'Diagnose and adios'*

Balancing Act

Noise is the key to restoring the body's sense of equilibrium

I want these shoes! Interesting article on vibrating insoles and balance.

More here.

We are developing noise-based devices, such as vibrating insoles, to improve balance control in older adults and patients with diabetic neuropathy, stroke, Parkinson's disease, and multiple sclerosis, respectively.

More information and references  here.

Serono plans multiple sclerosis treatment by inhalation

Yaaaaa!

Serono of Switzerland is planning to expand its billion dollar multiple sclerosis franchise with a new version of interferon beta that would do away with the need for injections, reports Phil Taylor.

The company already sells an injectable drug for MS, Rebif (interferon beta 1a) and has small molecule, orally active drugs in its pipeline. These could now been joined by an inhaleable formulation that would provide a more patient-friendly alternative to the current injectable drugs for MS, and could improve efficacy.

Inhale here.

Biogen, Elan Suspend Tysabri After Death

Biogen Idec and Elan Corporation Plc on Monday suspended sales of their much-heralded new multiple sclerosis drug Tysabri after a patient died from a rare but frequently fatal central nervous system disease.

More here.

Solid evidence that best treatment for multiple sclerosis is pregnancy

For years, doctors have suggested the best treatment for multiple sclerosis is pregnancy. Now, an Oregon study is delivering solid evidence to support the theory.

Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University and the Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center have uncovered the mechanism by which estrogen, produced in high volumes during pregnancy, boosts the expression and number of regulatory cells that are key to fighting MS and other autoimmune diseases, such as arthritis and diabetes.

One treatment I guess I won't be on. More here,

Wunago -- Your guide to Wheelchair Accessible Travel -- www.wunago.com

Contrary to rumor, Wunago is not an ancient tribe of wheelchair warriors. The name "Wunago" comes from a desire many people with disabilities have. They "want to go" places and see new things and experience everything life has to offer. Based on his personal travel experiences,l LorenlWorthingtonlrecognized that travel is far less stressful if you have a clear understanding of what type of accessibility lies ahead. More over, when you hear about a great place to visit that offers a wheelchair-friendly environment, you have a tendency to go explore.

Travel here.

Cannabis Spray To Treat Multiple Sclerosis

GW Pharmaceuticals and Bayer HealthCare announced they have submitted an application to Health Canada to market a cannabis based drug. The drug, Sativex, has been developed for the treatment of the debilitating symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and severe neuropathic pain.

Spray here.

Chemo could help treat multiple sclerosis

Doctors at Drexel University reported promising results using huge doses of a potent chemotherapy drug in treating autoimmune diseases including multiple sclerosis, though an MS researcher said more patients and time are needed before any victory is declared.
The drug, cyclophosphamide, is given to patients at such high doses that most or all of the person's disease-fighting immune cells are destroyed.
The patient's stem cells within their bone marrow survive the drug's onslaught, the doctors say, and are stimulated with drugs to rebuild the immune system from scratch - but without the bad triggers that cause the body to attack its own cells.
"Once the immune cells are destroyed, they come back no longer recognizing the stimulus that brought them on," Dr. Isadore Brodsky, director of hematology and oncology at Drexel's Hahnemann University Hospital, said Monday. "The immune system comes back naive, so it's tolerant of whatever trigger caused the autoimmune response."

More here.

You might be able to find more here.

Converging on MS

A group of local doctors is forming an innovative treatment-and-research hub for multiple sclerosis, a mysterious, debilitating disease that, on a per capita basis, afflicts more people in Washington than in any other state.

The newly formed not-for-profit MS Hub plans to serve MS patients in a five-state region that includes Washington, Idaho, Montana, Alaska and Hawaii.
If it opens as planned in July, in a 40,000-square-foot clinic in Seattle's Metropolitan Park office complex near South Lake Union, it will be the largest such MS center in the world, said founding neurologist Craig Smith.

More here.

Craig runs a small clinic in Anchorage, no wonder it's been hard to get an appointment with him.

More info on MS and the Pacific Northwest:
Northwest research centers among leaders in unraveling mystery of MS
VA funds Northwest center to battle MS

"This is a great opportunity to improve care for 50,000 veterans in the U.S. who have multiple sclerosis," said Dr. Dennis Bourdette, co-director for the new MS Center of Excellence West. Bourdette also is a staff neurologist at the Portland VAMC, interim chair of the Department of Neurology at Oregon Health & Science University and co-director of the MS Center of Oregon.

Levetiracetam and MS Spasticity

Spasticity is a condition in which muscles cramp so badly that a person can't even walk. It is one of the most common symptoms of multiple sclerosis, but that may be changing. Here's promising research that gets some MS patients back on their feet.

Kim Pullin enjoys visits to the park with her daughter. Not long ago, multiple sclerosis would have made this trip impossible. "The spasms appeared in my arm, in my leg, in my hands. I absolutely could not walk on my leg," she tells Ivanhoe.

Pullin's neurologist Kathleen Hawker, M.D., gave her levetiracetam -- a drug used to control epileptic seizures. "I was noticing that some patients were using it for pain, and I also noticed their stiffness, cramps and spasms were also improving," says Dr. Hawker, of UT Southwestern in Dallas.

More here.

Brain damage seen in multiple sclerosis patients

Brain scans suggest that nerve fiber damage may be the cause of the fatigue suffered by patients with multiple sclerosis.

Nearly nine out of ten patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) report a debilitating level of fatigue, as well as neurological symptoms such as weakness, tremors and slurred speech. Now researchers at the Montreal Neurological Institute think they have a new insight into the origins of this fatigue.

They gave magnetic resonance spectroscopy scans to a group of 60 patients with MS so that the extent of nerve fiber damage within the nervous system could be measured. They divided the patients into low and high fatigue sub-groups depending upon the level of fatigue reported. They found that there was more nerve fiber damage and poorer nerve functioning within the high fatigue group. This is an interesting study that sheds new light on MS and explains, perhaps, why existing therapies to tackle fatigue often don’t work.

More...

Safety of New Nasal Spray for Influenza Immunizations

The flu seems to be picking up steam this winter. Here's some advice from the doctor that diagnosed my MS.

"There is no safety data on this nasal spray for influenza immunizations. Since it is a live attenuated vaccine, it should not be used in people with MS who are on immunosuppressive medications (chronic steroids, mitoxantrone, cyclophosphamide, azathioprine, methotrexate). However, I would emphasize that unlike some of the other live vaccines (e.g. chickenpox) there is an alternative vaccine (the traditional flu vaccine) for which there is good safety data in MS. Using the live attenuated nasal spray means using a vaccine for which we have no safety data in MS, in place of one which we have safety data. It is worth emphasizing that 1) the effects of interferon-beta in response to live vaccines is unknown, and 2) inactivated vaccine may be less likely to provoke systemic response than the live vaccine. The safety of the traditional inactivated flu vaccine in MS has been well-studied. As a physician, I recommend that over the nasal vaccine. However, it is preferred that a patient take a nasal vaccine over not being vaccinated at all."

Read it here.

The use of CAM by people with MS

Canadian study on the use of complementary and alternative medicines. The results of this study demonstrate that people with MS are likely to be using some type of CAM.

"Seventy percent of respondents had used CAM within the past two years. Over 100 different practices and products were described."

"Although a small number of people reported experiencing negative effects from CAM (5%), the vast majority perceived positive effects (72%). Therapies most often cited as beneficial were massage therapy, acupuncture and cannabis. The most common reasons for using CAM were to improve health (68%), to lessen the symptoms of MS (61%) and a belief that it couldn’t hurt (55%). Reasons most frequently endorsed for not using CAM were lack of knowledge about these therapies (42%) and satisfaction with the care provided by conventional practitioners (20%)."

Read it here.

Company Summaries

I added a company summaries list to the website. These are companies who create MS related drugs. One way to keep up on current research and information on drugs is to follow the money, eh company that manufactures drugs.