Welcome! This blog contains research & information on lifestyle, nutrition and health for those with MS, as well as continuing information on the understanding of the endothelium and heart-brain connection. This blog is informative only--all medical decisions should be discussed with your own physicians.

The posts are searchable---simply type in your topic of interest in the search box at the top left.

Almost all of MS research is initiated and funded by pharmaceutical companies. This maintains the EAE mouse model and the auto-immune paradigm of MS, and continues the 20 billion dollar a year MS treatment industry. But as we learn more about slowed blood flow, gray matter atrophy, and environmental links to MS progression and disability--all things the current drugs do not address--we're discovering more about how to help those with MS.

To learn how this journey began, read my first post from August, 2009. Be well! Joan

Thursday, April 7, 2016

MS Society research funding '16



The vascular connection to MS is reluctantly being acknowledged by mainstream neurological researchers. All you have to do is look at the latest batch of funding by the National MS Society. Many of the studies involve research we've discussed on this blog, and involve looking at this disease in a new way.

Here's the MS Society press release and announcement on their $25 million dollar research funding commitments. There is a link on this release to all of the funded studies:

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/national-ms-society-invests-over-25-million-in-new-research-and-clinical-training-to-stop-multiple-sclerosis-restore-function-and-end-ms-forever-300245933.html

Some of the funded studies (with my prior blog posts linked below them)

Monitoring loss of gray matter in the thalamus
http://ccsviinms.blogspot.com/2016/01/thalamic-atrophy-and-ms-progression.html
Fibrinogen in the blood,
http://ccsviinms.blogspot.com/2015/10/a-single-drop-of-blood.html
The protective role of Vitamin D,
http://ccsviinms.blogspot.com/2015/12/vitamin-d-news-it-boosts-remyelination.html
Microvessels and circulation of the eye,
http://ccsviinms.blogspot.com/2012/03/vascular-health-and-brain-eyes-have-it.html
and "wellness strategies"
(pretty much most of this blog)

Looks familiar, right?  Certainly not ground-breaking or "cutting edge" research to those of us following the vascular connection for the past decade.

Sadly, there is no funded research on the newly discovered lymphatic system of the brain or the venous drainage of the CNS.  Nothing on the heart-brain axis or cardiovascular exercise. Nothing on nutrition. That's what I would call "cutting edge!"
But there is a shift which is happening, and it's very important to point this out.


There's a mention of funding research into "sparing important, protective parts of the immune system" in MS treatment---which seems to be an about-face from the second generation immune ablating and lymphocyte sequestering drugs recently foisted on people with MS---and actually admitting that the brain has an immune system and needs immune cells.


The latest "Second Generation MS drugs" destroy or inhibit the immune response in the CNS, leaving the brain unprotected. Immune cell "sparing" research comes a bit late for the thousands of people with PML, cancer or new autoimmune conditions from these drugs. MS drug treatment remains a $20 billion dollar a year industry, and the second generation drugs are far too profitable to shelve. They just all have black box warnings now. Thanks, FDA!

Here's what the NMSS says about these disastrous FDA approved drugs in their press release.


There are FDA-approved therapies that can impact the underlying disease course in people with the more common forms of MS. However, none of these can stop progression or reverse the damage to restore function.

That's right. They've done studies now on whether or not the drugs stop progression or restore function. And there is no empirical evidence that any of the new treatments do either. MS patients need to understand these facts. They are still peddling these FDA approved drugs with diasterous and deadly side-effects, because that's what they've got.

MS Societies---You really want to finish MS?


Look to the neurovascular connection: the endothelium, the lymphatic drainage system, the newly discovered CNS immune system, and the heart brain axis. Lots of researchers outside of neuroimmunology are doing just that.

These researchers could really use some funding.

You might want to check out their conference at the Academy of Sciences, near your headquarters in New York City, at the end of this month.

http://isnvd.org/newyork



Joan










No comments:

Post a Comment