W5 investigates intriguing new theory about MS
Nick
opening veins in your neck to allow proper blood flow. He believes the
buildup of iron is causing MS. I guess a number of people have been treated
and its working.
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20091120/MS_W5_091120/20091120?hub=TopStoriesV2
evilzona
whatsamatter nick, getting lonely on your new forum? ;)
evilzona
or should that be nickwad?
so we have tickwad, dickwad, and nickwad.
blah
end up resorting to childish name calling.... Wow davey your pathetic get a
f'n life.
I can see your jealous that you can't find something useful to post.
or maybe your upset about this post
http://www.as-ms.com/asms/forum/index.php?t=msg&th=94&start=0&S=d40aa706875213d619a5cd0a582cd4a6
"Nick" <ni...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:pnINm.54316$PH1.20045@edtnps82...
evilzona
> He's nice enough to pass something along that I find interesting. But you
> end up resorting to childish name calling.... Wow davey your pathetic get a
> f'n life.
>
> I can see your jealous that you can't find something useful to post.
>
> or maybe your upset about this post
>
>
> "Nick" <ni...@gmail.com> wrote in message
>
> news:pnINm.54316$PH1.20045@edtnps82...
>
>
>
> > Not sure if anyting on this has been posted yet. But its some Italian dr.
> > opening veins in your neck to allow proper blood flow. He believes the
> > buildup of iron is causing MS. I guess a number of people have been
> > treated and its working.
>
>
> - Show quoted text -
lol, you're a fucking joke blah.
you havent posted anything useful since I've been on this forum.
You're part of the problem.
I couldnt care any less about nickwads new forum.
I couldnt care any less about THIS forum.
The only reason I post is because of fools like yourself.
blah
I'm part of the problem??? i'm just giving you useless TROLLS a hard time.
But YOU little davey are the one who constantly posts trash
insults and down right ignorant posts. I just return the favour.If you would
actually post
something useful I wouldn't be here.
Why would a normal caring person come to a support group and flame, swear
insult and just act down right childish??? Thats because your are bitter and
sore from what MS has done to you. But your actions just make you look
foolish.
In the months since you've joined this group, I haven't seen one... not one
useful post that wasn't part of your usual flaming kiddie routine.
Should I tell your mommy on you? I know you live in her basement.
"blah" <f...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:a9mOm.54854$ie1....@news.usenetserver.com...
evilzona
> Your truely a pathetic loser....
>
> I'm part of the problem??? i'm just giving you useless TROLLS a hard time.
> But YOU little davey are the one who constantly posts trash
> insults and down right ignorant posts. I just return the favour.If you would
> actually post
> something useful I wouldn't be here.
>
> Why would a normal caring person come to a support group and flame, swear
> insult and just act down right childish??? Thats because your are bitter and
> sore from what MS has done to you. But your actions just make you look
> foolish.
>
> In the months since you've joined this group, I haven't seen one... not one
> useful post that wasn't part of your usual flaming kiddie routine.
>
> Should I tell your mommy on you? I know you live in her basement.
>
> "blah" <f...@gmail.com> wrote in message
>
> news:a9mOm.54854$ie1....@news.usenetserver.com...
>
>
>
> > He's nice enough to pass something along that I find interesting. But you
> > end up resorting to childish name calling.... Wow davey your pathetic get
> > a f'n life.
>
> > I can see your jealous that you can't find something useful to post.
>
> > or maybe your upset about this post
>
>
> > "Nick" <ni...@gmail.com> wrote in message
> >news:pnINm.54316$PH1.20045@edtnps82...
> >> Not sure if anyting on this has been posted yet. But its some Italian dr.
> >> opening veins in your neck to allow proper blood flow. He believes the
> >> buildup of iron is causing MS. I guess a number of people have been
> >> treated and its working.
>
>
> - Show quoted text -
lol, what a dickhead!
blah
<< lol, what a dickhead
"blah" <f...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:CCEOm.55701$ie1....@news.usenetserver.com...
evilzona
>
> >> "Nick" <ni...@gmail.com> wrote in message
> >>news:pnINm.54316$PH1.20045@edtnps82...
> >>> Not sure if anyting on this has been posted yet. But its some Italian
> >>> dr. opening veins in your neck to allow proper blood flow. He believes
> >>> the buildup of iron is causing MS. I guess a number of people have been
> >>> treated and its working.
>
>
> - Show quoted text -
unlike most everyone in the pitiful group of 'supporters'. I couldnt
really care
any less how 'everyone' feels about me blah, you moron.
I notice you emulating me quite a bit, am I your hero?
Shame how lonely and pitiful this disease makes some of us feel, eh
blah?
That is, if you really have ms at all. I've heard that some folks are
so lonely they'll
pretend to have a disease so they can participate in online forums
like this one.
My guess is you need psycological help. Your name suggests a low self-
esteem.
HappyPoet
You need professional psychological help. I hope you are able to find
that help because your posts continually show how lonely, scared and
disabled you have become -- you are in a sad situation. I'm sorry MS
has done this to you.
Everyone else,
Totally ignoring him is the only way he will leave this group, then he
will try to find somewhere else to get the attention he needs, BUT
since this group is unmoderated, this is probably the only place he
can post... so IGNORE him.
If he ever posts something normal, something useful, then thank him
for his contribution to the group. IGNORE his bad behavior, REINFORCE
his good behavior -- simple psych, really.
~HappyPoet
evilzona
lol
evilzona
thank you my kind friend.
You are so wise and all knowing mr happy poet.
lol
evilzona
> On Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:59:26 -0800 (PST), HappyPoet
> this.
>
> I have suggested that everyone kill filter him and move on. You will
> not miss anything important.- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
hey dickhead, why dont you mind your own business.
I dont give a fuck if you can see this or not, ya big pussy.
Nick
anger and mental issues. He's only here because this isn't moderated and he
can't be banned or kicked out of here. But we do have the killfiles, I also
have
a script running on my site to remove all his posts as well. So its like he
doesn't
even exist to me :)
"Peter Black" <no...@none.us> wrote in message
news:hhaog5d870qll79fd...@4ax.com...
> On Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:59:26 -0800 (PST), HappyPoet
evilzona
> I agree, add him to your killfile and forget about the loser. He has severe
> anger and mental issues. He's only here because this isn't moderated and he
> can't be banned or kicked out of here. But we do have the killfiles, I also
> have
> a script running on my site to remove all his posts as well. So its like he
> doesn't
> even exist to me :)
>
>
> news:hhaog5d870qll79fd...@4ax.com...
>
>
>
> > On Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:59:26 -0800 (PST), HappyPoet
> > <pali...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >>evilzona,
>
> >>You need professional psychological help. I hope you are able to find
> >>that help because your posts continually show how lonely, scared and
> >>disabled you have become -- you are in a sad situation. I'm sorry MS
> >>has done this to you.
>
> >>Everyone else,
>
> >>Totally ignoring him is the only way he will leave this group, then he
> >>will try to find somewhere else to get the attention he needs, BUT
> >>since this group is unmoderated, this is probably the only place he
> >>can post... so IGNORE him.
>
> >>If he ever posts something normal, something useful, then thank him
> >>for his contribution to the group. IGNORE his bad behavior, REINFORCE
> >>his good behavior -- simple psych, really.
>
> >>~HappyPoet
>
> > His wife/girlfriend had cancer and died. At least, one blog reported
> > this.
>
> > I have suggested that everyone kill filter him and move on. You will
>
> - Show quoted text -
lol, I'm heartbroken nickwad.
Too bad you have to alter the way you do things, and I have to
do....NOTHING!
Fucking loser!
ironjustice
buildup of iron is causing MS. <<
W5 - Liberation Treatment Q and A
21/11/2009 5:57:49 PM
CTV.ca News Staff
A group of doctors in Italy is investigating a fascinating new
treatment for multiple sclerosis, based on a theory that, if proven
true, could radically alter the lives of patients. An investigation by
CTV's W5 reveals this treatment appears to stop the disease from
progressing. Here are further details on the treatment.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What is CCSVI?
CCSVI is a condition called "Chronic Cerebrospinal Venous
Insufficiency" and was discovered by Dr. Paolo Zamboni, a vascular
surgeon at the University of Ferrara in Italy. It refers to a
narrowing or blockage of the primary veins draining blood from the
brain to the heart. These include the jugular veins, veins along the
spinal column and the azygos vein in the upper chest.
This narrowing restricts the normal outflow of blood from the brain.
As a result, the blood often "refluxes" that is: it flows backwards
into the brain. Some think the resulting flow and building pressure
pushes blood into the tissue around vessels in the brain, resulting in
toxic iron deposits that some believe may trigger inflammation, injury
to brain tissue and cell death.
Here is a full list of Zamboni's published studies and presentations.
What is CCSVI's relationship to MS?
Dr. Zamboni has used Doppler ultrasound to scan the heads and necks of
over 500 MS patients and found the blocked, narrowed and sometimes
missing veins of CCSVI in almost 100 per cent of them. These problems
were found only in MS patients, not in healthy people nor in those
with other neurological conditions.
Dr. Zamboni's first study involving Doppler ultrasound was published
in 2007 in the journal Current Neurovascular Research. Most of the MS
patients have CCSVI either in the jugular veins or in the main vein in
the central chest called the azygos. The more vein malformations that
impede flow, the greater the severity of symptoms, the researchers
contend.
Dr. Zamboni says his findings are considered 'proof of concept" that
CCSVI is strongly associated with MS. In December, 2008, Dr. Zamboni
and his team published their findings in the Journal of Neurology,
Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.
Doctors in the United States and Poland have also scanned a small
number of MS patients and found they too have CCSVI. Dr. Michael Dake
at Stanford University in California has also been scanning patients
and finding a striking similarity to Zamboni's findings.
What role does iron play in MS?
Scientists have long recognized MS patients have increased amounts of
iron in the brain compared to healthy people. Iron is dangerous to the
brain because it produces free radicals which kill brain cells.
Zamboni noticed iron deposits occurred around veins and he surmised
the iron accumulation was caused by a problem with drainage in the
veins that flow from the brain.
He believes the narrowing or blockages in the veins of MS patients
cause blood to flow backward into the vein and deposit the toxic iron.
According to Zamboni's theory, this causes inflammation, and triggers
an immune response -the picture of MS. New MRI technology is allowing
scientists to more clearly see iron in the brain, speeding study.
Here are pictures of iron deposits in MS and normal brain tissue.
Has this theory been raised before?
It has, most recently in 2003. Researcher Rohit Bakshi and colleagues
at the University of Buffalo suggested iron deposits deep in the brain
might cause MS/
In the 1980s, Dr. Franz Schelling in Austria also made a link. But it
wasn't until Zamboni began doing his ultrasounds on patient necks
followed by his experimental treatment that the idea has developed any
traction.
What causes CCSVI?
Doctors are not sure but they believe that veins that are susceptible
to blocking and twisting develop in the womb as a congenital birth
defect or early in childhood. There could be environmental factors as
well.
There is also a theory that low levels of vitamin D might play a
role. It's been well-documented that higher rates of MS are seen in
countries with lower exposure to vitamin D through sunlight and diet.
Since vitamin D is critical to the normal development of the immune
system and also in the development of blood vessels and endothelial
tissue -- the thin layer of cells that line the interior surface of
blood vessels. The theory is that low levels of vitamin D in utero or
early in childhood may impair the body's ability to form healthy
vessels and lead to the narrowing and blockages seen in CCSVI. But
this is not yet proven; more research is needed.
What is "The Liberation Treatment"?
It's a still-experimental procedure developed by Zamboni and his
colleagues, Dr. Fabrizio Salvi and Dr. Roberto Galleotti. Just as
doctors do in angioplasty to unblock veins to the heart, with this
treatment, doctors thread wires through the veins that drain blood
from the brain. When they find a narrowing, they insert a balloon and
inflate it. The pressure of the balloon usually opens the narrowed
vein, though sometimes doctors need to use a balloon with small blades
on it to cut through tissue that may be causing the blockage.
Doctors say the procedure is safe and have noted no side effects in
the Italian patients they've treated. Some patients had to be treated
twice before the narrowed vein stayed open. The doctors call the
operation the "Liberation Treatment" because it "liberates" the blood,
allowing it to flow freely.
According to Hilarescere Foundation, which funds the research: "At 2-
year follow-up, no major complications were observed... this treatment
decreases pressure in the cerebral veins in a highly significant way,
thus showing its enormous anti-inflammatory potential."
In a study to be published on Nov. 24 in the Journal of Vascular
Surgery, researchers report on 65 MS patients 18 months after surgery.
"Generally speaking, patients treated with endovascular therapy showed
a decrease in the number of disease relapses, a marked reduction in
the number of active brain and spinal lesions and also a clear-cut
improvement in the patients' quality of life.
What do the early studies of the Liberation Treatment show?
Dr. Zamboni has treated about 120 MS patients using his new treatment,
65 of whom his team is following over several years to see the
effects.
In preliminary data about the treatment, released at a Sept. 8 meeting
of researchers interested in CCSVI, Zamboni and his team were able to
show that in patients with the clinical form of relapsing-remitting MS
-the most common - there was a drop in the number of active brain
lesions in the patients that persisted up to 18 months after surgery.
As well, in the two years before surgery, acute MS attacks were noted
by 50 per cent of the recruited patients, but in the two years
following surgery, 73 per cent of the patients had no more attacks. In
all these patients, cognitive and motor activities assessed by an
outcome measure called MSFC were significantly and persistently
improved. The same finding was not made with patients with the
progressive forms of the disease; in the latter, however, disease
progression was stopped and the patients' quality of life improved.
News release about the preliminary data from that study can be viewed
here.
Does the procedure remove iron from the brain?
Scientists don't know this for sure but they suspect that if blood is
flowing freely out of the brain again, perhaps iron stores in brain
tissue will diminish. This is an area of future study. The next
question would be: if iron levels drop, do symptoms of MS diminish
too?
What has been the MS Society's reaction?
The MS Societies of Canada and the U.S. are reticent to support
Zamboni's theories. They maintain that: "Based on results published
about these findings to date, there is not enough evidence to say that
obstruction of veins causes MS... It is still not clear whether
relieving venous obstructions would be beneficial."
Where can I get tested for CCSVI?
CCSVI is such a newly identified condition, many doctors and MS
centres are only learning about it now. Very few ultrasound
technologists know how to perform the neck and head scan developed at
the University of Ferrara.
That said, in North America, some centres are beginning research. Here
are a few:
The University of Buffalo Jacobs Neurological Institute will be
testing over 1,000 MS patients (adults and children) to scan their
necks and veins to confirm the prevalence of CCSVI. The email for the
study co-ordinators is ct...@bnac.net
Prof. Mark Haacke, director of the Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Institute for Biomedical Research at Wayne State University in
Detroit, who also works at McMaster University in Hamilton, is also
conducting his own study. He's the inventor of a novel tool used to
analyze MRI scans of the brain called SWI, "susceptibility weighted
imaging system." SWI is hihgly sensitive to the presence of substances
such as iron and is considered one of the most sophisticated and
advanced system for the diagnosis of MS. Haacke is starting his own
study inviting patients and doctors to send him MRI scans so that he
can build on Zamboni's findings.
To get the protocol for the study, bring these documents to your
radiologist and have them sent to Dr. Haacke's research team. You can
contact them at info.mr...@gmail.com Other Canadian centres
involved in his study can be found on this map.
Who is performing the Liberation Treatment?
The Liberation Treatment is still an experimental treatment and is not
widely offered except as part of some studies underway.
In Italy, the University of Ferrara's Public Relations Office can be
contacted through laura....@unife.it
The Public Relations Office at the Santa Anna di Ferrara Hospital,
where Dr. Zamboni's team continues research on CCSVI, can be contacted
at: u...@ospfe.it
Dr. Zamboni's team at the University of Ferrara and the Santa Anna
Hospital in Ferrara can be contacted at centro...@gmail.com
You can also contact the foundation that funded Zamboni's work,
Fondazione Hilarescere.
Dr. Michael Dake, chief of Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiology
at Stanford University School of Medicine (California), is the first
doctor to treat CCSVI outside of Italy. He typically charges patients
US$80,000. Instead of balloons, Dake uses stents to open up blocked
veins. Zamboni and the rest of the Italian team say the long-term
safety of this approach has not been proven.
There are also doctors in Poland, Ireland and Australia investigating
the diagnosis and treatment of CCSVI in MS patients.
Who loves ya.
Tom
Jesus Was A Vegetarian!
http://tinyurl.com/2r2nkh
Man Is A Herbivore!
http://tinyurl.com/a3cc3
DEAD PEOPLE WALKING
http://tinyurl.com/zk9fk
> http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20091120/MS_W5_09...
ironjustice
buildup of iron is causing MS. <<
André Picard and Avis Favaro
From Saturday's Globe and Mail
Published on Friday, Nov. 20, 2009 9:07PM EST
Last updated on Saturday, Nov. 21, 2009 3:01AM EST
.Elena Ravalli was a seemingly healthy 37-year-old when she began to
experience strange attacks of vertigo, numbness, temporary vision loss
and crushing fatigue. They were classic signs of multiple sclerosis, a
potentially debilitating neurological disease.
It was 1995 and her husband, Paolo Zamboni, a professor of medicine at
the University of Ferrara in Italy, set out to help. He was determined
to solve the mystery of MS – an illness that strikes people in the
prime of their lives but whose causes are unknown and whose effective
treatments are few.
What he learned in his medical detective work, scouring dusty old
books and using ultra-modern imaging techniques, could well turn what
we know about MS on its head: Dr. Zamboni's research suggests that MS
is not, as widely believed, an autoimmune condition, but a vascular
disease.
Share your stories
Tell us what this potential breakthrough in multiple sclerosis
treatment means to you
Join the conversation
.
More radical still, the experimental surgery he performed on his wife
offers hope that MS, which afflicts 2.5 million people worldwide, can
be cured and even largely prevented.
“I am confident that this could be a revolution for the research and
diagnosis of multiple sclerosis,” Dr. Zamboni said in an interview.
Not everyone is so bullish: Skeptics warn the evidence is too scant
and speculative to start rewriting medical textbooks. Even those
intrigued by the theory caution that MS sufferers should not rush off
to get the surgery – nicknamed the “liberation procedure” – until more
research is done.
U.S. and Canadian researchers are trying to test Dr. Zamboni's
premise.
For the Italian professor, however, the quest was both personal and
professional and the results were stunning.
Fighting for his wife's health, Dr. Zamboni looked for answers in the
medical literature. He found repeated references, dating back a
century, to excess iron as a possible cause of MS. The heavy metal can
cause inflammation and cell death, hallmarks of the disease. The
vascular surgeon was intrigued – coincidentally, he had been
researching how iron buildup damages blood vessels in the legs, and
wondered if there could be a similar problem in the blood vessels of
the brain.
Using ultrasound to examine the vessels leading in and out of the
brain, Dr. Zamboni made a startling find: In more than 90 per cent of
people with multiple sclerosis, including his spouse, the veins
draining blood from the brain were malformed or blocked. In people
without MS, they were not.
He hypothesized that iron was damaging the blood vessels and allowing
the heavy metal, along with other unwelcome cells, to cross the
crucial brain-blood barrier. (The barrier keeps blood and
cerebrospinal fluid separate. In MS, immune cells cross the blood-
brain barrier, where they destroy myelin, a crucial sheathing on
nerves.)
More striking still was that, when Dr. Zamboni performed a simple
operation to unclog veins and get blood flowing normally again, many
of the symptoms of MS disappeared. The procedure is similar to
angioplasty, in which a catheter is threaded into the groin and up
into the arteries, where a balloon is inflated to clear the blockages.
His wife, who had the surgery three years ago, has not had an attack
since.
The researcher's theory is simple: that the underlying cause of MS is
a condition he has dubbed “chronic cerebrospinal venous
insufficiency.” If you tackle CCSVI by repairing the drainage problems
from the brain, you can successfully treat, or better still prevent,
the disease.
“If this is proven correct, it will be a very, very big discovery
because we'll completely change the way we think about MS, and how
we'll treat it,” said Bianca Weinstock-Guttman, an associate professor
of neurology at the State University of New York at Buffalo.
The initial studies done in Italy were small but the outcomes were
dramatic. In a group of 65 patients with relapsing-remitting MS (the
most common form) who underwent surgery, the number of active lesions
in the brain fell sharply, to 12 per cent from 50 per cent; in the two
years after surgery, 73 per cent of patients had no symptoms.
“ I am confident that this could be a revolution for the research and
diagnosis of multiple sclerosis ”
— Dr. Paolo Zamboni
Augusto Zeppi, a 40-year-old resident of the northern Italian city of
Ferrara, was one of those patients. Diagnosed with MS nine years ago,
he suffered severe attacks every four months that lasted weeks at a
time – leaving him unable to use his arms and legs and with
debilitating fatigue. “Everything I was dreaming for my future adult
life, it was game over,” he said.
Scans showed that his two jugular veins were blocked, 60 and 80 per
cent respectively. In 2007, he was one of the first to undergo the
experimental surgery to unblock the veins. He had a second operation a
year later, when one of his jugular veins was blocked anew.
After the procedures, Mr. Zeppi said he was reborn. “I don't remember
what it's like to have MS,” he said. “It gave me a second life.”
Buffalo researchers are now recruiting 1,700 adults and children from
the United States and Canada. They plan to test MS sufferers and non-
sufferers alike and, using ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging,
do detailed analyses of blood flow in and out of the brain and examine
iron deposits.
Another researcher, Mark Haacke, an adjunct professor at McMaster
University in Hamilton, is urging patients to send him MRI scans of
their heads and necks so he can probe the Zamboni theory further. Dr.
Haacke is a world-renowned expert in imaging who has developed a
method of measuring iron buildup in the brain.
“Patients need to speak up and say they want something like this
investigated … to see if there's credence to the theory,” he said.
MS societies in Canada and the United States, however, have reacted
far more cautiously to Dr. Zamboni's conclusion. “Many questions
remain about how and when this phenomenon might play a role in nervous
system damage seen in MS, and at the present time there is
insufficient evidence to suggest that this phenomenon is the cause of
MS,” said the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada.
The U.S. society goes further, discouraging patients from getting
tested or seeking surgical treatment. Rather, it continues to promote
drug treatments used to alleviate symptoms, which include
corticosteroids, chemotherapy agents and pain medication.
Many people with multiple sclerosis, though, are impatient for
results. Chatter about CCSVI is frequent in online MS support groups,
and patients are scrambling to be part of the research, particularly
when they hear the testimonials.
Kevin Lipp, a 49-year-old resident of Buffalo, was diagnosed with MS a
decade ago and has suffered increasingly severe attacks, especially in
the heat. (Heat sensitivity is a common symptom of MS.) His symptoms
were so bad that he was unable to work and closed his ice-cream shop.
Mr. Lipp was tested and doctors discovered blockages in both his
jugular and azygos veins. In January of this year, he travelled to
Italy for surgery, which cleared five blockages, and he began to feel
better almost immediately.
“I felt good. I felt totally normal. I felt like I did years ago,” he
said. He has not had an attack since.
As part of the research project, Mr. Lipp's siblings have also been
tested. His two sisters, both of whom have MS, have significant
blockages and iron deposits, while his brother, who does not have MS,
has neither iron buildup nor blocked arteries.
While it has long been known that there is a genetic component to
multiple sclerosis, the new theory is that it is CCSVI that is
hereditary – that people are born with malformed valves and strictures
in the large veins of the neck and brain. These problems lead to poor
blood drainage and even reversal of blood flow direction that can
cause inflammation, iron buildup and the brain lesions characteristic
of multiple sclerosis.
It is well-established that the symptoms of MS are caused by a
breakdown of myelin, a fatty substance that coats nerve cells and
plays a crucial role in transmitting messages to the central nervous
system. When those messages are blurred, nerves malfunction, causing
all manner of woes, including blurred eyesight, loss of sensation in
the limbs and even paralysis.
However, it is unclear what triggers the breakdown of myelin. There
are various theories, including exposure to a virus in childhood,
vitamin D deficiency, hormones – and now, buildup of iron in the brain
because of poor blood flow.
While he is convinced of the significance of his discovery, Dr.
Zamboni recognizes that medicine is slow to accept new theories and
even slower to act on them. Regardless, he can take satisfaction in
knowing that the woman who inspired the quest, and perhaps a dramatic
breakthrough, has benefited tremendously.
Dr. Zamboni's wife, Elena, has undergone a battery of scans and
neurological tests and her multiple sclerosis is, for all intents and
purposes, gone.
“This is probably the best prize of the research,” he said.
André Picard is the public health reporter at The Globe and Mail. Avis
Favaro is the medical correspondent at CTV News.
With reports from Elizabeth St. Philip, CTV News
MS IN CANADA
An estimated 55,000-75,000 Canadians have multiple sclerosis, and
every day three more people in Canada are diagnosed with the disease.
Canada has one of the highest rates of MS in the world. MS is the most
common neurological disease affecting young adults in Canada.
•Women are more than three times as likely as men to develop MS.
•MS can cause loss of balance, heat sensitivity, impaired speech,
extreme fatigue, double vision and paralysis. The disease is
characterized by lesions on the brain, a result of the breakdown of
myelin, the protective covering wrapped around the nerves of the
central nervous system.
•The most common treatment for MS is corticosteroids. Steroids reduce
inflammation at the site of new demyelination, lessening symptoms.
•MS was first identified and described by French neurologist Jean-
Martin Charcot in 1868.
•MS is widely believed to be an autoimmune disorder, but the cause or
causes are unknown. There are a number of theories about what might
trigger the disease, including exposure to a virus in childhood;
exposure to tobacco smoke; lack of the female sex hormone prolactin,
which plays a role in the development of myelin; and vitamin D
deficiency. Vitamin D may play a role in MS because it helps to
construct the interior layer of blood vessels.
•Despite the long-held assumption that MS is an autoimmune disorder,
new research suggests it is actually a vascular disease triggered by a
buildup of iron in the brain due to problems in blood flow.
Source: MS Society of Canada
Who loves ya.
Tom
Jesus Was A Vegetarian!
http://tinyurl.com/2r2nkh
Man Is A Herbivore!
http://tinyurl.com/a3cc3
DEAD PEOPLE WALKING
http://tinyurl.com/zk9fk
> Not sure if anyting on this has been posted yet. But its some Italian dr.
> http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20091120/MS_W5_09...
Nick
Some of the info you posted i've seen mis-quoted elsewhere.
Since the onset of my MS, i've noticed circulation problems in my left arm.
Sometimes
the entire arm is slightly blue/purple. I've mentioned this to my
neurologist and he
says its not related at all to Ms. But this has me wondering.. I'm going to
get my family dr to get things checked out. I mean if your veins in your
neck are all twisted and deformed shouldn't they be fixed anyways? even if
it had nothing to do with Ms?
I'm just a little worried about the current drug community passing this off.
I can see the drug companies thinking something up so they won't lose
Billions of revenue on our wonderful drugs we have now.
"ironjustice" <ironj...@rock.com> wrote in message
news:fd5d2c1e-9906-4efe...@v15g2000prn.googlegroups.com...
On Nov 20, 6:37 pm, "Nick" <ni...@gmail.com> wrote:He believes the
buildup of iron is causing MS. <<
Andr� Picard and Avis Favaro
From Saturday's Globe and Mail
Published on Friday, Nov. 20, 2009 9:07PM EST
Last updated on Saturday, Nov. 21, 2009 3:01AM EST
.Elena Ravalli was a seemingly healthy 37-year-old when she began to
experience strange attacks of vertigo, numbness, temporary vision loss
and crushing fatigue. They were classic signs of multiple sclerosis, a
potentially debilitating neurological disease.
It was 1995 and her husband, Paolo Zamboni, a professor of medicine at
the University of Ferrara in Italy, set out to help. He was determined
to solve the mystery of MS � an illness that strikes people in the
prime of their lives but whose causes are unknown and whose effective
treatments are few.
What he learned in his medical detective work, scouring dusty old
books and using ultra-modern imaging techniques, could well turn what
we know about MS on its head: Dr. Zamboni's research suggests that MS
is not, as widely believed, an autoimmune condition, but a vascular
disease.
Share your stories
Tell us what this potential breakthrough in multiple sclerosis
treatment means to you
Join the conversation
.
More radical still, the experimental surgery he performed on his wife
offers hope that MS, which afflicts 2.5 million people worldwide, can
be cured and even largely prevented.
�I am confident that this could be a revolution for the research and
diagnosis of multiple sclerosis,� Dr. Zamboni said in an interview.
Not everyone is so bullish: Skeptics warn the evidence is too scant
and speculative to start rewriting medical textbooks. Even those
intrigued by the theory caution that MS sufferers should not rush off
to get the surgery � nicknamed the �liberation procedure� � until more
research is done.
U.S. and Canadian researchers are trying to test Dr. Zamboni's
premise.
For the Italian professor, however, the quest was both personal and
professional and the results were stunning.
Fighting for his wife's health, Dr. Zamboni looked for answers in the
medical literature. He found repeated references, dating back a
century, to excess iron as a possible cause of MS. The heavy metal can
cause inflammation and cell death, hallmarks of the disease. The
vascular surgeon was intrigued � coincidentally, he had been
researching how iron buildup damages blood vessels in the legs, and
wondered if there could be a similar problem in the blood vessels of
the brain.
Using ultrasound to examine the vessels leading in and out of the
brain, Dr. Zamboni made a startling find: In more than 90 per cent of
people with multiple sclerosis, including his spouse, the veins
draining blood from the brain were malformed or blocked. In people
without MS, they were not.
He hypothesized that iron was damaging the blood vessels and allowing
the heavy metal, along with other unwelcome cells, to cross the
crucial brain-blood barrier. (The barrier keeps blood and
cerebrospinal fluid separate. In MS, immune cells cross the blood-
brain barrier, where they destroy myelin, a crucial sheathing on
nerves.)
More striking still was that, when Dr. Zamboni performed a simple
operation to unclog veins and get blood flowing normally again, many
of the symptoms of MS disappeared. The procedure is similar to
angioplasty, in which a catheter is threaded into the groin and up
into the arteries, where a balloon is inflated to clear the blockages.
His wife, who had the surgery three years ago, has not had an attack
since.
The researcher's theory is simple: that the underlying cause of MS is
a condition he has dubbed �chronic cerebrospinal venous
insufficiency.� If you tackle CCSVI by repairing the drainage problems
from the brain, you can successfully treat, or better still prevent,
the disease.
�If this is proven correct, it will be a very, very big discovery
because we'll completely change the way we think about MS, and how
we'll treat it,� said Bianca Weinstock-Guttman, an associate professor
of neurology at the State University of New York at Buffalo.
The initial studies done in Italy were small but the outcomes were
dramatic. In a group of 65 patients with relapsing-remitting MS (the
most common form) who underwent surgery, the number of active lesions
in the brain fell sharply, to 12 per cent from 50 per cent; in the two
years after surgery, 73 per cent of patients had no symptoms.
� I am confident that this could be a revolution for the research and
diagnosis of multiple sclerosis �
� Dr. Paolo Zamboni
Augusto Zeppi, a 40-year-old resident of the northern Italian city of
Ferrara, was one of those patients. Diagnosed with MS nine years ago,
he suffered severe attacks every four months that lasted weeks at a
time � leaving him unable to use his arms and legs and with
debilitating fatigue. �Everything I was dreaming for my future adult
life, it was game over,� he said.
Scans showed that his two jugular veins were blocked, 60 and 80 per
cent respectively. In 2007, he was one of the first to undergo the
experimental surgery to unblock the veins. He had a second operation a
year later, when one of his jugular veins was blocked anew.
After the procedures, Mr. Zeppi said he was reborn. �I don't remember
what it's like to have MS,� he said. �It gave me a second life.�
Buffalo researchers are now recruiting 1,700 adults and children from
the United States and Canada. They plan to test MS sufferers and non-
sufferers alike and, using ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging,
do detailed analyses of blood flow in and out of the brain and examine
iron deposits.
Another researcher, Mark Haacke, an adjunct professor at McMaster
University in Hamilton, is urging patients to send him MRI scans of
their heads and necks so he can probe the Zamboni theory further. Dr.
Haacke is a world-renowned expert in imaging who has developed a
method of measuring iron buildup in the brain.
�Patients need to speak up and say they want something like this
investigated � to see if there's credence to the theory,� he said.
MS societies in Canada and the United States, however, have reacted
far more cautiously to Dr. Zamboni's conclusion. �Many questions
remain about how and when this phenomenon might play a role in nervous
system damage seen in MS, and at the present time there is
insufficient evidence to suggest that this phenomenon is the cause of
MS,� said the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada.
The U.S. society goes further, discouraging patients from getting
tested or seeking surgical treatment. Rather, it continues to promote
drug treatments used to alleviate symptoms, which include
corticosteroids, chemotherapy agents and pain medication.
Many people with multiple sclerosis, though, are impatient for
results. Chatter about CCSVI is frequent in online MS support groups,
and patients are scrambling to be part of the research, particularly
when they hear the testimonials.
Kevin Lipp, a 49-year-old resident of Buffalo, was diagnosed with MS a
decade ago and has suffered increasingly severe attacks, especially in
the heat. (Heat sensitivity is a common symptom of MS.) His symptoms
were so bad that he was unable to work and closed his ice-cream shop.
Mr. Lipp was tested and doctors discovered blockages in both his
jugular and azygos veins. In January of this year, he travelled to
Italy for surgery, which cleared five blockages, and he began to feel
better almost immediately.
�I felt good. I felt totally normal. I felt like I did years ago,� he
said. He has not had an attack since.
As part of the research project, Mr. Lipp's siblings have also been
tested. His two sisters, both of whom have MS, have significant
blockages and iron deposits, while his brother, who does not have MS,
has neither iron buildup nor blocked arteries.
While it has long been known that there is a genetic component to
multiple sclerosis, the new theory is that it is CCSVI that is
hereditary � that people are born with malformed valves and strictures
in the large veins of the neck and brain. These problems lead to poor
blood drainage and even reversal of blood flow direction that can
cause inflammation, iron buildup and the brain lesions characteristic
of multiple sclerosis.
It is well-established that the symptoms of MS are caused by a
breakdown of myelin, a fatty substance that coats nerve cells and
plays a crucial role in transmitting messages to the central nervous
system. When those messages are blurred, nerves malfunction, causing
all manner of woes, including blurred eyesight, loss of sensation in
the limbs and even paralysis.
However, it is unclear what triggers the breakdown of myelin. There
are various theories, including exposure to a virus in childhood,
vitamin D deficiency, hormones � and now, buildup of iron in the brain
because of poor blood flow.
While he is convinced of the significance of his discovery, Dr.
Zamboni recognizes that medicine is slow to accept new theories and
even slower to act on them. Regardless, he can take satisfaction in
knowing that the woman who inspired the quest, and perhaps a dramatic
breakthrough, has benefited tremendously.
Dr. Zamboni's wife, Elena, has undergone a battery of scans and
neurological tests and her multiple sclerosis is, for all intents and
purposes, gone.
�This is probably the best prize of the research,� he said.
Andr� Picard is the public health reporter at The Globe and Mail. Avis
Favaro is the medical correspondent at CTV News.
With reports from Elizabeth St. Philip, CTV News
MS IN CANADA
An estimated 55,000-75,000 Canadians have multiple sclerosis, and
every day three more people in Canada are diagnosed with the disease.
Canada has one of the highest rates of MS in the world. MS is the most
common neurological disease affecting young adults in Canada.
�Women are more than three times as likely as men to develop MS.
�MS can cause loss of balance, heat sensitivity, impaired speech,
extreme fatigue, double vision and paralysis. The disease is
characterized by lesions on the brain, a result of the breakdown of
myelin, the protective covering wrapped around the nerves of the
central nervous system.
�The most common treatment for MS is corticosteroids. Steroids reduce
inflammation at the site of new demyelination, lessening symptoms.
�MS was first identified and described by French neurologist Jean-
Martin Charcot in 1868.
�MS is widely believed to be an autoimmune disorder, but the cause or
causes are unknown. There are a number of theories about what might
trigger the disease, including exposure to a virus in childhood;
exposure to tobacco smoke; lack of the female sex hormone prolactin,
which plays a role in the development of myelin; and vitamin D
deficiency. Vitamin D may play a role in MS because it helps to
construct the interior layer of blood vessels.
�Despite the long-held assumption that MS is an autoimmune disorder,
travelkitten
> On Nov 20, 6:37 pm, "Nick" <ni...@gmail.com> wrote:He believes the
> buildup of iron is causing MS. <<
>
> http://tinyurl.com/yjzlvpp
>
> W5 - Liberation Treatment Q and A
>
> 21/11/2009 5:57:49 PM
>
> CTV.ca News Staff
>
> A group of doctors in Italy is investigating a fascinating new
> treatment for multiple sclerosis, based on a theory that, if proven
> true, could radically alter the lives of patients. An investigation by
> CTV's W5 reveals this treatment appears to stop the disease from
> progressing. Here are further details on the treatment.
>
> involved in his study can be found on this map.
>
> Who is performing the Liberation Treatment?
> The Liberation Treatment is still an experimental treatment and is not
> widely offered except as part of some studies underway.
>
> In Italy, the University of Ferrara's Public Relations Office can be
>
> The Public Relations Office at the Santa Anna di Ferrara Hospital,
>
> read more »
My question is what happens if it is only in the spine and not the
brain?
cosmic_girluk
Hi ALL
His name is Paulo Zamboni. I've been watching news on him for over a
year. He has uncovered something which has helped people open their
minds a tad.
Watch on www.w5.ctv.ca and see all about it and the difference he's
made to people's lives.
It's called the Liberation Treatment'
Google it or his name and be fascinated/encouraged
Rachael
Dangerous
taped the W5 program to rewatch it.
This new treatment is the first time I have ever become excited that MS
can be stopped.
Thanks again and I hope our group discusses this new treatment.
--
Dora
Dangerous With Attitude
I Do It Cause I Can
"ironjustice" <ironj...@rock.com> wrote in message
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