Remyelination possible?
 

This story was in the Rochester Post Bulletin today..I see my Neuro up at the University Hospital the end of this month..I look forward to asking him about it..
http://www.postbulletin.com/newsmana...p?a=338280&z=2

What I don't understand about myelin, is this: if it's mostly made up of fat and I'm overweight, how in the world can I have MS??? :confused:

Let us know what you find out, K? :p

That's what I want to know too.

and, if the myelin needs fat, I have plently in other parts of my body to spare, we could just wrap my nerves with that fat and then maybe things could go back to what passed for normal before all this MS crap started.

In fact, perhaps you are overweight because of a lack of myelin . . .

"What does myelin do?

Myelin speeds the conduction of nerve impulses by a factor of 10 compared to unmyelinated fibers of the same diameter. This increases the nervous system's information processing speed and delivery, decreasing reaction times to stimuli, increasing temporal precision, more closely synchronizing spatially-distributed targets (e.g. different regions of a muscle sheet) and providing for shorter delays in feedback loops, increasing their intrinsic stability.

Myelin has other advantageous characteristics. It confers a several hundred-fold improvement in metabolic efficiency for recouping the energy cost of nerve impulse traffic. For a nervous system such as ours, which already accounts for an age-dependent 20-50% of the body's resting metabolic energy budget, this is not an inconsequential advantage. Were we a non-myelinated species, we would have greatly diminished problems with being overweight!"

(That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. :-) )

http://www.pbrc.hawaii.edu/~danh/Inv...te_myelin.html

A simple explanation of myelin:

"... think of a nerve as a copper cable. If you run a current through it, it travels at a certain speed across the cable depending on the internal resistance of the cable. Different elements have differrent cunduction speeds.

Anyway, physicist have known a trick for a while now that helps in increasing conduction speeds. The way to do this is instead of having an uninsulated wire, you insulate the wire but leave gaps in the insulation to allow the current to actually jump across the insulated part to the next gap. This increases the speed of cunduction by a large amount, and this is what the myelin sheath actually does.

Also, a neat little fact is that the myelin sheath acts as a scaffolding for damaged neurons, which allows them to regenerate. Non myelinated neurons are screwed once they are damaged, and do not regenerate."

http://au.answers.yahoo.com/answers2...AA3P2La&show=7

Here's a pretty picture:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgu...LR:en%26sa%3DN

Cherie

I don't know if this can be traced to weight or not -

1995 - 111 lbs
1996 - 109 - 140
1997 - 111 - 130
1998 - 135 - 140
1999 - 135 - 150
2000 - 135 - 150
2001 - pg does not count
Up and down bet 140 and 150 till late 07
12-07 - 150-160
01-08 - 150-160
02-08 - 160-170 major MS sx - DX mid 2-08
03-08 - 170-185
04-08 - 190-200

at 5'6, I do not see how I could be considered fat till after DX.
Maybe I'm just to up and down to be a good study person
Oh, I know the old weight b/c of prior DH and his dislike of fat women
BTW - the most healthy and happy except for pg related things was when I was pg. I never got sick once and was never depressed. Maybe I need to get pg again LOL

Oh, Puhleeze, PolarEx!!! You are not FAT! You're not even pleasingly plump!!! :rolleyes:

But I agree with you -- fuhgettabout the DMD's: let's regenerate myelin!!!

You always were my favorite, Twink! :D
I think winter coats and sweaters can cover a multitude of sins..Hopefully the warmer, drier weather (it WILL get here eventually) will help with the extra winter pounds..

Uhhhh, I tend to avoid sweaters because they expose my sins!!!

If they can't regenerate myelin, I'll settle for an anti-fat pill!!! :D






I drank a SlimFast once, but the next morning I was still fat... :confused:

Let us have our delusions. :):D:eek:

It's good to know there are ppl who are making the testing process faster. I keep hearing all these advances in other areas like diabetics but wonder where all the money is for MS research.

I'm just glad to see someone is working on something that could help all people with MS, not just one form of it or another. Could help other diseases as well. I really try not to get my hopes up about every new thing, but this would be wonderful..