edition of Genes & Development, was conducted by scientists at the University of California, San Francisco and University of Cambridge. The research was led by co-senior investigator David Rowitch, MD, PhD, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at UCSF.
The investigation, conducted in mice and in human tissue, showed that repair of nerve fibers is hampered by biochemical signals that inhibit the development of cells known as oligodendrocytes, which function as repair workers in the brain.
Oligodendrocytes form a protective sheath, known as myelin, that insulates the fibrous cables, or axons, radiating from nerve cells. In multiple sclerosis, the immune system’s T cells and B cells attack oligodendrocytes, ultimately damaging the myelin sheath to the point that the electrical signals transmitted by the axons beneath it are disrupted.
Remarkably, the brain generally is able to recruit fresh, immature oligodendrocytes to the myelin sheath to repair the damage, for a time. This explains why, in the most common form of the disease, known as relapsing remitting MS, the symptoms — which range from tingling and numbness in the limbs to loss of vision and paralysis — disappear or are greatly reduced, for some times months or years at a time.
Ultimately, however, the repair process falters and the disease progresses.
read the rest via Why Repair Of Brain’s Wiring Fails.