Jul
21
Acupuncture comes to the aid of multiple sclerosis patients
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ACUPUNCTURE has dramatically improved the lives of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients at a treatment centre in Nailsea.
The practice is just one of a number of therapies which are used by trained staff at the MS Therapy Centre in Southfield Road to help ease the symptoms of sufferers.
Edie Houghton, aged 57, from Backwell could not walk due to stiffness in her knees, she has been fitted with a catheter due to urinary problems, she suffers from constant pain in her head, legs, back and feet, poor eyesight, fatigue and numbness, but acupuncture has helped to ease a lot of her symptoms.
read the rest: The Weston Mercury - Acupuncture comes to the aid of multiple sclerosis patients
Jul
21
Can Cannabis Compounds Slow The Progression Of Multiple Sclerosis?
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ScienceDaily July 21, 2008 — The CUPID Cannabinoid Use in Progressive Inflammatory brain Disease study at the Peninsula Medical School in Plymouth has reached an important milestone with the news that the full cohort of 493 people with multiple sclerosis MS has been recruited to the study.
CUPID is a clinical trial which will evaluate whether tetrahydrocannabinol THC, one of many compounds found in the in the cannabis plant and the main active ingredient is able to slow the progression of MS.
This is an important study for people with MS because current treatments either target the immune system in the early stages of MS, or are aimed at easing specific symptoms such as muscle spasms or bladder problems. At present there is no treatment which slows progression of the disease.
read the rest: Can Cannabis Compounds Slow The Progression Of Multiple Sclerosis?
Jun
30
Drinking several cups of coffee a day could halt the development of multiple sclerosis, the results of a new study suggest.
Researchers hope that the finding may prove to be relevant for other autoimmune diseases, in which the body uses the weapons of its immune system against itself, such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.
“This is an exciting and unexpected finding, and I think it could be important for the study of MS and other diseases,” said Prof Linda Thompson of Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, who reports the find in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
In the study, done in collaboration with Dr Jeffrey Mills and Dr Margaret Bynoe of Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, along with colleagues in Finland’s University of Turku, researchers followed the progress of mice that normally developed an MS-like condition as a result of being injected with a vaccine that provoked an immune attack that damages nerves..
The scientists discovered that when the rodents consumed the equivalent of six to eight cups of coffee a day, they did not develop the condition. The finding could lead to new ways to prevent and treat MS, said Prof Thompson.
According to Prof Thompson, the caffeine acted on adenosine (one of the four building blocks in DNA) and this prevented certain T cells - white blood cells that play a central role in immune responses - from reaching the central nervous system and triggering the cascade of events that lead to experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, or EAE, the animal model for the human disease MS.
read the rest: Coffee could halt multiple sclerosis - Telegraph