Mar
29
Sunshine effects on MS might be more complicated than previously thought, mouse study suggests
By Nathan Seppa
Ultraviolet radiation from sunshine seems to thwart multiple sclerosis, but perhaps not the way most researchers had assumed, a new study in mice suggests.
If validated in further research, the finding could add a twist to a hypothesis that has gained credence in recent decades. The report appears online March 22 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Scientists have hypothesized that MS is rare in the tropics because people synthesize ample vitamin D from exposure to the UV radiation in equatorial sunlight. What’s more, MS is more common in the high latitudes of northern parts of Europe and North America than in regions farther south. That pattern has led to the assumption that higher levels of vitamin D might prevent people from developing MS, what became known as the latitude hypothesis.
But a direct cause-and-effect relationship between vitamin D deficiency and MS has never been established. In past experiments, giving vitamin D supplements to mice with an MS-like disease required giving the animals harmful amounts of the nutrient, notes Hector DeLuca, a biochemist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
“It just didn’t add up,” he says. “We decided to go back and see if maybe UV light by itself was doing something.”
In MS, the fatty myelin sheaths that insulate nerves in the central nervous system are damaged by attacks by the immune system. In a series of experiments in mice, DeLuca and his team induced a condition comparable to human MS by injecting the animals with proteins that instigate similar myelin damage.
The researchers exposed some mice to UV radiation before and after giving the animals the damaging injection. Another group of mice got the injection but not the UV exposure.
The mice exposed to UV rays suppressed the effects of MS-like disease better than the control mice, the researchers found, even though the amount of radiation wasn’t enough to greatly increase the animals’ blood concentrations of vitamin D.
read the rest via UV Radiation, Not Vitamin D, Might Limit Multiple Sclerosis Symptoms – Science News.
Mar
29
Discovery May Lead to Better Multiple Sclerosis Treatments – BusinessWeek
Filed Under News, Research | Leave a Comment
MONDAY, March 29 (HealthDay News) — There may be two types of multiple sclerosis and each may respond differently to treatment with the first-line drug commonly prescribed for the condition, new research suggests.
Among multiple sclerosis (MS) patients who take the popular drug, known as interferon beta, overall effectiveness is only fair, with about half of all patients experiencing an average one-third reduction in recurrences, according to researchers at Stanford University.
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In this study, which was performed in mice and human blood samples, investigators focused on two cytokines called gamma interferon and IL-17. Cytokines are chemicals used by immune cells to communicate.
The researchers found that treatment interferon beta benefited mice with MS induced by gamma-interferon-secreting T cells but worsened symptoms in mice with MS induced by IL-17-secreting T cells.
read the rest via Discovery May Lead to Better Multiple Sclerosis Treatments – BusinessWeek.
Mar
25
Learning to Trust Myself
Filed Under Personal Stories | Leave a Comment
There was, at first, the occasional numbness, but as friends were quick to point out, everyone gets pins and needles, right? Then there were the words I couldn’t find . . . but that happens to all of us as we age. Stranger symptoms came and went. My speech was slurry, and then not. I was depressed, and then not. I was confused and overwhelmed, but then moments later clearheaded and capable.
I’m 45 now, and for years I suspected I had a biological brain illness. Yet I was told by many medical professionals, including my own husband, that there wasn’t anything wrong with me. Or rather, they said, there was something wrong, but not what I thought. I was not physically ill, I was just nuts. They suggested that I was simply imagining my troubles.
I’m not the first woman to be jollied into believing it’s better to be neurotic than ill. In fact, several studies have shown that women’s medical problems are more likely than men’s to be interpreted as emotional issues or complaining, a mistake that can have grave consequences. What was unusual in my case was that the people who scoffed the loudest were those I trusted the most: my husband, several close friends and a few relatives—all doctors.
When I finally got a diagnosis, the verdict proved that I was not, as my husband had frequently said, a hypochondriac who was “too tuned in” to my body. It proved that my intuition had been correct. So my story is about more than sleuthing out the source of my symptoms. It’s also about a patient’s journey from self-doubt to self-trust.
read the rest via Learning to Trust Myself – MORE Magazine – For Women 40 Plus.
Mar
24
Online Social Networks Bridge Gaps for Chronically Ill
Filed Under News, Personal Stories | Leave a Comment
A former model who is now chronically ill and struggles just to shower says the people she has met online have become her family. A quadriplegic man uses the Web to share tips on which places have the best wheelchair access, and a woman with multiple sclerosis says her regular Friday night online chats are her lifeline.
For many people, social networks are a place for idle chatter about what they made for dinner or sharing cute pictures of their pets. But for people living with chronic diseases or disabilities, they play a more vital role.
“It’s really literally saved my life, just to be able to connect with other people,” said Sean Fogerty, 50, who has multiple sclerosis, is recovering from brain cancer and spends an hour and a half each night talking with other patients online.
People fighting chronic illnesses are less likely than others to have Internet access, but once online they are more likely to blog or participate in online discussions about health problems, according to a report released Wednesday by the Pew Internet and American Life Project and the California HealthCare Foundation.
“If they can break free from the anchors holding them down, people living with chronic disease who go online are finding resources that are more useful than the rest of the population,” said Susannah Fox, associate director of digital strategy at Pew and author of the report.
read the rest via Online Social Networks Bridge Gaps for Chronically Ill – NYTimes.com.