Hi Jayne,
It is incredibly disgusting. The MS Society is a fund raiser for their high
paying jobs. I know plenty of folks that could genuinely use a little
help....they do almost nothing.
Regards,
Tom
Hi Folks,
A fellow ms'er sent this to me today. I am writing a new book about the things we don't talk about.
These are some of his experiences, He is optimistic, pro-active and extremely helpful to other ms'er's. Your thoughts and experiences would be appreciated by me. Thank you.
Regards,
Tom
Things that are emotional, and hard to talk about with multiple sclerosis.
I was diagnosed in 1993 with multiple sclerosis, I had symptoms years earlier, but I did not go to a doctor. Only my mother knew of the symptoms like nerves, that were crawling on my legs. This only lasted a few weeks,this happened when I was getting ready for bed. This happened when I was about 19 years old, what I did for living I believe has a lot to do with the symptoms of multiple sclerosis, I painted cars, and worked with many chemicals, and inhaled them, at the same time, I believe things in our environment cause the symptoms and they have given the name multiple sclerosis to the conditions that we have.
Not till I was 38 years old was I diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, I got married when I was 30 years old. I thought she was a good woman, and we wanted the same things, but I was wrong. I was diagnosed when I came home from a business trip from Detroit Michigan. I went blind in one eye, a few times and was able to make it home, I went right to the doctors, and shortly later, I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, what they did not do was teach me how to deal with the changes that my body was going to go through. They also did not help my wife and the proper fashion.
Multiple sclerosis for me, it has been very difficult for many reasons, I suffered with pain all over my body, for seven years, I did the drugs and paid a very big price. I was put in the hospital for over two weeks, for an addiction to pain medication, this ruined my marriage along with the, other drugs that caused changes in emotional and physical areas, of my body.
What they don't do, is teach us how to deal with life with multiple sclerosis, it takes a very special spouse if you're lucky to adjust to these changes, they don't teach us how to live just on security disability, they don't help us with living arrangements, or funds to live on, or food, and cleaning arrangements, they let you fend for yourself. And hopefully things work out. During my multiple sclerosis I had many changes in living arrangements, and some physical some emotional, somewhere work-related, somewhere things I could not adjust to, there are many changes to deal with.
Changes to deal with that are hard,
Not making a living,
Not working any longer
No financial income other than disability.
Dealing with a spouse, that does not understand the changes in our bodies, with multiple sclerosis.
Dealing with divorce and separation caused by having multiple sclerosis
.
Dealing with living arrangements, because income is limited.
.
Dealing with Doctors, that feel they are right on everything, and offer no real help in dealing with our multiple sclerosis, just false drugs, that don't work, and you're still left to deal with the adjusting changes of our body and life.
The adjusting changes, of life.
1. Body Functions
2. Elimination
3. Sexual issues
4. Feelings, of life changes
5. Feelings of Hopelessness.
What would be nice, is there was a organization, that would step in and help with these adjustments. There seems to be no help from the Multiple sclerosis Society, or other groups, or government agencies, to make life's easier, what I have learned is that there is no little pill, to make us feel better, and to deal with these changes, it is our close friends than help deal with these changes.
There is a lot to write about, there are natural things that seem to work better, but it's up to each individual to figure this out for themselves help is there we just have to open ourselves up to it.
Subject: Join the Medicaid Debate, Challenge Governors
--
Teresa
http://home.rochester.rr.com/tcarroll
"I say, play your own way. Don't play what the public wants. You play
what you want and let the public pick up on what you're doing - even if
it does take them fifteen, twenty years." - Thelonious Monk.
join rochester_disabled news group
We would like to remind you of this upcoming event.
"MS Challengers' "Group meeting
Date: Wednesday, December 29, 2004
Time: 11:30AM - 2:00PM EST (GMT-05:00)
We meet at William the Abbot
church at 2000 Jackson Ave. in
Seaford, NY in the basement,
accessible thru a ramp.
Its a very nice big area.
Stem-cell research bearing fruit, expert says
BY PAUL ELIAS THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nwanews.com/story.php?paper=adg§ion=Business&storyid=103160
Posted on Monday, December 27, 2004
Email this story | Printer-friendly version
IRVINE, Calif. So far, not a single person has been helped by human
embryonic stem cells.
But in cramped university labs, a young neurobiologist with movie-star
good looks, a Carl Saganlike fondness for the popular media and an
entrepreneur's nose for profits is getting tantalizingly close.
Hans Keirstead is making paralyzed rats walk again by injecting them
with healthy brain cells from a reddish soup of human embryonic stem
cells that he and his colleagues have created.
Keirstead hopes to apply his therapy to humans by 2006. If his ambitious
timetable keeps to schedule, Keirstead's work will be the first human
embryonic stem-cell treatment given to humans. "I have been shocked,
thrilled and humbled at the progress that I have made," Keirstead, 37,
said from his University of California-Irvine office, which is dominated
by a 4-by-8-foot collage of famous rock stars created by his artist
brother. "I just want to see one person who is bettered by something
that I created."
Keirstead has been turning stem cells into specialized cells that help
the brain's signals traverse the spinal cord. Those new cells have
repaired damaged rat spines several weeks after they were injured.
For the past two years, he has shown dramatic video footage of healed
rats to scientific gatherings and during campaign events to promote
California's $3 billion bond measure to fund stem-cell work, which
passed in November.
Keirstead and his colleagues are continuing to experiment with rats to
ensure that the injected cells do what they're supposed to without any
side effects. "You don't want toenails growing in the brain," he said.
Meanwhile, Keirstead and his corporate sponsor Menlo Park,
Calif.-based Geron Corp. are designing the initial human experiments,
which will test for safety and involve just a handful of volunteers. The
volunteers likely will be patients who have been recently injured.
Keirstead's work was at first met by derision and disbelief at the
Society of Neuroscience's annual meeting in 2002. "We upset a lot of
people," said Gabriel Nistor, who was the first researcher to join
Keirstead's lab five years ago. "No one believed us at first." Keirstead
and Nistor were stars at the same gathering in October, and their
research will be published next month in a scientific journal.
Kierstead is as close as anyone in the stem-cell research world could be
to celebrity, and that can be dangerous in a profession noted as much
for its petty jealousies of individual fame as it is for scientific
breakthroughs. (Sagan, the noted astronomer who for years hosted the PBS
series Cosmos, was denied membership in the prestigious National Academy
of Sciences, a slight that his supporters insist was based on his mass
appeal).
Reporters have beaten a wellworn path to Keirstead's lab. The fact that
he's wealthy only adds to his growing luster.
Keirstead recently sold a biotech company he co-founded, unrelated to
his stem-cell work, in a deal that could be worth as much as $8 million.
"We all love Hans for various reasons," said Karen Miner, whose
advocacy organization helps fund Keirstead's work.
Miner and her colleagues at Research for Cure, based in Escalon in
California's Central Valley, have contributed $170,000 over the past
four years to the Reeve-Irvine Research Center where Keirstead works.
The center is named for its founding donor, actor Christopher Reeve, who
died in October of complications related to his paralysis. "We all feel
he is on the cutting edge of spinal cord research," said Miner, 53, who
was paralyzed below the neck after an automobile accident 12 years ago.
"I have to think it's the most promising thing out there."
She toured Keirstead's labs two years ago and watched once-paralyzed
rats walk inside their cages. "The adrenaline that I felt was almost
enough to get me out of the chair," Miner said. "When you are sitting in
a wheelchair and see those rats running around, all you can think is,
I want some of those now. '"
Human embryonic stem cells are created in the first days after
conception and are the building blocks of the human body. Scientists
believe that they will someday be able to coax stem cells to turn into
healthy cells to treat a wide range of ailments, including diabetes,
heart disease and spinal cord injuries. Many social conservatives who
believe life begins at conception view the work as immoral because
days-old embryos are destroyed during research.
Critics complain privately that Keirstead is beholden to Menlo
Park-based Geron, which claims a Microsoftlike grip on any commercial
stem-cell market that emerges.
Geron funded the work of University of Wisconsin researcher Jamie
Thomson, who discovered human embryonic stem cells in 1998, and the
company funds Keirstead's lab at $500,000 a year. Geron owns the
commercial rights to any drug Keirstead may develop.
Keirstead doesn't apologize for his funding source, which he said is
more generous than he could have expected from the federal government
and with fewer research restrictions. He said he's not interested in
profits, but rather in speeding the development of new spinal cord
treatments.
And he has an answer for those who say he's moving too fast and that his
experiments with rats are dangling false hope before the 15,000 people
paralyzed in the United States each year. "This is extremely promising,"
Keirstead said. "Why the hell would we wait?"
http://www.nwanews.com/story.php?paper=adg§ion=Business&storyid=103160
Adapted From The Daily Motivator
Tuesday, December 28, 2004
Gateway to value
Challenge is difficult to get through; however, on the other side of challenge there is value.
The bigger the challenge the more value you will gain by working through it. The more challenges you are willing to take on the more accomplishments you will be able to reach.
When you arrive at a challenge, see this challenge for what it truly is. It is a gateway to real and lasting value.
Keep your focus on the value that lies beyond the challenge, and you will surely find a way to get through.
When you have conquered a challenge, among the rewards there will be even bigger challenges. In each of those challenges is the opportunity for even greater achievement.
Walk through the gateway of challenge. On the other side it is even better than you can imagine.
-- Ralph Marston
Copyright ©2004 Ralph S. Marston, Jr. All rights reserved.
http://greatday.com/motivate/index.html
[INLINE]
~Joyce [INLINE]
I find the louder I raise my voice the less another one hears.
Thought this might be of interest.
===================
http://www.biospace.com/news_story.cfm?StoryID=18544620
===================
Your friend found this news on http://www.biospace.com
BioSpace - Web solutions for the life sciences
http://www.biospace.com
NEWS_STOCKS_CAREERS_RESOURCES_COMMUNITIES_WEB SOLUTIONS
BioSpace
300 Fifth Avenue South
Naples, Florida 34102
Phone: 888-BIOSPACE
Fax: 239-659-0111 or 239-659-0100
Thought you might be interested.
===================
http://www.biospace.com/news_story.cfm?StoryID=18545320
===================
Your friend found this news on http://www.biospace.com
BioSpace - Web solutions for the life sciences
http://www.biospace.com
NEWS_STOCKS_CAREERS_RESOURCES_COMMUNITIES_WEB SOLUTIONS
BioSpace
300 Fifth Avenue South
Naples, Florida 34102
Phone: 888-BIOSPACE
Fax: 239-659-0111 or 239-659-0100
Click here: Northeast ADA
and found new Senate website. You should all take a look!
Jayne
This story was sent to you by: Jayne Adler
Thought this might be of interest,
Just asking.
Jayne
Adapted from The Daily Motivator
Monday, December 27, 2004
Now is when
The disappointment you have known is all in the past. Now is when you can take what you have learned and make positive use of it.
Has something been holding you back? Now is when you can begin to move beyond it.
Perhaps life has fallen short of your expectations. Now is when you can put it all behind you instead of becoming angry or resentful.
Now is a new day, a vibrant moment and a time of real possibilities. Now is your chance to make the most of those possibilities.
Now is when you can focus your thoughts and actions in positive and meaningful ways. Now is when you can make use of all you have and reach toward the best you can be.
Now is when you are able to act and are positioned to truly make a difference. Now is when life is here to live.
-- Ralph Marston
Copyright ©2004 Ralph S. Marston, Jr. All rights reserved.
http://greatday.com/motivate/index.html
[INLINE]
~Joyce [INLINE]
A great man shows his greatness by the way he treats little men.
tbayuk@...
Regards,
Tom
Kim was PeacefulWaters@... at some of incarnation. Anyone know her?
Jayne
I wish you luck Jayne! Nobody can revise something that doesn't want revision!
Hotwheel@...
Or
MrBill26@...
Do I have you current email addy on the calendar,
please?
Jayne
=====
I am prepared to defend my choice of a personal assistant but in bureaucracy
you never get the chance. This battle appears unending. At its start I'd asked
the assistance of Jamie Shapiro of Able Health Care Agency as she was in
area newpapers as someone intent on reforming Medicare. She guided me to
my local Center for Independent Living whose forms I filed out and returned
over a year ago. I've heard from Fannie twice since I returned the proper
forms. Unfortunately, I was unable to take the calls at the time. Here I sit
feeling the most disabled I have ever felt.
I can give you the names of New York State nurses who were only too
willing to send me round in circle until I arrived at the right place, the LI
Center for Independent Living. This wasn't the end of my ordeal to though.
Recall I'd signed and returned the appropriate forms - but they were submitted
to the same bureaucracy I believed was holding Fannie without the State
benefits I was offering her through the one true CDPAP. I appears Fannie i a
CDPAP aide on her current case, unknown to her.
I want to say I will work to change the bureaucracy'shandling of th CDPAP . .
. . but I'm too exhausted by my ordeal.
Jayne
NYU Chemists Create Dna Translation Machine
Thursday, Dec 16, 2004
Chemists at New York University have developed a device that allows for the
translation of DNA sequences, thereby serving as a factory for assembling the
building blocks of new materials. The invention, described in the latest issue
of Science magazine, has the potential to develop new synthetic fibers,
advance the encryption of information, and improve DNA-based computation.
The device, developed by NYU Chemistry graduate student Shiping Liao and
Professor Nadrian C. Seeman, emulates the process by which RNA replicas
of DNA sequences are translated to create protein sequences. However, the
signals that control the nanomechanical tool are DNA rather than RNA. The
dimensions of the machine are approximately 110 x 30 x 2 nm.
"The device is a machine to make specific DNA sequences by imitating the
ribosome's translational capabilities," said Seeman, who developed the
machine with Liao over the last year.
The machine may be set to four different structural settings and allows
researchers to determine which elements of a DNA strand are to be used to
construct a product sequence. Liao and Seeman employed a pair of PX-JX2
devicesan existing DNA machine developed a few years ago in Seeman's
laboratoryin selecting the DNA molecules and used another DNA motif,
known as DX molecules, as an adapter between the strands they carry and
the device. The researchers tested the device experimentally by adding a
complete set of DX molecules to a solution. The intended DX molecules,
which included strands from the target product attached to the device, and the
target strands were bonded together, thereby emulating the way RNA
molecules code for proteins.
The researchers emphasized that their device does not transcribe the
traditional genetic code, but rather, uses an arbitrary code that they made up.
However, they noted, its encryption abilities have the potential to construct
new types of polymers, which could be used in the production of new
synthetic polymer materials. In addition, the machine operation may be used
to advance DNA-based computational methods.
N-157, 2004-05
Search Archives
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(212) 998-6808
james.devitt@...
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Latest Related Press Releases
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NYU'S Gerson Available for Comment On Work-Family Demands (12/15/
2004)
NYU Hosts Economic Growth Conference Featuring Nobel Laureate Robert
Solow (12/10/2004)
NYU'S Mcgee, Author of Forthcoming Self-Help, Inc., Available for Comment
On Consumer Culture (12/09/2004)
Thought this *might be of interest.
===================
http://www.biospace.com/news_story.cfm?StoryID=18537620
===================
Your friend found this news on http://www.biospace.com
BioSpace - Web solutions for the life sciences
http://www.biospace.com
NEWS_STOCKS_CAREERS_RESOURCES_COMMUNITIES_WEB SOLUTIONS
BioSpace
300 Fifth Avenue South
Naples, Florida 34102
Phone: 888-BIOSPACE
Fax: 239-659-0111 or 239-659-0100
Click here: BIO.COM: Biotechnology Pharmaceutical Market, Stocks, Finance, Merger, Acquisition - Biotech, Pharma, Biomedical
In a message dated 12/26/2004 11:01:37 PM Eastern Standard Time, fooledbyasmile@... writes:

Multiple Sclerosis - 2004 Summary of Research Progress
08 Dec 2004
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=17508
The year of 2004 saw rapid research progress in the fields of science
and medicine that impact our understanding of the unpredictable
neurological disease of multiple sclerosis. Thanks to its generous
contributors, the National MS Society was able to invest nearly $35
million this year into MS research projects in the U.S. and abroad. In
2004, the Society supported over 300 MS research projects including the
launch of 115 new projects.
Significant advances have been made in both clinical and laboratory
studies in MS. In addition, more than 160 clinical trials are underway
around the world, and still other experimental drugs are in the
pipeline. Key highlights of the year include:
The National MS Society launched a new initiative to speed research on
nervous system repair and protection in MS. The Society has invited
proposals from research teams to compete for grants of up to $5.5
million each to pave the way for clinical testing of therapies to
restore function in people with MS.
The U.S. FDA approved Tysabri® (natalizumab, Biogen Idec and Elan
Corporation) to reduce the frequency of clinical relapses in relapsing
forms of MS. Tysabri (formerly Antegren) is a monoclonal antibody given
by monthly infusion into a vein. Results from the first year of ongoing
clinical trials showed that Tysabri reduced the relapse rate up to 66%,
reduced the development of new MRI-detected lesions, and showed other
benefits. This approach was first explored in laboratory animal research
in part with funds provided by the National MS Society to Stanford
investigators.
A Harvard-led study supported in part by the National MS Society,
involving 187,563 women enrolled in the Nurses' Health Study, suggested
that those with higher intake of vitamin D (in multi-vitamin
supplements) may have had a reduced risk of developing MS. The study did
not determine whether vitamin D affects the course of MS once it has
begun. Further research is necessary to clarify these findings.
A paper published from the Society-supported Sonya Slifka Longitudinal
MS Study, following over 2,000 individuals with MS over a long period of
time, reported on the first ever national study of aging and MS. Results
pointed to challenges facing persons who are aging with MS. For example,
older participants tended to be more severely disabled, more likely to
need help with daily activities, and less likely to have used MS
disease-modifying therapies. Despite their disability and care needs,
many viewed their health status and quality of life positively. Over
time, this study will allow investigators to tease out factors in
individuals' lives that may influence disease course and quality of
life.
Researchers from Australia, supported in part by the National MS
Society, found evidence in brain samples suggesting that the primary
pathology in some people with MS involves a killing-off of myelin-making
cells with little or no evidence of immune attack. If confirmed, these
findings raise intriguing questions about the MS disease process and how
it begins, about how and when the immune attack becomes involved, and
about the potential for different forms and different underlying brain
damage categories for MS.
Results from a study of the oral immune-modulating drug laquinimod
indicated that in 209 persons with relapsing forms of MS, the drug was
well tolerated. Those on a higher dose had significantly fewer new
active MS brain lesions during 24 weeks of testing. Larger studies,
needed to explore the drug's potential in MS, are beginning now.
Four new Collaborative MS Research Centers were established by the
National MS Society to speed the search for the cause and cure of MS by
teaming up investigators from diverse fields focusing on promising
avenues of research. Each is focusing on the exciting area of nerve
tissue repair. These awards add $3.3 million to the Society's long-term
research commitments.
An international team of investigators from Australia and the U.S.,
partially funded by the National MS Society, successfully reduced the
severity and duration of MS-like disease in mice by vaccinating them
with "Nogo," a protein normally found in the brain that is known to
inhibit nerve regeneration. They determined that the vaccinations caused
the mice's immune systems to produce their own antibodies that
neutralized Nogo's inhibitory activity in the nervous system.
Avanir Pharmaceuticals announced positive results from a Phase III
clinical trial evaluating the oral drug NeurodexTM for treating the
symptom of "pseudobulbar affect," a condition involving uncontrollable
laughing and/or crying affecting a small proportion of persons with MS
and some other neurological disorders. The company announced intentions
to apply to the FDA for approval to market the drug for pseudobulbar
affect.
Acorda Therapeutics announced preliminary results of a phase II clinical
trial of Fampridine-SR, an oral, sustained-release formula of
4-aminopyridine, to treat MS symptoms. According to the company, the
drug showed a trend toward improved walking speed and significantly
improved leg muscle strength. Fampridine-SR blocks tiny pores on the
surface of nerve fibers, to improve nerve impulse conduction. The first
studies of this ion channel-blocking approach in people with MS were
supported by the National MS Society.
These and other leaps forward have made 2004 a momentous year in the
fight against MS.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=17508
Bio.com News
================================
Jayne@... has sent you a news feature from Bio.com and included the
following comments:
U.S. 2nd in Americas On Disability Rights List
By Edith M. Lederer
ASSOCIATED PRESS
UNITED NATIONS - Only five of 24 countries in the Americas provide
adequate protection and treatment to their disabled citizens, according to a
new report by a coalition of disability groups.
The United States, Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica and Jamaica were ranked as
the "most inclusive" countries in dealing with the disabled in the report
released Tuesday, while Belize, Bolivia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana,
Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay and Suriname were judged the "least
inclusive."
The International Disability Rights Monitor Regional Report of the Americas
was released during a meeting of a U.N. committee drawing up a treaty to
protect the rights of an estimated 600 million people with disabilities
worldwide. The next report, to be released in December, will focus on the
Asia-Pacific region.
The report card on the 24 countries in the Americas is based on 11 questions
covering six issues: support for the U.N. treaty, legal protections for the
disabled, education and employment opportunities, accessibility, health
services and housing, and communication.
Brazil ranked first with the highest marks on all six issues. The United States
had the highest marks on five issues, but was second because President
Bush's administration has voiced opposition to a global treaty to protect and
promote the human rights of disabled people, saying national action is more
effective.
The report also found that the national constitutions of 50 percent of countries
in the Americas specifically protect the rights of people with disabilities;
less
than one-third of all children with disabilities are likely to attend school;
and
close to 70 percent of people with disabilities do not have jobs.
Cyd,
"Do we die WITH MS, or FROM MS?"
We do NOT die from ms, it is not fatal.
Regards,
Tom
This was just to let folks know of this site.
Jayne
I believe the character, Pres. Bartlett, is on Betaseron.
As to dying from MS this is rare but not unkown. Witness J.K. Rowling's
mother.
Jayne
Someone on one of these lists wrote: "Do we die WITH MS, or FROM MS?"
I'm afraid I don't know that much about how MS shortens our lives. Also, I have never watched the TV show "The West Wing" until recently, and I didn't know the character of the President in this show has MS. Are they portraying the disease accurately? This last episode mentioned a bottle of medication and washing it down with vodka when (I guess) the disease gets the best of him. What was the name of medication they mentioned, or was it fictitious for obvious copyright reasons?
Do we die with MS, or from MS???
With all love and prayers for you all,
cyd
a.k.a. spacey ä
Adapted from The Daily Motivator
Saturday, December 25, 2004
A new beginning
The gifts and bright decorations will soon be put away, but the love in which they were shared will continue to grow even stronger.
The words, songs, rituals, and traditions will soon give way to other pursuits. The real hope that they express will live on renewed again by the expressions of the season.
Christmas does not end when the gifts have all been opened and the feasting has been finished. The story of Christmas is a story of new birth, promise, love and hope.
This day is not an end but a brilliant new beginning. This day is an opportunity to open your heart to the best of all possibilities.
Even though the years will pass and the seasons will change time cannot erase the love and joy that live in your heart today. Give your very best to this day because its real value will always be with you.
Today is a new beginning and an opportunity to move forward with renewed purpose. This is a gift you can always treasure.
-- Ralph Marston
Copyright ©2004 Ralph S. Marston, Jr. All rights reserved.
http://greatday.com/motivate/index.html
[INLINE]
~Joyce
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior which is Christ the Lord.
~Luke 2:11
Wednesday December 22, 06:54 PM
Biogen/Elan drug to be pitted against Serono/Pfizer rival in MS
Biogen Idec (NASDAQ: BIIB - news) and Elan have revealed that they are
initiating a head-to-head study comparing the safety and efficacy of Tysabri to
Serono (Virt-X: SEO.VX - news) /Pfizer (NYSE: PFE - news) 's Rebif in multiple
sclerosis.
Biogen Idec and Elan have revealed that they are initiating a head-to-head
study comparing the safety and efficacy of Tysabri to Serono/Pfizer's Rebif in
multiple sclerosis.
The study, named STARS, is a randomized, assessor-blinded, parallel group
study that will enroll more than 1,000 multiple sclerosis (MS) patients in North
and South America, Europe, Australia, Turkey and Israel.
Patients who enroll in the study will be randomized to either treatment on
Rebif, administered subcutaneously at 44mcg three times per week, or
treatment with Tysabri, administered as a 300mg IV infusion once every four
weeks. The primary endpoint will compare the effect of Tysabri to Rebif on the
rate of clinical relapses.
Secondary endpoints include analysis of the proportion of patients remaining
relapse free, MRI brain scans, safety, tolerability and quality of life. To help
ensure the objectivity of data emerging from STARS, relapses will be
assessed and determined in a blinded fashion by an independent panel of
experienced neurologists who are not participants in the study.
"Tysabri has shown very encouraging efficacy results and a favorable safety
profile after one year, both as a monotherapy and as an add-on therapy to
Avonex," said Dr Ludwig Kappos, professor of neurology at Basel University,
Switzerland, and member of STARS independent panel.
"This head-to-head comparison with Rebif will provide important information
that will further assist patients and physicians in making therapeutic choices."
The companies expect to enroll the first patient in STARS in the first quarter
of
2005.
Lady
Jayne (Jayne@...) has sent you an item from http://www.montanasnewsstation.com
Four communities raise $15,000 to replace stolen van
http://www.montanasnewsstation.com/Global/story.asp?s=2734026
Find more items like this at http://www.montanasnewsstation.com
Copyright 2004 mont
This article from startribune.com has been sent to you by Jayne.
Jayne wrote these comments: Thought this would be o interest.
Holding off a notorious disabler
Maura Lerner, Star Tribune
Alicia Blank hasn't been able to walk in years and needs a motorized scooter to get around.
But at age 45, she considers herself one of the lucky ones.
She might have been in a nursing home by now, if not for a new generation of drugs that is changing the face of her disease -- multiple sclerosis.
Blank, of Fridley, has lived almost half of her life with MS, the notorious crippler of young adults. At the start, she learned that there was nothing doctors could do to stop it.
But in the past decade, a half-dozen drugs have been approved to slow or halt the progression of MS, a nerve disease that affects 400,000 Americans. One of those drugs, says Blank, "gave the quality of my life back." And the newest one, a genetically engineered drug called Tysabri, is said to be twice as effective as anything on the market.
"These drugs have changed the landscape of MS," said Blank's physician, Dr. Randall Schapiro, director of the Schapiro Center for Multiple Sclerosis in Golden Valley.
They are not a cure, he's quick to add, because they don't restore any lost muscle or nerve function. Nor do they work for everyone.
Yet they suggest that the battle is turning, and that it may be possible to stop MS in patients before it does lasting damage. "I think it's happening in front of my eyes," said Schapiro, a neurologist.
The drug Tysabri won approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last month. It's designed to stop the disease from destroying the protective tissue around the nerves, which is how MS wreaks havoc. Studies showed that Tysabri reduced the number of relapses -- the episodes when symptoms flare up and worsen -- by up to 66 percent, nearly twice the rate of other MS drugs.
Now, doctors have six drugs to choose from, ranging in cost from $1,000 to $2,000 a month.
It's a long way from the 1970s, when the medicine chest was bare and the state of MS treatment was famously described as "diagnose and adios." Some patients literally felt abandoned. At the time, the best that doctors could do was treat the symptoms, give steroids when they flared up and try to help patients cope.
Blank's story
Alicia Blank was a vibrant young newlywed in 1980 when she first had the symptoms no one understood: numbness, tingling, loss of balance. One doctor thought she had an inner-ear problem. An avid runner and biker, she was almost never sick. Then one of her legs stopped working. Sometimes she got better; sometimes not. After four puzzling years, a neurologist told her, "I think you have MS."
At 25, she found herself trapped in a downward spiral. She was in and out of the hospital as flare-ups stole her ability to control her bodily functions. Her disease was getting progressively worse.
MS is known for being maddeningly unpredictable. "No two people with MS are alike," said Schapiro, who is on the national board of directors of the Multiple Sclerosis Society and author of a book, "Managing the Symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis."
The symptoms can be all over the map -- from double vision to memory problems to muscle weakness. Experts aren't even sure it's one illness; it has at least four distinct forms. Something causes the white blood cells that normally fight infection to attack the tissue (called myelin) that surrounds the nerves. That in turn disrupts the signals that control movement.
Some people are disabled; while many have milder symptoms -- such as muscle weakness or numbness -- that are barely noticeable to others. About two-thirds of patients are still walking 20 years after their diagnosis, according to Schapiro. But the threat of getting worse, he said, is always "hanging over you."
Historically, MS has been a prime target for quackery, Schapiro said. In the absence of anything else, people turned to magnets, bee stings, cobra venom, "a lot of just crazy therapies," he said. "Wishful thinking."
But in 1993, the FDA set off a frenzy when it approved a drug called Betaseron. It's a genetically engineered version of a natural substance called interferon, which regulates the immune system. Scientists found that it could reduce the frequency and severity of MS attacks.
The reaction was overwhelming.
People were scrambling to get it, "sort of like the flu vaccine," recalled Schapiro. A lottery was held to decide who would get the first 20,000 doses.
Alicia Blank threw her name into the lottery, and won. She started giving herself a shot of Betaseron every other day and hoped for the best.
A leap of faith
It wasn't an easy drug to take, Schapiro said. It was costly, painful, had side effects and didn't make anyone feel better. Many were tempted to give up.
But over time, Schapiro began to see a difference in his practice. He had fewer patients in the hospital. Fewer patients losing the ability to walk. Fewer flare-ups and fewer setbacks.
Blank hasn't been hospitalized in 11 years, since she started taking the shots. Essentially, she says, "It's stopped the progression of the disease." She lives at home with her husband, Tim; drives a specially fitted van, does volunteer work and travels the world. She doesn't like to think about where she might be without the drug. But if she'd had it sooner, she says confidently, "I'd be walking and riding my bike. ... I wouldn't even have this disability."
Four more drugs were added to the arsenal between 1996 and 2002. Yet many patients, including Martha Cincoski of Eagan, are still searching for the right one, or perhaps the right combination.
Cincoski, 37, has tried almost everything since MS sidelined her career as a budding surgeon in 1995. Yet her disease is progressing, and she started using a cane last summer.
Taking this kind of drug, she said, requires a leap of faith. All of them are designed, one way or another, to prevent further damage to the nerves, but they can't repair damage already done. And it's hard to measure the drug's effect in any one person.
"The problem is ... you don't know where you'd be without it," Cincoski said. "I just think that if I hadn't been on drugs, would I even be walking now?" Now, she says, she's eager to try the newest drug, Tysabri. "The studies are showing me that this is working, so let's try it," she said.
Doctors say they're impressed with Tysabri's results in early studies. But with new drugs, "there's always a big surge of excitement, and one always has to be careful," said Dr. Gary Birnbaum, an MS specialist and a colleague of Schapiro. He, for one, wants more research on who's likely to benefit, as well as possible side effects, which include headache, depression, infections and joint pain.
So far, the MS drugs as a group have not been linked to long-term problems, according to Schapiro. But last month, when one of his patients wondered aloud about the risk of taking these drugs indefinitely, he acknowledged that it's still an open question.
"My answer is, there's terrible long-term effects of multiple sclerosis if it gets out of control," he said.
"That is what you're weighing it against."
Maura Lerner is at mlerner@....
If so would you please contact me? Thanks!
Jayne
Hi Folks,
Does anyone have any experience with.....
"KALAWALLA"? It is a supplement derived from a fern that grows primarily in Honduras. It has been used in Europe for a number of years apparently quite successful.
Regards,
Tom
Adapted from The Daily Motivator
Friday, December 24, 2004
Choose peace
In this moment on this day please be at peace. Calm your thoughts, relax your mind and let the anxieties melt away.
Peace is a choice that you can make for yourself at any time. Peace is a choice you can make right now.
Spend time with, and truly enjoy, the people and things you normally hurry past. There is really no rush because the best of life is already yours in this very moment.
When you live and act from a perspective of peace you live with strength, confidence, effectiveness and richness. Whatever may be around you please let peace flow out from you.
Choose to be at peace, and you will make your world a more beautiful place. Choose to be at peace, and open yourself to the best that life can be.
-- Ralph Marston
Copyright ©2004 Ralph S. Marston, Jr. All rights reserved.
http://greatday.com/motivate/index.html
[INLINE]
~Joyce
I will count you among the gifts I receive this year and thank God for His never-ending generosity.
Banking Human Neurospecimens
(Real Living with Multiple Sclerosis)
Updated: Dec 24th 2004
The demand for postmortem tissue has never been greater.
IN MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS (MS) RESEARCH today, the banking of human
neurospecimens plays an important role in trying to unlock the cause and
concurrent mysteries of the disease. In the hands of a scientific investigator,
a
tissue sample taken from the brain or spinal cord of a deceased person who
had MS could lead to unraveling one of the many secrets about this illness.
Specimen banking is nothing new
The practice of banking human neurospecimens has been around for
decades. In 1961, Dr. Wallace W. Tourtellotte, MD, PhD, who earned his
doctorate in neurobiochemical pharmacology and specializes in MS, started
the MS Brain Bank (part of the Multiple Sclerosis Resource Center) at the
University of Michigan.
Funded by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, the program migrated to
the Veterans Administration's Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System at the
West Los Angeles Healthcare Center in 1971. The bank acts as an essential
repository for scientists whose research design involves the study of frozen
postmortem tissue or body fluids from patients who had MS.
Dubbed the "MS Gift of Hope Postmortem Donor Program," Dr. Tourtellotte's
43-year-old creation is still going strong. It conducts its mission with the
motto,
"Helping basic scientists help patients."
The center acts as a centralized repository for collecting neurological
specimens (such as donated postmortem brain tissue), cryogenically
preserving it, and then distributing it to research scientists, who study it in
the
hopes of designing treatments for incurable neurological or psychiatric
diseases.
It is referred to as a public brain bank, explained Diane Guntrip, administrator
and donor coordinator at the MS Human Neurospecimen Bank in Los
Angeles, Calif. "There are MS centers at other universities that conduct
clinical trials," she said. "These scientists may follow MS patients their whole
lives, and they may acquire MS brains, but that tissue is used primarily within
their own institution," It isn't shared with other scientists from outside their
community.
According to "Gift of Hope" literature, "Participation will help advance human
disease research, which could lead to diagnostic markers for early detection
or disease acuity and for possible treatments and cures for individuals
suffering from neurological and psychiatric disorders."
Once asked what he hoped to find through the tissue donation program, Dr.
Tourtellotte responded that he hoped to find the virus.
"You mean the virus that causes MS?" asked the reporter.
"Yes," responded the doctor. "But, in order to avoid such a precise statement, I
usually say that basic scientists are looking for the etiopathogenesis [ie, the
cause] of the disease, and what the cause does to the white matter of the
brain in order to produce the symptoms of MS."
"Then," continued Dr. Tourtellotte, "when you find the cause, you do what
comes next in the pharmacology biz: you design a treatment. We want to
design a drug that can stop MS from destroying myelin in the body."
"So," Dr. Tourtellotte concluded, "scientists' request for human tissue is
hypotheses-driven. And we give them tissue in order to help them build
experiments around their particular hypothesis."
Time and technique is crucial
Being in the business of banking human neurospecimens is akin to playing
the old game "beat the clock." Every minute counts after death because
autolysis-a process of tissue disintegration-quickly occurs and renders the
brain unsuitable for scientific investigation.
During this interim period, cells within the tissue can be destroyed by the
tissue's own enzymes. The shorter the autolysis time, the better, because
that's less time the tissue has to deteriorate.
"We try to obtain the brain and have it processed within 6 to 12 hours after
death," Guntrip noted. The total mass of the tissue used is about 1.4
kilograms, or about 3 pounds.
The way in which the tissue is preserved is equally important. Formalin is a
fixative substance that is commonly used to fix tissue after a person has
expired. However, formalin can negatively affect the usefulness of the
neurospecimen to scientific researchers.
"Using formalin-treated tissue with special stains or certain chemicals causes
it to interact strangely," Guntrip explained.
For this reason, Dr. Tourtellotte has started using a fresh- freezing process on
his donated tissue, so the tissue is in as pristine a state as possible for
researchers.
"We quick-freeze all of the tissue we receive," said Dr. Tourtellotte. "We slice
the brain into about 30 slices and quick- freeze all of that. Then, when
somebody wants a plaque, we dissect it from out of the frozen tissue and we
give it to them."
After the brain is processed and preserved in this fashion, the tissue can be
used to study proteins, genes, and morphology (any scientific study of the
form and structure of an organism).
"And from that kind of preservation, you get to do all of these different
disciplines and techniques, like looking for enzymes or looking for a profile of
a protein in there," said Dr. Tourtellotte.
Guntrip pointed out that an entire donated brain does not go to one scientific
investigator. Instead, because tissue samples are sliced before being quick-
frozen, one brain is spread out among multiple researchers, who are probably
doing vastly different types of studies and projects. Like getting the most bang
for your buck, this system guarantees the most bang for each brain, so to
speak.
Neurospecimens are in demand
"The need and request for human postmortem brain tissue has never been so
demanding," Dr. Tourtellotte told the Encyclopedia of Neuroscience in 2003.
As of January 2003, only 1,245 people with MS had signed up as participants
in the "Gift of Hope" program.
One of the problems, Guntrip explained, is that, "MS patients and their families
don't understand the need for donated tissue for research, nor do they realize
they have the opportunity to become donors."
One needn't be a registered donor in order to donate to the brain bank,
although it does make matters simpler. When a patient's family knows about
the donor's wishes and family members have signed off on the plan, things
can proceed in a smooth and orderly fashion after the patients death.
"We want the patient's family to have notified the mortuary handling the
patient's burial, because most of the tissue is removed at the mortuary," said
Guntrip. "Some mortuaries are not able to let us in, so we have to make
alternative arrangements; and in the middle of the night or on the weekends
[it] can be more than a little difficult."
Guntrip also emphasized how helpful it is if the patient's family notify her
organization when they become aware that the donor's death is imminent.
"Even if the donor is registered with us, we appreciate a quick phone call
before the actual death takes place, so we can review the patient's
geographic location and find out what resources we have in that area," said
Guntrip.
Some donors, she went on to explain, might have signed up with the program
20 years ago. At the time they signed up, there might have been a harvester
in their area-but that's no guarantee there will still be one now. Or, maybe
when they signed up there was no harvester, but now there is one close by.
"The more notice we have about an imminent death, the better," Guntrip
concluded. "And it's ultimately better for the family, because they know that
their loved one's wish is going to be carried out."
Making difference
One person who wants his wish of ending the scourge of MS to become a
reality is Don Duncan (a pseudonym). Having lived with the chronic/
progressive form of the illness for over 10 years, Duncan now must use a
wheelchair to make his way in the world.
"Boy," said Duncan, "to say I've lost a lot because of this disease doesn't tell
the half of it. My marriage and subsequent love life pretty much went up in
flames, and my income isn't near what it used to be. I've heard that they call
this a disease of losses; and the losses I've suffered could fill a book. But
then,
I'm sure I'm not the only one out there who can say that.
"But what I do have," said Duncan, is the ability to fight back. I figure by
donating my central nervous system to MS research, I can strike a blow
against the disease and maybe-just maybe-help put an end to this
catastrophic illness so future generations never have to put up with its
awfulness.
"Some people call what I'm doing altruistic. But the way I see it, my choice
won't hurt me when I make it to those pearly gates and ask to be taken to the
penthouse," Duncan joked. "And anyway, I like the idea of a part (or parts!) of
me being of such true value even after the final curtain closes on me."
Now that's a philosophy that every MS patient can take to the bank-the
neurospecimen bank, that is.
For more information or to become a donor, contact the organizations listed
below.
* MS Human Neurospecimen Bank in Los Angeles, Calif. Call Diane Guntrip,
administrator and donor coordinator, at (310) 268-3536.
* The Rocky Mountain MS Center in Englewood, Colo. Phone: (303) 788-
4030.
When a patient's family knows about the donor's wishes and family members
have signed off on the plan, things can proceed in a smooth and orderly
fashion after the patient's death.
Al Tainsky is a national award-winning freelance writer for InsideMS.
Copyright Springhouse Corporation Nov/Dec 2004
advertisement
NEWS
· Banking Human Neurospecimens
· Utah Man Hopeful About New MS Drug
· Diagnosis and Management of Multiple Sclerosis
· Sexual Healing
VIDEOS [ Note ]
· When Multiple Sclerosis Affects the Mind: Coping Strategies
· When Multiple Sclerosis Affects the Mind: An Overview
· When Multiple Sclerosis Affects the Mind: Warning Signs
· Combination Therapies for Multiple Sclerosis
· Squiggy's Secret: David Lander's Silent Struggle with MS
· Multiple Sclerosis: Making Decisions With Your Doctor
· MS Treatment Challenges: When Relapse is a Sign of Something More
· IV Medicines for MS: A New Age of Therapies
· A Puzzling Effect of MS Treatments
· The Importance of Neutralizing Antibodies in MS
· Sticking with MS Therapy: Dealing with Injections
· A Speed Bump, Not a Stop Sign: Living with Multiple Sclerosis
· Physician Heal Thyself: A Doctor's Battle with MS
· MS Relapses: How to Deal with Them
· Making a Plan for MS: Why Start Treatment?
· Sex and Intimacy in People Living with MS
· Squiggy: 20 Year Reunion
· Squiggy Speaks Out on Living With MS
· Starting Interferon Therapy: What to Expect
· Help with Interferon Therapy: Tips from MS Nurses
· Staying on Interferon Therapy: Leading an Active Life
· Treatment of Early MS: What Are Your Options?
· Cognitive Impairment in MS: The Latest Research
· Visiting the Doctor: What MS Patients Should Know
· MS Energy Management Techniques
· What's Happening to Me?: Invisible MS
· Multiple Sclerosis 101
· Insidious Progression of MS: More Than Just Relapses and Remissions
· Symptom Management for Multiple Sclerosis
· How to Make Sense of Clinical Trials
LINKS
· [1] Articles
· [3] Associations
· [2] Community
· [10] Information
· [1] Videos
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Update Listings
Copyright © CenterSite, LLC, 1995-2004
Cancer Research Yields Clues to Gray Hair
Cancer Researchers Develop New Explanation for Gray Hair They Hope Will Shed Light on Melanoma
The Associated PressThe Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=356345
WASHINGTON Dec 23, 2004 Those annoying gray hairs that increasingly leer back from the bathroom mirror may have some value after all. Cancer researchers have developed a new explanation for graying hair that they hope will also shed light on the most dangerous type of skin cancer.
"Preventing the graying of hair is not our goal," said senior researcher Dr. David E. Fisher of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.
"What we really want is to come up with treatments for melanoma," Fisher said in a telephone interview. Melanoma is the malignant form of melanocytes, the cells that help color hair and skin, and it is particularly resistant to chemotherapy and radiation.
Fisher's team found that hair goes gray when melanocytes become depleted.
Top Stories
* GOP May Challenge Wash. Governor Recount
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* Powell Urged Bush to Boost Troops in Iraq -- Report
The scalp contains a reservoir of adult stem cells that provide a continuous supply of these color-making cells, they found. But as the body ages these cells become depleted and sometimes begin to develop in the wrong part of the hair follicle.
The research, published online Thursday by the journal Science, originally focused on mice. But the team also studied human scalp tissue at various ages and found a similar pattern of cell depletion.
It was known that the pigment was not well transferred into gray hair, but the actual mechanism had not been understood, Emi K. Nishimura, a co-author of the paper, said in a telephone interview.
She said a gene called Bcl 2 is essential to maintain melanocytes. The researchers found that when they raised mice lacking this gene the animals went gray quickly and dramatically shortly after birth.
Fisher suggested that people who get gray prematurely may have a mutation of this gene.
The question they now want to answer is why the melanocyte cells begin dying off as the body ages.
These cells are generally good at surviving, being able to live through ultraviolet radiation at the beach, for example that would kill many other cells. That can be good when people go to the beach because the melanocytes produce pigment that protects the skin.
Unfortunately, they retain that ability to survive when they become cancerous, Fisher said.
So, he said, the researchers wondered if they could find a back door to killing the cells by studying how they die naturally, and that's what led to their research on graying.
By understanding how genes like Bcl 2 protect the cells, what pathways they act on, Fisher said, the scientists can look for ways to block that action with a drug.
"We have a number of ideas the work is moving," Fisher said. "I cannot say that we have drugs in our hands, but we have targets."
The American Cancer Society expects about 55,100 people to be diagnosed this year with melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer, with an estimated 7,910 deaths.
Melanoma can be cured when it is detected and treated early, but if the lesion penetrates deeply into the skin it is often fatal. Sun exposure is a major risk factor in the disease, which has been increasing in the past few decades.
The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Charles A. King Trust of Fleet National Bank and The Medical Foundation.
On the Net:
Science:
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute:
Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=356345
originalreport originalreport
originalreport originalreport
Adapted from The Daily Motivator
Thursday, December 23, 2004
Persist
Persist, and efforts pay off that otherwise never would. Persist, and time begins to work for you rather than against you.
Persist, and the obstacles fall away one by one. Persist, and the goals that seemed impossibly distant come streaming into view.
Persist, and what once held you back becomes a force that moves you forward. Persist, and you achieve what no one thought you could.
Persist, and weakness turns into strength. Persist, and valuable knowledge replaces ignorance.
When it seems you are making no progress at all, persist. This is usually when a breakthrough is close at hand.
What was once impossible can indeed be yours. Persist, and you will be there.
-- Ralph Marston
Copyright ©2004 Ralph S. Marston, Jr. All rights reserved.
http://greatday.com/motivate/index.html
[INLINE]
~Joyce [INLINE]
I thought I was here to change the world. I found I was here to change myself.
Thought this would be of interest.
===================
http://www.biospace.com/news_story.cfm?StoryID=18527920
===================
Your friend found this news on http://www.biospace.com
BioSpace - Web solutions for the life sciences
http://www.biospace.com
NEWS_STOCKS_CAREERS_RESOURCES_COMMUNITIES_WEB SOLUTIONS
BioSpace
300 Fifth Avenue South
Naples, Florida 34102
Phone: 888-BIOSPACE
Fax: 239-659-0111 or 239-659-0100
FYI
===================
http://www.biospace.com/news_story.cfm?StoryID=18532420
===================
Your friend found this news on http://www.biospace.com
BioSpace - Web solutions for the life sciences
http://www.biospace.com
NEWS_STOCKS_CAREERS_RESOURCES_COMMUNITIES_WEB SOLUTIONS
BioSpace
300 Fifth Avenue South
Naples, Florida 34102
Phone: 888-BIOSPACE
Fax: 239-659-0111 or 239-659-0100
Please ask Congress to support access to assistive technology for people with
disabilities. Unless Congress acts this year, 31 states will lose the main
federal support for assistive technology. These state-based projects provide
outreach, education and advocacy within states and increase access to vital
technologies for people with disabilities. I hope you will visit Easter Seals'
Web site to learn more and ask your legislators to support access to assistive
technology.
To take action on this issue, click on the link below:
https://secure2.convio.net/es/site/Advocacy?s_oo=FkDkSn2ovQOPLhYs3lnipg..&id\
=133
If the text above does not appear as a link or it wraps across multiple lines,
then copy and paste it into the address area of your browser.
From: Helen Aull helenaull@...
17428 El Rancho Ave.
Monte Sereno, California 95030
This page is sent to you by Jayne (Jayne@...) with the message:
Thought this'd be of interest.
Check out this web page from Novis
http://DrugResearcher.com/news/ng-nocache.asp?id=56917
DrugResearcher.com is the world's premier website for the latest breaking news
on every aspect of drug discovery. This site is published by Novis, a
business-to-business publisher that supplies strategically relevant news
directly to the desktops of decision-makers in the pharmaceuticals, cosmetics
and food industries.
************************************************************
* To subscribe FREE to DrugResearcher.com e-newsletter, please click here
Merry Christmas to all of you!
Does anyone on this list live in or near Las Vegas?
We are moving there in
Feb. and would l9ove some support
Marla
=====
My own, that is.
News-Medical.Net News-Medical.Net
Chiropractic correction may help reverse multiple sclerosis and Parkinsons disease
Posted By: News-Medical in Medical Study News
Published: Friday, 10-Sep-2004
Print - Chiropractic correction may help reverse multiple sclerosis and Parkinsons disease Printer Friendly Email - Chiropractic correction may help reverse multiple sclerosis and Parkinsons disease
Email to a Friend
A recent study of 81 cases, published in the Journal of Vertebral Subluxation Research (JVSR), is the first to show that correction of upper neck injuries may reverse the progression of both Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and Parkinsons disease (PD).
The research was performed by Erin Elster, D.C., an Upper Cervical Chiropractor in Boulder, Colorado, who compiled data from 44 MS patients and 37 PD patients treated over the past five years. After treating upper neck injuries in 81 patients, 91% of MS patients and 92% of PD patients improved, suggesting that correction of neck injuries stimulated a reversal of MS and PD.
According to Dr. Elster, traumas to the head, neck, and upper spine can result in vertebral subluxations that occur when vertebrae (the small interlocking bones of the spinal column) misalign or become stuck and interfere with the function of the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord). By aligning the first two upper vertebrae with the skull, nerve pathways traveling between the brain and spinal cord became less obstructed. This may help improve and/or reverse both MS and PD.
"According to medical research, head and neck injuries have long been considered a contributing factor for the onset of both Multiple Sclerosis and Parkinsons disease," said Elster. "But this is the first research to show that correction of those injuries can have a dramatic effect on improving and reversing MS and PD."
Upper neck injuries frequently occur during traumas in which an individual sustains a blow to the head, whiplash, or concussion, such as during a fall, auto accident, or sporting accident. The injury can precede the onset of MS and PD by months, years, or even decades. In many cases, an individual is completely unaware that he or she has sustained such an injury. "An examination would need to be performed in each individuals case to determine whether a neck injury is contributing to his or her health problem," Elster noted.
Dr. Matthew McCoy, JVSR editor, commented that Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent every year on research of MS and Parkinsons -- none of that money goes to chiropractic research. Hopefully Dr. Elsters research will get the attention of the government, private foundations and individuals who can earmark money to further research the effects of chiropractic care on these disorders. What motivation does a pharmaceutical company have to look elsewhere for the answers? Clearly, attempting to solve what might be a mechanical problem with chemicals is not the answer.
This research comes on the heels of other publications by Elster in which upper neck injuries were corrected in patients with migraine and cluster headaches, seizures, bipolar disorder, Tourette Syndrome and ADHD, all of which have been linked to head and neck trauma by medical researchers.
JVSR is a peer-reviewed scientific journal devoted to subluxation based chiropractic research affiliated with the World Chiropractic Alliance (WCA), an international organization representing doctors of chiropractic and promoting the traditional, drug-free and non-invasive form of chiropractic as a means of correcting vertebral subluxations that cause nerve interference.
http://www.jvsr.com
Adapted from The Daily Motivator
Wednesday, December 22, 2004
Adaptability
The world keeps changing from day to day and moment to moment. This can be a big problem for you, or it can be a magnificent opportunity.
One of your greatest skills is your ability to adapt. When you make use of this skill, you can get the changes to work in your favor.
The future is a moving target. Even the most carefully constructed plans can be rendered ineffective by changing conditions.
There is no need to give up on your goals when things change. You can take a good look at your new surroundings and successfully adapt to them.
It could very well be that a changing situation offers even more opportunity than what was there before. Put yourself in a position to realize this opportunity by adapting to the changes.
When your world changes you might become immobilized with worry, you can waste your time complaining or you can adapt. Make use of your ability to adapt, and be your best in this ever-changing world.
-- Ralph Marston
Copyright ©2004 Ralph S. Marston, Jr. All rights reserved.
http://greatday.com/motivate/index.html
[INLINE]
~Joyce [INLINE]
Empathize with one who is angry, and watch the anger melt into acceptance.
UNC Researchers Develop Procedure To Track DNA Damage
Special To LTW
CHAPEL HILL Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill have developed a procedure that tracks the breakdown in DNA
chromosomes, a step they say could lead to future therapeutic treatments to
repair the damage.
"This is the first paper that distinguishes breaks in chromosomes versus
breaks in DNA," said Kerry Bloom, a professor of biology. "Chromosomal
breaks are important in many diseases that stem from chromosomal
translocation, in which genes get switched around.
"Our new system allows for visualizing DNA ends at the site of a double-
stranded break in living cells. We showed that a protein complex we call RMX
holds broken ends of DNA together and counteracts forces that can be
destructive to damaged chromosomes."
Chromosome damage triggers many fatal or debilitating illnesses, including
cancer, Bloom said. Bloom is part of the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer
Center staff.
"In the course of this work, we discovered that when breaks occur in either
one or both strands of DNA, which is a complex, double-stranded, helical
molecule, the chromosomes do not fragment," Bloom said. "Proteins are
recruited very quickly to the sites of DNA damage, and they keep the
chromosome intact. This was hypothesized but never shown before. We also
identified some of those specific proteins."
The research is reported in the new issue of Current Biology.
Also involved in the research was Kirill Lobachev, formerly of the National
Institute of Environmental Health Sciences' Laboratory of Molecular Genetics
who works at the Georgia Institute of Technology; biology graduate students
Eric Vitriol of UNC and Jennifer Stemple of the University of Southern
California; and Michael Resnick of National Institute of Environmental Health
Sciences. Vitriol and Stemple were UNC undergraduates.
The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the U.S.
Department of Energy.
UNC: www.unc.edu
Dear MS_Community,
Jayne (jaynemadler@...) has sent you this page from ScienceDaily Magazine
(http://www.sciencedaily.com).
The problem sems to be I started this group while on AOL but jumped to
from my cybersnarl. Wish me luck!
Jayne
I'm having a melt-down. This has been a hectic couple of years for me.
My aide situation awaits resolution. I'm waiting to hear fro Fannie about how
CDPAP was presented to her. I never wanted to hurt anyone but I am
adamant in m choice of a personal assistant. Who wouldn't be in such a
personal matter?
Anyway, Fannie called within the past couple of weeks but I was
unavailable. I'm trying to find out what she was told of CDPAP. Primarily if the
time she was told she is CDPAP on her current case corresponds directly to
the receipt of my forms seeking her return. If she would prefer to stay on her
current case I will oblige her wishes. I would still want to know the timing of
her being informed she was CDPAP on her current case and how this relates
to her position. I worry that she is on the case with someone else with MS. I
worry this because I am aware that the NYS nurse suprervising her has MS
and that certain people in my inperson support groups act very disturbed
when I talk about my quest in the groups. I am willing to accept Fannie's
decision to remain on her current case but only if it was an informed choice.
As I know I was offering her the highest pay she could get to be my aide I want
to hear it from her mouth that she declines my offer.
As a year and a half ago she had accepted it and I simply awaited her arrivl
until I called her and she had a job, thanked me and hung up I need to know
that staying on her current case was her informed choice. That would be
acceptable to me. But if he was willing to return to me at the wages and
benefits I'd approved for offering to her at that time nd not been told of the
offer
I do have a problem with that!
So its still a waiting game. At least I will have forced some further thought
of
aides and who pays them. As I have said intended what has turned out to be
a fiasco as a walk in the park. I'd have the aide of my choice and she'd have
the salary and benefits of a true CDPAP aide.
We'll see how this all sorts out. I have kept a record of my attempts to
secure
Fannie's return as my aide on the MS Watch website. Its all documented.
Jayne
This MedicineNet.com article has been sent to you from
jaynemadler@...
Message from sender:
Thought this, too, it'd be of interest.
This MedicineNet.com article has been sent to you from
jaynemadler@...
Message from sender:
Thought this might be of interest.
This MedicineNet.com article has been sent to you from
jaynemadler@...
Message from sender:
Thought this might be of interest to you.
Jayne saw this story on BBC News Online and thought you
should see it.
** Message **
Tought this *might interest you.
** Aromatherapy oils 'kill superbug' **
Essential oils could kill the deadly MRSA hospital 'superbug', scientists have
claimed.
< http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/health/4116053.stm
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Thought this'd be of interest.
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Thought this'd be of interest.
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Adapted from The Daily Motivator
Tuesday, December 21, 2004
Doubt no more
Your doubts have no power to take action. All they can do is prevent you from acting. You have far more power than any doubt. The only way doubt can stop you is if you let it.
There is no need to fight against your doubts. You can simply decide to walk away from them. The only thing they offer you is their familiar comfort. When you are willing to let go, you will have no reason to keep your doubts alive.
A small, positive action is enough to begin carrying you past any doubt. Keep in mind that doubt is just a thought and when your experience proves it wrong, doubt will quickly wither away.
Doubts can stop you cold, but only if you allow them to do so. Take action, and the doubts will be no more.
-- Ralph Marston
Copyright ©2004 Ralph S. Marston, Jr. All rights reserved.
http://greatday.com/motivate/index.html
[INLINE]
~Joyce [INLINE]
Struggling is nature's way of strengthening.
This story was sent to you by: Jayne Adler
Thought you would be interested.
I began the MS_Community@... while on AOL but jumpedf to
http://mpp.org/releases/nr20041213.html
DEA Ruling Makes FDA Approval of Medical Marijuana
Impossible
State and Federal Legislation Now Only Hope for
Patients
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- In a blow to those who have urged medical marijuana
advocates to seek FDA approval of
marijuana as a prescription drug, the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration has acted to block the only proposed research
project that could lead to marijuana's FDA approval. In its letter to
Lyle Craker, Ph.D., of the University of Massachusetts
Amherst, the DEA appeared to slam the door completely shut on the FDA
approval process.
Barring favorable action by the U.S. Supreme Court, the decision
leaves medical marijuana patients with no hope for
protection from arrest for the foreseeable future except through state
and federal legislation, officials of the Washington,
D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) said today.
On June 25, 2001, Dr. Craker, director of the university's
Medicinal Plant Program, filed an application with the DEA for
approval to establish a facility that would produce marijuana for
FDA-approved research. Currently, all marijuana for research
in the U.S. must come from a National Institute on Drug Abuse-contracted
farm in Mississippi. NIDA's marijuana has been only
inconsistently available to researchers and cannot be used for
prescription sale. This makes FDA approval of marijuana
effectively impossible unless an alternative source is made available,
since testing would need to be done on the same product
that is sold to patients.
The DEA's Dec. 10 letter to Dr. Craker said that approval of the
application "would not be consistent with the public
interest." The letter then prejudged research that has not yet occurred,
stating, "Current marijuana research has not progressed
to Phase 2 of the clinical trials because current research must use
smoked marijuana, which ultimately cannot be the permitted
delivery system for any potential marijuana medication due to the
deleterious effects and the difficulty in monitoring the
efficaciousness of smoked marijuana." The letter can be downloaded at
http://www.mpp.org/pdf/DEA.pdf .
"The DEA's statement is simply false," said Rick Doblin, Ph.D. of
the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies
(MAPS), which had planned to fund the UMass facility. "Phase 2 trials of
marijuana -- which look at both safety and efficacy --
are underway now at the University of California, as is a study of
vaporizer technology, which allows use of inhaled marijuana
without smoking. The DEA is saying that we can't ever go to the FDA with
marijuana because it has to be smoked, and that is
simply not true. It is appalling that the DEA claims further research on
medical marijuana is not in the public interest." A MAPS
study of vaporizer technology has been stalled for 17 months by the
federal government.
"I am disappointed that the DEA seems to have decided that
marijuana cannot be a medicine before the research has even
taken place," Dr. Craker said. "We intend to appeal this decision and
will keep trying to pursue vitally important research on
medical uses of marijuana."
Dr. Craker and his colleagues plan to seek an appeal hearing as
allowed by DEA procedures, but anticipate that this would
be the start of a process that is likely to take years and -- based on
past experience -- could conceivably take decades.
"In the Supreme Court two weeks ago, Justice Breyer told two
California patients that they should go to the FDA to get
marijuana approved as a medicine, but now the DEA has slammed the door
on that process," said MPP Executive Director
Rob Kampia. "The DEA has proven that the system is rigged to make sure
that marijuana will never be approved by the FDA,
because the DEA can always block the research that the FDA needs. The
DEA's decision means the only way to protect
patients from arrest is through state and federal legislation, and this
adds new urgency to our efforts in both Congress and the
states. We expect legislators to move quickly once they understand that,
for the foreseeable future, legislative action is the only
way to keep cancer and AIDS patients out of jail."
With more than 17,000 members and 150,000 e-mail subscribers
nationwide, the Marijuana Policy Project is the largest
marijuana policy reform organization in the United States. MPP works to
minimize the harm associated with marijuana -- both
the consumption of marijuana and the laws that are intended to prohibit
such use. MPP believes that the greatest harm
associated with marijuana is imprisonment. For more information, please
visit MarijuanaPolicy.org.
Time is running out for the Governor to sign the grandparenting bill supported by AARP.
The Caregiver Consent Bill, S.6818, was passed by the Assembly and Senate and now awaits the Governor?s signature.
New York State has over 400,000 children living in households headed by a grandparent or other relative. Under current law, it can be difficult for grandparents or other relatives, who do not have legal custody of the children in their care, to make important health and school-related decisions for the child.
The Caregiver Consent Bill would fix this problem. Please send a message to Governor Pataki by clicking on the link below:
http://capwiz.com/aarp/mail/oneclick_compose/?alertid=6543246
Please share this email with your friends and family who might be affected by this important issue. For more information, visit www.aarp.org/ny .
Thought this'd be of interest.
===================
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===================
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Action Alert
Take Action SAVE MEDICAID
DO NOT BLOCK GRANT MEDICAID
From NHeLP's (National Health Law Program) Capital Communique December
17, 2004
MEDICAID * 2005 AND BEYOND
It is thought that the President's budget and/or Congress' budget
resolution may include proposals to block grant Medicaid directly or
mandate severe cuts that could only be accomplished by restructuring
Medicaid.
When the President releases his budget in early February; it may
include a Medicaid block grant proposal, as it has the past two years.
Then Congress will begin negotiating a budget resolution, which sets
out funding levels for discretionary spending and targets for revenue
and entitlement program cuts. Medicaid and Medicare are examples
of entitlement programs. The budget resolution may also include
"reconciliation" instructions, which would require authorizing
committees to make specific cuts in programs under their purview.
Reconciliation instructions, which are binding, specify which
committees must cut specific amounts (likely over a 5 year time
period) and provide a deadline to report legislation containing the
cuts. In the Senate, legislation making the reconciliation cuts may
not be filibustered, needs only a majority vote to proceed, and is
extremely difficult to amend during debate on the Senate floor.
If significant cuts are mandated by the reconciliation instructions,
committees * such as the Senate Finance and the House Energy
and Commerce Committees which oversee Medicaid and SCHIP *
may have little choice but to make dramatic structural changes to
meet the target amounts. This could, for example, cause the
committee to consider a Medicaid block grant as a way to achieve
mandated savings. Thus, reconciliation may offer a back door
alternative for restructuring Medicaid in a way that could not be
achieved with stand-alone legislation (which would require at least
60 supporting votes in the Senate to overcome a filibuster).
POSSIBLE ACTION: Those wishing to do so could send letters to
the White House and Members of Congress expressing opposition
to: 1. block granting the Medicaid program; or 2. including
reconciliation instructions that would require large scale Medicaid
cuts or restructuring.
Your Message
This system requires that you provide your name and contact information. This information will not be used for any purpose other than to identify you to the recipient.
Subject:
Current Long Term Care Action Alerts
SAVE MEDICAID
DO NOT BLOCK GRANT MEDICAID GO »
EPIC Works
Seniors & Disabled United for EPIC GO »
Help Stop Plans to Allow Poorly Trained Caregivers in Nursing Homes
Fax, Write or Join our legal action GO »
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Adapted from The Daily Motivator
Monday, December 20, 2004
Acceptance
Resentment only wastes your energy and keeps your creativity suppressed. By accepting what has happened you put yourself in a position to do something about it.
You do not always get the results you desire and conditions are not always what you would like for them to be, but you can always accept where you are and then move on ahead.
The fastest way to move forward is to be realistic about where you are. Accept and acknowledge what you have to work with, and you will begin to see plenty of positive possibilities.
Acceptance of what is does not mean that you are giving in or giving up on where you can go. By fully accepting where you are you enable yourself to make positive use of everything available to you.
By accepting what is you can make positive use of the triumphs and the disappointments. By letting go of your resentment and anger for what has been you can put all your focus on the best of what can be.
Stop fighting the battles that are already over. Accept what is, and you have already begun to win.
-- Ralph Marston
Copyright ©2004 Ralph S. Marston, Jr. All rights reserved.
http://greatday.com/motivate/index.html
[INLINE]
~Joyce [INLINE]
Failure is a part of success. There is no such thing as a bed of roses all your life, but failure will never stand in the way of success if you learn from it.
~Hank Aaron
Hall of Fame Baseball Player
Before 1993, even the most optimistic physicians thought they had little to
offer their multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. While a far cry from the 1300s
when what we now know as an autoimmune disease was considered
religious in nature with remissions the results of miraclesstandard treatment
12 years ago revolved around steroids and cytotoxic drugs. No proven long-
term treatment options existed. Then in 1993, as Stephen Reingold, vice
president of research programs with the National Multiple Sclerosis Society
(NMSS) puts it, the floodgates opened with a succession of interferon-beta-
based drug approvals. "After many, many years of applied research and
clinical studies, Betaseron was found successful in reducing relapse rates. It
was the first time in history that a disease-modifying agent was successful and
tolerable to use in MS." Schering AG sells the drug as Betaferon in most
regions of the world, except in the tolerability issues. Another growing
concern is the development of neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) in some
patients that prevent the interferon from effectively binding to or activating
its
receptor. A Danish study published in June showed that these NAbs are not
usually observed until after 18 months of treatment, and they can lead to
higher relapse rates and more disease activity. Other challenges include how
to develop novel agents that are based on a better underthroughout the
disease." "Therapy has to take into account how to decrease the
demyelination and how to protect the axons," she explains. "The challenge is
there isn't a simple approach; these processes are all integrated and are all
parallel to each other. We need strategies to make a more optimal
environment for remyelination, most likely with a combination of therapies."
Using brain biopsies and autopsies, Luchinetti and her group are exploring
why MS varies so much between patients. They'v