CBC News – Health – J.K. Rowling donates $16M for MS research
Author J.K. Rowling has donated the equivalent of $16.4 million Cdn to help set up a centre to research multiple sclerosis, the disease that led to the death of her mother.
The creator of boy wizard Harry Potter said Tuesday that the Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic, named after her mother, will be based at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. It will also study other degenerative neurological conditions, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, seen in 2008, says she ‘cannot think of anything more important, or of more lasting value, than to help the university attract world-class minds in the field of neuroregeneration.’ (Louis Lanzano/Associated Press)Rowling said she hopes the clinic will become “a world centre for excellence in the field of regenerative neurology.”
The university said Rowling’s gift is the largest single donation it has received.
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MS activity may vary with seasons – The Chart – CNN.com Blogs
In the spring and summer months, some people with multiple sclerosis are at a two to three times greater risk for disease activity, according to research published Monday in the journal Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
The study, led by Dominik Meier, Ph.D. of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, examined MRI screenings and other data taken from 1991 to 1993. This was before the availability of current traditional therapies to modify the course of the disease. 44 people aged 25 to 52 living in Boston participated in the study. They had MRIs weekly to monthly over the course of a year. The researchers also included weather information in their study. MRIs are the primary tools used to monitor the disease progress, as they show the scarring, also called lesions.
“Not only were more lesions found during the spring and summer seasons, our study also found that warmer temperatures and solar radiation were linked to disease activity,” said Meier.
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Researcher cautions trial for MS ‘liberation’ therapy years away
Saskatoon researcher Dr. Katherine Knox urged multiple sclerosis patients to have patience Wednesday, as a clinical trial of the so-called “liberation treatment” is years down the road, despite promised funding from the Saskatchewan government.
The biggest difficulty her team faces, she said, is that they don’t know how to test patients to see if they have the blocked veins which, according to the theory behind liberation treatment, are linked to the disease.
“The problem is that at the present time, we do not know how to accurately and reliably define venous abnormalities that may or may not be related to MS,” said Knox, who is the director of Saskatoon’s MS Clinic and the Cameco MS Neuroscience Research Centre, a research unit of the University of Saskatchewan.
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Multiple sclerosis theory dealt a blow by studies – Los Angeles Times
Now research published online in the Annals of Neurology undermines the theory — called chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency by its creator, Italian researcher Paolo Zamboni.
In one study, conducted by German scientists, ultrasound imaging tests of the veins around the brains and nervous systems of 56 multiple sclerosis patients found that blood flow was normal in all but one person. A control group of 20 healthy patients had similar blood flow.
The second study, conducted in Sweden, used a different type of imaging test to compare blood flow in MS patients and a group of healthy people; both had similar amounts of blood vessel blockage.
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Saskatchewan’s Wall vows to fund contentious MS treatment – The Globe and Mail
In a striking departure from his political counterparts across the country, Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall says his government will finance clinical trials of liberation therapy, a contentious experimental procedure for multiple sclerosis patients.
“There isn’t unanimity on the issue, I understand that,” Mr. Wall said on Tuesday. “But … the province of Saskatchewan is willing to play a funding role.”
The move shunts Saskatchewan to the forefront of Canadian efforts to introduce a treatment that has researchers, politicians and the MS community divided over the roots of the mysterious nerve-wasting disease and the pace of Canadian medical research.
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Talking about From M.S. Patients, Outcry for Unproved Treatment – NYTimes.com
The new theory has taken off on the Internet, inspiring hope among patients, interest from some researchers and scorn from others. Supporters consider it an outside-the-box idea that could transform the treatment of the disease. Critics call it an outlandish notion that will probably waste time and money, and may harm patients.
These critics warn that multiple sclerosis has unpredictable attacks and remissions that make it devilishly hard to know whether treatments are working — leaving patients vulnerable to purported “cures” that do not work.
The controversy has exposed the deep frustration of many people with this incurable, disabling disease, who feel that research has let them down. It is a case study in the power of the Internet to inform and unite angry patients—which may be a double-edged sword. Pressure from activists helped persuade the Multiple Sclerosis Society to pay for studies of Dr. Zamboni’s theory, but the Internet buzz has also created an avid market for a therapy that is still unproved.
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Talking about Proceed with caution on new MS treatment: Canada’s top medical journal – The Globe and Mail
“There are a lot of people out there that have illnesses that are difficult to treat, impossible to cure,” Paul Hébert, editor-in-chief of the journal and co-author of the editorial, said in an interview. “The difficulty we now have is picking priorities.”
Bowing to pressure to allow widespread public access to the procedure before it’s been proven safe and effective in rigorous scientific trials could endanger patients and also create an expectation for a similar response each time a promising new treatment or procedure emerges, the editorial says.
At the same time, it’s unfair to completely block all patients from receiving the treatment they want, it says.
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Talking about Test could detect MS nine years in advance – Telegraph
But now a team of Israeli doctors and scientists have found “chemical markers” on blood that will lead to a test for the disease.
Professor Anat Achiron, of Tel Aviv University’s Faculty of Medicine, has uncovered a way of detecting MS years before the illness hits sufferers.
“We are not yet able to treat people with MS to prevent the onset of the disease but knowledge is power,” said Professor Achiron.
“Every time we meet a new patient exhibiting symptoms of MS, we must ask ourselves how long this has been going on.
“We can diagnose MS by brain MRI scans, but we’ve never been able to know how ‘fresh’ the disease is.”
Her findings are published in the journal Neurobiology of Disease.
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Talking about Mental Activity May Protect Brain in Multiple Sclerosis – Those with intellectually enriched lives show less cognitive decline even with brain atrophy – ModernMedicine
Higher levels of intellectual enrichment may negate the negative impact of brain atrophy in people with multiple sclerosis (MS), according to research published in the June 15 issue of Neurology.
To determine the impact of intellectual enrichment on brain atrophy in people with MS, James F. Sumowski, Ph.D., of the Kessler Foundation Research Center in West Orange, N.J., and colleagues examined neuropsychological measures of learning and memory, and the lifetime accumulation of word knowledge in 44 MS patients.
The researchers found good scores on learning and memory tests among patients with mentally active lifestyles whether they had lower or higher amounts of brain atrophy. Among those whose lifestyles were less intellectually stimulating, the researchers found a greater association with slower rates of learning and lower recall in those with higher levels of brain atrophy than in those with less brain damage.
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