Welcome! This blog contains research & information on lifestyle, nutrition and health for those with MS, as well as continuing information on the understanding of the endothelium and heart-brain connection. This blog is informative only--all medical decisions should be discussed with your own physicians.

The posts are searchable---simply type in your topic of interest in the search box at the top left.

Almost all of MS research is initiated and funded by pharmaceutical companies. This maintains the EAE mouse model and the auto-immune paradigm of MS, and continues the 20 billion dollar a year MS treatment industry. But as we learn more about slowed blood flow, gray matter atrophy, and environmental links to MS progression and disability--all things the current drugs do not address--we're discovering more about how to help those with MS.

To learn how this journey began, read my first post from August, 2009. Be well! Joan

Friday, March 12, 2010


Letter to Dr. Jock Murray-

March 12, 2010 at 1:55pm

I'm so glad to see that the endMS campaign is having a webcast on CCSVI in Canada-
http://mssociety.ca/en/research/ccsviWebcast.htm

I wrote to you in December of 2008 regarding CCSVI. Perhaps you remember?
Here is the letter I sent to you....

Dear Dr. Murray-

I am not a doctor, I am merely the loving wife of someone with MS. I have read many of your papers, and several chapters of your book on the history of MS. I am very thankful for your continued interest in MS, and your willingness to consider many factors in finding its cause. This is why I write to you today.

I would like to refer you to Dr. Paulo Zamboni's (University of Ferrara, Italy) ground-breaking work on venous insufficiency in MS. This study is the first to use doppler ultrasound to follow the blood circulation in the jugular and azygous veins in MS patients. All of the 65 MS patients studied had chronic venous reflux due to stenoses in their outflowing veins. None of the 230 controls had these stenoses. I believe the endMS campaign launching in Canada might benefit from trying to replicate Zamboni's findings.

Here is Dr. Zamboni's paper, published this month-

http://jnnp.bmj.com/cgi/rapidpdf/jnnp.2008.157164v1

Thank you for your consideration. I am hoping some of the Canadian endMS research money might be allocated to venous insufficiency. I wish you a blessed New Year. May 2009 be the year we endMS!

Joan Beal