We're seeing many neurologists and MS specialists responding to CCSVI research reflexively. The common attack is
"This CCSVI angioplasty is no different than bee stings! It is simply snake oil."
I think it's important for patients and caregivers to understand history when trying to respond to this claim. You know me and history (Rindfliesch, Putnam, Swank) I LOVE history.
The term snake oil comes from the late 19th and early 20th century in the US, when you could actually purchase real snake oil to help your health. Snake oil was claimed to have many healing properties and was sold by traveling salesmen, who put on shows with feverish sales pitches, hysterical claims, and miraculous healings which rivaled religious revival meetings. But these products didn't really do much for one's health, and soon the public caught on to the quackery and the term snake oil became associated with false medical claims.
When Dr. Zamboni discovered Chronic Cerebrospinal Venous Insufficiency (CCSVI) he actually discovered a new disease.
Other international researchers, like Dr. Chung in Taiwan, were noting how internal jugular vein valve incompetence (IJVVI) affected by valsalva manuevers was related to transient global amnesia and hypoxic events. Dr. Zamboni, while utilizing ultrasound equipment and scanning the neck of an MS patient-- noted venous reflux. Something that was not normal, and had not been detected before--reflux in the absence of valsalva, independent of body position. He spent the next five years conducting blinded doppler studies, writing research, bringing other doctors on board and learning all he could about this disease mechanism. He tried to address the truncular venous malformations he found in MS patients' veins with angioplasty. It helped his patients. And then he published his research, and I read it--along with patients, caretakers and doctors around the globe.
Venoplasty to relieve CCSVI is not a product. It is not sold as a cure.
It is not quackery. Angioplasty is used to relieve venous congestion and stenosis in many known diseases, including Budd-Chiari, heart disease, kidney disease, and jugular insufficiency in dialysis patients. Sometimes, the organ with venous congestion is too damaged to have much healing after venoplasty (as in Budd Chiari, when a liver transplant is necessary.) But, if caught early, treated venous malformations can lead to symptom relief and stop disease progression in the affected organ.
