Jan
1
Q: I have had multiple sclerosis since I was in my late 20s. I’m now in my early 50s and have been in remission for a while.What can you tell me about MS and bee stings? I got stung a couple of days ago, and I started walking much better and feeling perkier. I have energy that I haven’t had in years. One of my daughters told me about bee-sting therapy.
A: The medical use of honeybee products is known as apitherapy. Bees have played a role in alternative health care since the Egyptians used their byproducts to cure arthritis. Those byproducts have since been used to treat chronic pain, a number of skin conditions, burns of the skin, coughs and a great deal more.
Researchers have found that specific compounds in the venom, namely melittin and adolapin, can work toward reducing pain and inflammation through a process that allows the body to release natural healing compounds in its own defense. It is rumored that thousands of multiple-sclerosis patients in the United States appear to be using bee venom as an alternative to interferon, corticosteroids and other drugs. I don’t know how so many have tapped into this approach, because there are only about 50 physicians nationwide who use bee-venom therapy to relieve the symptoms of MS.
read the rest via Family Doctor: Can it be that bees can help MS patients? – Canton, OH – CantonRep.com.
Dec
14
Victoria multiple sclerosis patient wary of ‘Liberation Procedure’
Filed Under Personal Stories, Research | 2 Comments
So when the 25-year-old heavy-equipment operator read media reports of a revolutionary treatment and possible cure pioneered in Italy in which some MS patients are professing a near-complete recovery, Hall said he decided to keep a lid on his emotions.
“To be hoping and wishing and have all this excitement over something that is not 100 per cent sure yet, I’m not 100 per cent stoked on it,” said Hall. “I don’t let that kind of stuff get me away from my way of looking at my MS.”
read the rest via Victoria multiple sclerosis patient wary of ‘Liberation Procedure’. This article does a good job of explaining why caution is warranted regarding this procedure.
Nov
23
Researcher’s labour of love leads to MS breakthrough
Filed Under News, Personal Stories, Research | Leave a Comment
Elena Ravalli was a seemingly healthy 37-year-old when she began to experience strange attacks of vertigo, numbness, temporary vision loss and crushing fatigue. They were classic signs of multiple sclerosis, a potentially debilitating neurological disease.
It was 1995 and her husband, Paolo Zamboni, a professor of medicine at the University of Ferrara in Italy, set out to help. He was determined to solve the mystery of MS – an illness that strikes people in the prime of their lives but whose causes are unknown and whose effective treatments are few.
What he learned in his medical detective work, scouring dusty old books and using ultra-modern imaging techniques, could well turn what we know about MS on its head: Dr. Zamboni’s research suggests that MS is not, as widely believed, an autoimmune condition, but a vascular disease.
read the rest via Researcher’s labour of love leads to MS breakthrough – The Globe and Mail.
Oct
31
‘I thought I was alone with my MS’
Filed Under News, Personal Stories, Research | Leave a Comment
When Shiv Sharma was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis he was the only South Asian he knew with the condition.
“I got a bit of a shock at the time,” he said.
“I honestly thought I was a bit of a freak. It took me a good few months to come to terms with it.”
Now, seven years later, about 12% of the MS patients treated at London’s Charing Cross Hospital are of a South Asian background.
Dr Omar Malik, a consultant neurologist at Imperial College NHS Healthcare Trust, said he now wanted to know why UK-born South Asians, such as Shiv, seem to be more susceptible than those who migrated to this country as adults.
“South Asian MS is now becoming a common problem in the UK,” he said.
read the rest via BBC NEWS | Health | ‘I thought I was alone with my MS’.