Thank you all for responing so far. Each post brought an insightful and valid point to the table.

This is something that has been rolling around in my head for years, i.e. where are the cures? I like being able to see all the angles of attack and be part of a great debate/conversation.

I'l throw this out as well: It's much more profitable to treat a disease, than cure it. Many comedians and even us regular Joes have pointed out the side effects of most drugs are worse than the original problem. "Possible explosive diahrea, hallucinations and flea infestation??? That's OK. I'll just live with it". At the same time I realize that even if we were part of a completely honest society, there's only so much we can do.

Pharmacueticals (sp) are BIG business. And the barage of commercials on TV with the smiling faces that politely and calmly remind you of possible side effects... No better than the hood pushing his dope on the corner.

I guess I'm just in awe of something so small, (microscopic) can do so much damage on an individual and even on a world wide level.

And how we can't seem to keep up.

I used to do inbound telemarketing. I was one of the people who answered the phone when you called about any Ronco product, Time Life music sets, or if you wanted information about Valtrex, toenail fungus meds, Imitrex for migraines and a lot of other stuff.

I read those disclosures so many times I still have them memorized and I havent done telemarketing for over 7yrs now. I get migraines, but everytime I read the disclosure about Imitrex and the heart problems that it might cause, I always told myself, I'll just live with the migraines. I still have never tried Imitrex even tho my migraines have worsened. (I take Midrin instead)

I think the drug companies put out the commercials, so they can convince people they have this horrible problem by having a bunch of guys sing a knock off of an Elvis song, just so they can get doctors to give people these medications to fix whatever ails them with one of their pills.

You should see all the free crap my aunt and my dad bring home from the drug companies pimping their drugs at the hospitals that my dad and aunt work at. (my aunt probably has about 50 different items that have the word Viagra plastered all over it) I used to use pens with the names of drugs all over them in grade school. I could always tell when someone stole my pen because I was one of the few kids who used a pen that said "Simvastatin", or "Lasix" on it.

My dad just gave me a flashlight keychain and a notebook that's advertising some antihistamine on it. The drug companies really want doctors to use this stuff, and they'll give the doctors all sorts of trinkets to bribe them into using their drug-du jour.

Call me an optimist, but I truly believe that if a cure could be found, one would be. And that goes for any disease. Imagine the ego boost of doing so, never mind the money and awards to follow.

Recently I watched a documentary about the epigenome. I had to wonder if this field of study would lead to some answers about ms as well as a lot of other things.

The epigenome best as I can say it means this....

We are affected by what happened to out grandparents when their reproductive cells were fornming, men by therir grandfathers, women by their granmothers. So, what circumstances surrounded grandma while she was in the womb would tell a lot about the furure possibilities of a woman's health.

Likewise, when grampa was prepubescent, his lifestyle would determine a lot of the outcome for his grandsons.


Boys who had more than plenty to eat were found to later become grandfathers to boys with 3x as high a rate for diabetes, for example.

Grandmothers born in times of famine had grandaughters who tended to have shortened lifespans.

Maybe ms is not about what disease we had that triggered it, but what the grandparents were subjected to. Something to think about.

And maybe whether we're too heavy, or how smoking affects us can be linked to them too. It's not just whether they had the same problem, but what happened to them in the womb or early life.

Mine were all born in New Jersey, so either I don't stand a chance or I'm immune to most toxic chemicals.

:winky: