An interesting article:

It focuses on how/possibly why there seems to be recent increase to cases of immune system attacks.

The article reads far better than I can report it!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...030303200.html

Niko

I think I posted this same article in another post. I found it on my local newspaper's website. I thought it was really interesting.

My allergies have been building up since I was about 12 or 13yrs old. Plus, my allergies started to seem to get worse about the time I started to notice some of the MS-ish symptoms.

I started getting food allergies around the time I had mononucleosis and was misdiagnosed and given an antibiotic. (mononucleosis + amoxicillin = an anyphylaxis-like reaction) It was after that, that I became allergic to seafood, my cat allergy got worse. I started to get allergies to things like grass (cant walk on it, or touch it with bare skin) I got allergies to some plants...cant touch an evergreen or have a live xmas tree, I'll sneeze, and if I touch it, I break out into hives.

Also started to get vertigo around a year after the mono. I think when they gave me that antibiotic, it triggered something in me, and did something to wake up all those allergies. So, I would not be surprised if the allergies could be one of the triggers for multiple sclerosis. (I think there's more than one trigger)

Here's a thought...

About a year ago, a genome study was done and an MS genome was identified.

My thought is this:

If our present-day immune system is getting flared up... it could be that genome that is getting turned on.

Hopefully, what I just wrote makes a bit of sense.

I needed to write it down before I forgot

Niko

I have had allergies since late childhood/early teens but this past summer they got worst and this is the 1st winter that I had had to take allergy meds every day. I just can't believe how bad it's gotten.

And you know I'm now sensitive to meds, I use to be able to take anything but some how about a year ago I became allergic to a lot of pain meds (you can read more on that under the Pain Meds thread). 2 years ago I take Vicoprofen for my fibro pain and now if I take it I itch so bad that I almost cry.

If I eat celery now my lips swell up and get hot. This also started up in the past 2 years.


I really feel like I'm just falling apart sometimes, LOL.

I'm sensitive to some medications...I have an atypical response to novocaine. It takes FOREVER for it to start working on me, and then my body will metabolize it very quickly. My old dentist used to have to give me the entire syringe of novocaine, and instead of working immediately like it does for most people, I can sit there a half hour and it still wont have taken effect.

Once it does take effect, it wears off in less time that it took for it to start to work. (this will make getting my amalgams removed kind of interesting, and probably painful, in a few weeks)

If I take a narcotic pain med, it'll knock me to the floor fairly quickly, when other people will still be able to stay awake and move around without looking totally wasted.

I had a few years where I suddenly discovered a bunch of food allergies. Things that I never had a problem with before. The weird thing is, that when my dog died 2yrs ago, all of a sudden the allergies lessened in severity and some seemed to go away.

I was having allergic reactions almost every day for the last couple of years of my dog's life...always after I would eat something.

The only thing I can think of, is that I was allergic to TinyMonsters, and the allergy might have been compounding my allergies. (dog allergy + X allergy = a worse allergic reaction)

I've played with a few different breeds of dogs. The ones with longer hair seem to be the ones that trigger my allergies. The shorter haired dogs (pugs, chihuahuas...) dont seem to cause me any problems.

A lot of my food allergies seem to have gone away. I still react to shellfish, but the pizza sauce at my favorite pizza place doesnt seem to bother me anymore. (I dont get sauce on my pizza at that place anymore, because I discovered that I like the pizza without sauce...less greasy without it)

I do wonder if 9yrs of living with a walking, shedding allergen named TinyMonsters might have been what triggered whatever immune response that's going on in me. I dont know. I can think back to before adopting Tiny, and can remember some weird MS-like problems. (I've had dogs my whole life)

I wont be surprised if they ever discover that an allergic response is what triggers the immune response that happens in MS.

I do think there's more than one trigger for MS. I think there has to be a certain combination of these triggers that somehow "turns on" that immune response. I wont be surprised to find out it's an environmental trigger, since where you live seems to be a factor too.

from NY times....i have been kinda freaked out b/c verified diagnosis via spinal fluid yesterday...so startin avonex on wednesday


March 4, 2008
From Multiple Sclerosis, a Multiplicity of Challenges
By JANE E. BRODY
When it comes to understanding, preventing and treating chronic diseases, multiple sclerosis ranks among the most challenging. The word “multiple” is apt in more ways than one.
Various suggested causes include early-life exposure to certain viruses or toxic agents, geographic and dietary influences, inherent immunological defects and underlying genetic susceptibilities.
MS is highly unpredictable. Rarely are any two patients alike in the presentation, duration and progression of symptoms; even the underlying cause of disability in MS is being reconsidered. And rarely do any two patients respond in the same way to a given therapy, be it medically established or alternative. Trial and error is the name of the game, experts say, because it is often not possible to know in advance what will work best for individual patients.
These are the frequent underpinnings of confusion and distrust among those afflicted and their families. They sometimes give rise to claims that the organizations raising large amounts of money to support research and patient services and the scientists studying the disease have no intention of finding a cure, lest it put them out of business. It is a ridiculous notion on its face, since many of those involved in fund-raising and research have watched loved ones suffer and succumb to diseases like MS.
The failure of the medical establishment to solve mysteries like MS also prompts many patients to seek alternative remedies suggested by friends and relatives or found on the Internet. Many of these remedies are harmless, and some may actually be helpful, at least for a time. But when the remedies keep patients from trying the best that modern medicine can offer — or when they interact negatively with established remedies — the result can be a far more rapid downhill course than might otherwise have occurred.
The goal, then, for those considering alternative treatments is to make them complementary to, not competitive with, therapies that have passed muster in well-designed clinical trials.
“People have only one brain and one spinal cord, and what everyone with MS should be doing is optimizing treatment options every single day,” said Dr. Allen C. Bowling, a neurologist at the Rocky Mountain MS Center and author of “Complementary and Alternative Medicine and Multiple Sclerosis.” “Every patient should play the chips for which we have the best evidence. They should take advantage of what conventional medicine has to offer along with unconventional medicine,” as long as the latter does not interfere with the former.
Treatment Options
Multiple sclerosis is an inflammatory autoimmune disease of the central nervous system in which the body’s own immune system attacks the myelin sheath that insulates nerves in the brain and spinal cord, resulting in irreversible damage to the axons that transmit nervous-system signals. About 400,000 people in the United States are affected, twice as many women as men.
MS is typically diagnosed between ages 20 and 40, but evidence indicates that it starts years before the first symptoms of weakness or disability appear. Even without a cure, many treatments are available — like drugs, physical and occupational therapy, exercise and rest — that can ease symptoms and delay the disease’s progression.
In most patients, the disease starts out, and may stay indefinitely, in a relapsing-remitting form that results in gradual progressive disability but is rarely life-threatening. In about 10 percent of patients, the disease is progressive from the outset and life expectancy is reduced.
The goal of therapy is to prevent relapses and the worsening of symptoms. Since symptoms can disappear on their own, large, long-term, scientifically controlled clinical trials are needed to determine what works and what only seems to work initially. Trials are also needed to uncover potentially serious side effects.
Such trials have identified half a dozen substances called immune modulators, five of which have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration as disease-modifying agents. These are Avonex, Betaseron, Copaxane, Novantrone and Rebif.
In her book “Multiple Sclerosis: An Essential Guide for the Newly Diagnosed,” Margaret Blackstone, a medical writer and MS patient, describes Avonex, Betaseron and Rebif as interferon-based treatments administered by injection that seek to calm an overactive immune system. Copaxane, also taken by injection, is an antigen that fools the body into thinking it is the protein in myelin. It is meant to protect the myelin from an immunological attack. Novantrone is an immunosuppressive cancer drug used to treat progressive MS.
A sixth drug, Tysabri, a monoclonal antibody that prevents immune cells from entering the brain, is given intravenously every four weeks. Tysabri was removed from the market in 2004 because of serious complications in three patients. It is now back in clinical trials and available through a special program to those who had found it to be the best treatment for their disease, but last week its makers posted a warning to doctors that it has been found to cause serious liver damage in some patients.
Therapy and Alternatives
Up to 20 percent of patients have a relatively mild form of MS and may not need drug treatment, but it is impossible to predict who they are. Dr. Bowling emphasized the importance of not waiting until neurological defects appear, since they cannot be reversed by any known therapy. He also said that therapies should be tailored to the nature of each patient’s disease and the known activity of the various drugs.
Ms. Blackstone states it is important for patients to recognize an impending relapse — common indicators are fatigue and “a heightened sense of vulnerability, as if the person can tell something bad is going to happen” — and not try to work through a relapse. “It’s better to rest” and “avoid engaging in strenuous activity,” she suggests.
If relapse symptoms warrant, corticosteroids can be used to speed recovery and possibly to delay or prevent another relapse. The other critically important aspect of therapy involves managing symptoms. Depending upon the stage and severity of the disease, symptoms may include fatigue, dizziness, vision changes, spasticity, weakness, tremor, numbness, balance problems, pain, depression, constipation and speech difficulties. In more advanced disease, sexual problems and incontinence are common.
Measures may be taken to reduce disability from these symptoms, like physical, occupational and speech therapy and psychotherapy; avoiding heat; getting adequate rest; and learning to listen to one’s limitations.
At one point or another, most MS patients also seek out, and often benefit from, complementary and alternative medicine, like acupuncture, dietary supplements, biofeedback, meditation, guided imagery, tai chi, cooling therapy, yoga, therapeutic touch and electromagnetic therapy. In his book, Dr. Bowling describes what is known about each of these possible adjuncts to medically established treatments, some of which can be counterproductive or negate the benefits of medication.
This is the first of two columns on multiple sclerosis. Next week: Could a special diet for MS patients be worth trying?