What is Digg?43 Comments
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -0/+16I like this news- my Mom was diagnosed with MS about 20 years ago and has been giving her self medication through a needle every single day for over five years. She had numbness in her legs and was losing feeling. Not a good situation to be in.
- IronWolf, on 10/11/2007, -0/+15My wife was diagnosed 5 years ago. She also talks about the numbness. She doesn't go outside during the day much anymore because of the heat and the effects it causes with the illness. She takes a shot every week with a very larger needle.
- Dudibob, on 10/11/2007, -1/+10multiple sclerosis (MS) is one of those things in RL
- Seidoger, on 10/11/2007, -4/+13Oh ha ha.
Thanks for writing down the obvious everyone had in mind.
But this is great, I know some people diagnosed with this, and it's not that joyful - blastus7, on 10/11/2007, -0/+9My sister was diagnosed when she was 25. This disease sucks. Hopefully something good will come from this research.
- GeeKman, on 10/11/2007, -0/+8My mom was diagnosed about 8 years ago with MS. now she has to take salumedrol ( a steroid) every few months or so. If she doesn't take the steroid she will probably be unable to walk again. these are not small doses, they are done through an IV 1000ml at a time for 3-5 days usually. the number of medications she must take is unbelievable(25-30 different kinds). I really hope this research develops some thing useful in treating this disease.
another note. If any one know some one who is on one of the newer treatments called Tysabri. and can point us to some good information on the drug (I know that it is dangerous, as in, it has killed people.) my mom is considering trying it to see if it works. Its her decision but I just want her to be informed before she decides. - theboredom, on 10/11/2007, -0/+8My dad died as an indirect result of his MS. He had it for almost 30 years, luckily he could still do most things for himself. He was on a cocktail of medicines and steroids and they didn't put him in the best state psychologically. I really hope better treatment can be developed as a result of these findings. It's tough.
- SourWorm, on 10/11/2007, -0/+8News like this makes me feel even better about doing the MS bike rides for National Multiple Sclerosis Society and raising money for them ....
p.s. Donations welcome http://www.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR?px=2780818&fr_id=3480&pg=personal&JServSessionIdr010=n98qkgg751.app40a - schmuckman99, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7I know a lot about MS because I have it. It is not fun, but thankfully I have what they call a benign course. They say that MS does not kill you but a lot of people do die by MS related issues. The illness is measured in two ways relapse rates and MRI scans. A measurement of how it improves is a lower relapse rate which means a lower amount of noticeable symptoms, these include numbness, vision difficulty etc. MRI scans measure the lesion activity in the brain and spinal cord. Not sure how they measured the mice but this is one step closer to finding out what is really going on.
One interesting aspect of MS is that there is no definite proof that it is an autoimmune disease. It is just a very educated guess.
@ironwolf
I know that needle very well, I have to have the shot tonight as a matter of fact. :) - GeeKman, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6from what I understand its not directly fatal. how ever the main treatment is to supress the immune system. which ofcourse can cause problems in its self. however I would guess that if the anti-bodies that are attacking the nervouse system attacked a bad spot (say the nerves that control your breathing or heart) then I suppose it could.
but I am not a doctor. just some one who helps take care of his mom who has MS. - meinva, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4I recommend going to the message boards on www.nmss.org, there seem to be quite a few people on there taking Tysabri. Good luck to your mom, I know I personnally can't wait until something better comes out. I am tired of being a pin cusion.
- rockrapdude, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4"When the protein was given back to the diseased mice, the illness improved." I can't understand this line. Did the illness start to go away or become worse? (Note to diggers: not everyone has English for their mother language)
- IronWolf, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4Avonex Interferon beta-1a is shot my wife takes. It still gives her flu like symptoms some times.
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4I think that means the health of the mice improved, and the disease weakened.
- 2timegrime, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3I have MS and was also taking a shot. Mine was once a week on friday, and its effects on me were worse than the MS symptoms I was also still having. I hope I dont make anyone angry but for me and where I am with the disease now I will never take another shot. I have been symptom free for the past 2 years, the medicine that has cured me grows up out of the ground. believe it or not all those pills and shots will end up killing you....
- schmuckman99, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3@geekman
Have her go to http://blog.healthtalk.com/multiple-sclerosis/life-with-ms/, there are people there with experience with that medication. Tysabri has killed people due to almost completely blocking the immune system from entering the CNS. The disease is called PML, which is easily handled by normal immune system. Keep in mind that those people who died where also taking other disease modifying drugs as well which may have contributed to their deaths. Since then I have not heard of any other deaths due to it.
Good luck and I wish your mom the best - sugarhigh4242, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Did Folding@Home have anything to do with this? I know Standford are the ones running it.
- philovance, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3These guys are the real Superstars in today's world. God bless you all.
- cogit0, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2To clarify, we've known the cause of MS for some time now: the body's immune system attacks particular types of cells that it shouldnt be attacking. Dr. Steinman and his group have simply clarified one aspect of this cause, the regulation of the immune system to prevent this from occurring. This does not indicate that it is the sole cause of MS, just a necessary component.
- Gatesophile, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2My dad has MS and uses marijuana medicinally and it helps him a great deal as well. I really hope it gets legalized some day soon so that people with diseases such as MS can have some relief from their symptoms.
- schmuckman99, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3Explain? Or are you just saying this for ***** and giggles.
- amoirae, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Earlier this year I was in the hosital because Tysabri depressed my immune system to the point that a cut developed a drug resistant form of cellulitus.
I was on Cipro and two different IV antibiotics for over a month.
I do believe with MS one has to be open to new/experimental treatments. Tysabri works for some people. It made me weaker and weaker. I still am looking for something that will give me a remission(been diagnosed since August 2001 with no remissions). A story like this at least is a shard of hope.
Until then I'm back on Copaxone, Solumedrol, prednisone, and a shelf load of other medications. But... it's better than the alternative. - guyincognitoo, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2It itself is not fatal, but you can die from complications. Richard Pryor had it, and while he died from a heart attack, the MS didn't help matters.
- meggani, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2It started to go away
- alpine75, on 10/11/2007, -3/+4Is MS fatal? I was under the impression that it was but I've heard from a few people that it may not be.
- IronWolf, on 10/11/2007, -4/+5http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_sclerosis
- guyincognitoo, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Tysabri is great, at least for me. I was on several of the CRAB drugs over the past 8 years, and while they helped, they weren't as good as tysabri. I was in the Phase II study, and over that 24 months, my MRI's were clear and I had no relapses. Here is the New England Journal of Medicine article about it. This is just the abstract, you have to pay for the full article.
content.nejm.org/cgi/content/abstract/354/9/899 - mythosmc, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1there was no mention about it on their folding site, big list of other things though
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1I'd like my mom to try cannabis as a medicine alternatively, but she's not really up on that kind of stuff so I don't know.. gotta be healthier
- mydiggacct, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0MS isn't really considered fatal. Of people with MS, only about 1 in 10 deaths are attributed to the disease. I believe the primary cause of death due to MS complications is suicide. Depression is a major effect of MS (not simply the fact that you have the disease), with suicide idealization. It's not fun.
- mydiggacct, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0@jparson4:
Have your wife take an Aleve before doing her shot, it's very good at stopping the flu like side effects before they start. Also, doing the shot at night makes it a bit easier. - JParsons4, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1@ theboredom:
Dude, you are so right. I was diagnosed with MS in mid-2005. My neuro suggested Copaxone first, but taking a needle every day wasn't that appealing to me, so I went with Avonex instead. For the first 7 months it seemed fine, but then like you said, the effects from Avonex were waaaay worse than MS. I haven't taken Avonex in 5 months and I feel way better not taking it than I did, and ironically, I haven't had a relapse since I stopped. I've been smoking weed all the way throughout and it actually helps with any pain I'm experiencing in my legs. I quit doing weed and I had 2 relapses right away 2 weeks after quitting, so 2 doctor's have told me to continue using it.
Here's another thing you should look into:
It's something called Nutriferon. Basically a doc found out how to increase the natural interferons your body produces, and therefore with more interferons they build up the blood brain barrier and it's a whole lot harder for your white blood cells to cross over and start doing ***** to you that it shouldn't be doing. It's 2 pills a day and it's only available from a place called shaklee, cuz they pretty much patented it and own it and etc etc etc. You should really give it a go. It's 30 or 40 bucks American I believe. You get a months supply of pills in once bottle. Hope this helps - it's helping me. - guyincognitoo, on 10/11/2007, -1/+0I know that one of the people who died had recently had a organ transplant of some kind, therefore she had a very weakened immune system. I think the other ones (3 total i believe) were fine when they started.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natalizumab - rockrapdude, on 10/11/2007, -4/+2He/She wanted an answer, not a wikipedia article.
- 2timegrime, on 10/11/2007, -2/+0please if you have MS or a loved one at least do some reading into medical use of marijuana. I have MS and have been symptom free for 2 years, Before I was taking AvonX, and Cropraxone (i misspelled these on purpose) and still suffered from symptoms, not to mention side effects of the shots and steroids. God bless you and I hope for some of you to find this information helpful.
- mbondr, on 10/11/2007, -6/+1Ah, another medical miracle for rich people.
- audiowizard, on 10/11/2007, -7/+2Diggers, never serious...
- capiCrimm, on 10/11/2007, -7/+2so all these years we've been arguing about a life crippling disease and not a software company? I don't even understand people on the internet anymore.
*hides in corner and cries* - inactive, on 10/11/2007, -8/+1I always thought it was god punishing people for some stupid reason or other!
- TexanPsycho, on 10/11/2007, -8/+1For a second, I thought it meant Microsoft.
- directedition, on 10/11/2007, -18/+10Harvard drop-outs are the cause apparently.
- slave25637, on 10/11/2007, -11/+2....
- puredeviation, on 10/11/2007, -27/+10I thought MS meant Microsoft...Scientists understanding the cause of Microsoft.
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is