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Paralysis inspires MS discovery:Could it help some ME/CFS patients?

Abha

Abha
Messages
267
Location
UK
This article on paralysis/MS featured on news programmes in Northern Ireland yesterday(13th March 2017).Here is the link.....http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-39256584

I'm sure it has some relevance to those of us with ME/CFS who are crippled by our illness and find it difficult to walk and to do other tasks.

Dr Denise Fitzgerald from Queen's University in Belfast talks about her paralysis and how she recovered from it.
The paralysis was caused by a similar condition to multiple sclerosis called transverse myelitis.Her spinal cord had been stripped of a fatty substance called myelin - a protective coating that allows electrical signals to travel down nerves
.Dr Fitzgerald was, eventually, able to make a "95% recovery" and even taught herself to walk again.She now works in this field and is hoping that they can find a cure for MS.She is one part of a large research group made up of neuroscientists, immunologists and stem cell scientists that has cracked how the myelin is regenerated.

Hopefully in future their work may have benefits for ME/CFS patients too.
 

taniaaust1

Senior Member
Messages
13,054
Location
Sth Australia
I think there is a similar process in some of us with ME. The ME has been very MS like in my case at times.

One ME person who over used a arm and ended up with permanent paralyses and couldnt then use her arm any more. I think I read somewhere that though the doctors had no idea why it happened (it resulted from her pushing using her arm too much), they thought it was something to do with her mylein shealth.
 

Cinders66

Senior Member
Messages
494
If myelin sheath damage was involved in ME wouldn't they know that?
Having similar symptoms doesn't mean similar cause. I think MS nerve sheath damage Is different to what ever processes/ & or damage are involved in entrenched ME , however I think there might be overlaps in terms of effects of immune system and mitochondrial dysfunction.

If we had a proper research effort worldwide we'd have much more understanding.
 

Knockknock

Senior Member
Messages
212
this might sound far fetched but i think there is a similar process involved in CFS, MS, Lupus, autism, ...all of it.
!!! Ofcourse there is!!!!!
How can people not see it?? Most Neuro immune illness share this future, not everyone is thesame!
But to some degree central nervous system inflamation cause this.
Htlv-1 associated melopathy( tsp/ham) .. its very similar disease like MS, people will get to that degree of demyilation.
This is cause by the Retrovirus HTLV-1.
Interesting??
Isnt demayilation some type og cronic neuropathy?????
 
Messages
20
I can tell you in my case that myelin erosion is a component in my CFS. I'm 100% sure of that. A few years back I had a "mild" case of Trans. Myelitis. I say mild, because some people who get it can end up in a wheelchair for the rest of their live. Absolutely tragic. With me, I lost the use of my right leg for about 4 months. Over time I regained nearly 100% function. It was a total nightmare. People who saw me thought that I might have returned home injured from one of the "hostilities" in the Middle east, I looked that decrepit.
For me, the solution is not about how to rebuild myelin, or learn how to keep it healthy so much, but my goal is more geared towards how to obtain a healthy running body so that my immune system doesn't get activated, and turn itself on me in an indiscriminate way, injury many parts of me, including my myelin sheath.
 

anciendaze

Senior Member
Messages
1,841
If you are going to investigate demyelination you should also consider checking on optic neuritis, neuromyelitis optica and demyelination of the optic nerve. A definite case of optic neuritis and associated demyelination is strongly associated with later MS. This nerve also has the handy property that effects of demyelination can often be observed through the eye without an MRI. (The fundus may change color and swell or cup without changes in pressure seen in glaucoma.)

Even though only a minority of patients with optic neuritis go on to develop full MS the association is strong enough, and the lifetime costs high enough, so that insurance companies work hard to avoid such patients. I've known people caught by this when they switched jobs and insurance. A long period without symptoms, plus an MRI the patient pays for which shows no remaining demyelination, can be used to requalify for insurance coverage.

I will note that common features of case histories often include onset after an unidentified viral illness.