Researcher's labour of love leads to MS breakthrough

Globe and mail And other ^ | 11/20/09 | André Picard and Avis Favaro

[hennie pennie]

Intriguing new theory about MS

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2391255/posts

[Apple Blossom]

Fascinating. I hope this is tested and found to be successful on more people than just his wife.

[TChad]

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.

If this was a good study, very impressive.

[Nateman]

This reminds me of the story of ulcers. An Australian doctor Dr. Barry Marshall found that a germ was causing ulcers. It was so contrary to the perceived wisdom of the time and he was so opposed he started calling them the "Acid Mafia". He was eventually proved right. Perhaps we have an "MS mafia" effect here.

[Sherman Logan]

But under obamacare the research would stop, no treatment would be offered, to expensive, and the patient would just be let to die.

In fact, this treatment is likely to be much less expensive than the existing alternatives. Someone wanting to save money should jump all over it.

[TChad]

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.

This reminded me of Richard Feynman's advice to young physicists at CERN, encouraging them to follow their own paths:

"The chance is high that the truth lies in the fashionable direction. But, on the off-chance that it is in another direction... who will find it?"

"...If you give more money to theoretical physics," he added, "it doesn't do any good if it just increases the number of guys following the comet head. So it's necessary to increase the amount of variety...and the only way to do it is to implore you few guys to take a risk with your lives that you will never be heard of again, and go off in the wild blue yonder and see if you can figure it out."

from Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman

[webstersII]

“An Australian doctor Dr. Barry Marshall found that a germ was causing ulcers. “

That guy put his health on the line to prove his theory. He actually swallowed a cocktail with the H. pylori bacteria and gave himself a bad case of stomach ulcers just to prove he could cure himself. He couldn’t get any interest in a research project so he went to extreme measures to generate some interest.

[Freedom Dignity n Honor]

bump

[Tunehead54]

Reference bump ...

[Joya]

REF, remember this thread. Thanks.