A Calgary woman has died in the United States following controversial neck vein surgery to treat her multiple sclerosis.

Maralyn Clarke died April 18, shortly after undergoing treatment at Synergy Health Concepts Inc. in Orangeville County, Calif.She becomes the second victim of the vein procedure, almost a year after Mahir Mostic of St. Catharines, Ont., died in October 2010 following a similar operation in Costa Rica.

The treatment is based on a procedure developed by Italian Dr. Paolo Zamboni, whose research suggests that multiple sclerosis may be associated with vascular problems.

Clarke, 56, flew to California on April 13 in search of a cure for an illness she had lived with for years.Her husband, Frank Lamb, said his wife experienced severe headaches, nausea and vomiting a few hours after being discharged and was taken to a nearby hospital. She was taken off life support on April 18.

[more] via Canadian dies following MS surgery in U.S. – thestar.com

By SCOTT K. PARKS / The Dallas Morning News

Tim Timmons once was a stalwart in the Church of Christ, a conservative Republican, a buttoned-down insurance executive with a busy life, a wife and three children. Slowly but surely, multiple sclerosis robbed him of that life.

Tim Timmons gets a light from his wife and caretaker, Lou-Ann, at their Garland home. Timmons smokes marijuana at night to ease pain caused by multiple sclerosis.

Today, at age 54, Timmons is mostly bedridden and rarely sees the outside of his Garland home. What he lacks in physical ability, however, he more than makes up for with his ardent support for legalizing marijuana for seriously ill people.

In fact, he has become the poster boy for the medical marijuana movement in Texas. One organization has named a model law to set up a medical marijuana industry in Texas the Tim Timmons Compassionate Care Act. An Internet search quickly yields videos of Timmons smoking pot and daring politicians and cops to come arrest him.

“I would love [Texas Gov.] Rick Perry to be the guy who arrests me,” he said. “It would cost the state of Texas $500,000 a year to take care of me in prison.”

[more] via Multiple sclerosis changes Garland man’s outlook on marijuana | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Breaking News for Dallas-Fort Worth | Dallas Morning News.

In true country-music fashion, Clay Walker can boil his life down to a simple refrain: “I don’t have to think about tomorrow, I don’t need anything money can buy, I don’t have to beg, steal, or borrow, I just want to live until I die.”

The sentiment from his 1994 hit single, “Live Until I Die,” still holds true for the singer, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis more than a decade ago.

What he initially viewed as a death sentence turned into a second career with the 2003 launch of Band Against MS, a nonprofit to support research and help people with multiple sclerosis.

Now, through the foundation, he’s making a $50,000 donation to fund pediatric multiple sclerosis research at Stony Brook University Medical Center in Stony Brook, N.Y., bringing his total giving for research of this kind to more than $2 million.

“Stony Brook is taking the fresh ideas of doctors who aren’t just running down the same trails,” Mr. Walker says. “There’s no better way to start looking for a cure than by working with children.”

About 400,000 people in the United States have the chronic, neurological disease and 200 others are diagnosed each week, according to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Until this decade, multiple sclerosis had been seen as an adult disease, says Lauren Krupp, director of the national Pediatric MS Center at Stony Brook University, whose research Mr. Walker’s donation will fund.

The center itself was founded in 2006 to work specifically with clinical care and scientific research of children and adolescents with multiple sclerosis.

Ironically, Dr. Krupp says it makes more sense to study the disease in children, rather than adults, because children haven’t had as much exposure to the environmental toxins that many doctors think contribute to the cause of the disease.

Read the rest via MS Patient, Singer Gives to Others – WSJ.com.

By Belinda Goldsmith

Reuters

CANBERRA

Singer Walter Williams from R&B group The O’Jays seemed to have a charmed life, but for nearly three decades he kept a secret from his fans — he was suffering from multiple sclerosis (MS).

However to mark World MS Day on May 26, Williams decided it was time to go public with his health issues to let other MS sufferers know that it is possible to lead an active life despite the chronic and often disabling disease.

“I have done well with MS and I want other sufferers to know that they too can lead a normal life,” Williams, 67, told Reuters in a telephone interview.

“Why now? Well, it’s a good time to come out and let people know there is medication for this now that helps a great deal. When I was diagnosed they told me I had 20 years to live and there was no cure but it has all changed.”

Williams is a founding member of the The O’Jays who were pioneers of 1970s soul music with hits like “Love Train,” and “Use Ta Be My Girl.”

He first realized something was wrong while on tour in 1983 and he began getting numb in his feet, legs and torso. At the age of 39 he was diagnosed with MS, the inflammatory autoimmune disease that attacks the central nervous system.

Over 2 million people worldwide have MS which affects about three females to every male with symptoms often starting to show when people are in their early 30s.

“I knew nothing about MS so when I was diagnosed I just freaked out. The doctor told me to get my life in order as I probably only had 20 years to live,” said Williams.

“At first I did the pity party thing and felt sorry for myself, but then I got angry and decided to fight it. I started exercising more to make my body strong and started to eat right and keep a great attitude. I slipped a lot but I got through it.”

read the rest:  O’Jays Singer Reveals Long Battle With Multiple Sclerosis.