There's that 10 year thing again ...

What do they say happens after 45 years, Jack?

Here is my response for you. Remember you asked for it!

In about 85% of MS folks the 10 year rule applies (taking a Disease Modifying Medication may extend this for many years)

MS is a two-stage disease, with initial attacks of inflammatory demyelination, which damages myelin, followed approximately 10 years later by a slow, progressive neurdegenerative phase marked by loss of axons and nerve cells.

The results of this is noted by loss of the ability to walk. Some MS folks do enter this 2nd phase directly.

The final results is that in about 45 years we end up with having some real nasty ODD-D MS folks - ODD Old Demented Deranged folks with BIG Disability ratings in wheelchairs.

So cheer up things WILL get worse.

Some may want to explore what can be done to lower the excess Glutamate which our own diseased bodies produce that does this bad stuff to our axons and nerves. This is a pure "damage control" approach.

Of course if you have the cure for MS this would not be necessary.

jackD

LOL, Jack. I don't seem to follow your hypothisis, so far...thank God.

And I hope you stay that way, too, Sally!

MS is such an individual disease. If the researchers know enough to state so emphatically what it definitely is and isn't......then why can't they find a cure or at least a DMD that works well for everyone? Just sayin'...........

MS is more than a demyelinating disease! It also involves massive death of axons and neurons as the disease progresses beyond the myelin damage stage resulting in irreversible neurologic impairment.

jackD

N Engl J Med. 1998 Jan 29;338(5):278-85.

Axonal transection in the lesions of multiple sclerosis.

Trapp BD, Peterson J, Ransohoff RM, Rudick R, Mörk S, Bö L.

Department of Neurosciences, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, OH 44195, USA.

Comment in:

N Engl J Med. 1998 Jan 29;338(5):323-5.

BACKGROUND: Multiple sclerosis is an inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system and is the most common cause of neurologic disability in young adults.

Despite antiinflammatory or immunosuppressive therapy, most patients have progressive neurologic deterioration that may reflect axonal loss.

We conducted pathological studies of brain tissues to define the changes in axons in patients with multiple sclerosis.

METHODS: Brain tissue was obtained at autopsy from 11 patients with multiple sclerosis and 4 subjects without brain disease. Fourteen active multiple-sclerosis lesions, 33 chronic active lesions, and samples of normal-appearing white matter were examined for demyelination, inflammation, and axonal pathologic changes by immunohistochemistry and confocal microscopy.

Axonal transection, identified by the presence of terminal axonal ovoids, was detected in all 47 lesions and quantified in 18 lesions.

RESULTS: Transected axons were a consistent feature of the lesions of multiple sclerosis, and their frequency was related to the degree of inflammation within the lesion.

The number of transected axons per cubic millimeter of tissue averaged 11,236 in active lesions, 3138 at the hypocellular edges of chronic active lesions, 875 in the hypocellular centers of chronic active lesions, and less than 1 in normal-appearing white matter from the control brains.

CONCLUSIONS: Transected axons are common in the lesions of multiple sclerosis, and axonal transection may be the pathologic correlate of the irreversible neurologic impairment in this disease.

PMID: 9445407 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLIN

In about 85% of MS folks the 10 year rule applies (taking a Disease Modifying Medication may extend this for many years)

And what's that percentage for people ON DMD's?


So cheer up things WILL get worse.

Well aren't we a ray of sunshine!!!

I have been dx in 2006, but can trace back my first huge flair to 2001. that makes 9 years for me.

The big girl hospital told me that SPMS has an inflammatory component to it, and they do keep trying steroids as long as the patient shows improvement with the infusion (which I am) and that they will even continue some RRMS treatments such as copaxone. They just really hesistate to move someone to that catagory, unless they are kinda forced to.

One website said inflammatory follows all the way through, and one says NOPE, its only in RRMS, and yet another give a mixed view. If nothing else, this disease has confused me thoroughly.

Thanks for the spiffy drawing!