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

Saturday, June 27, 2015

Pictures. Worth some words.

I write a lot.  Today I just wanted to share some images, because these pictures speak loudly and can amplify recent blog posts.  Some neurologists are saying there's no way the newly discovered lymphatic vessels and CCSVI are related.  But they are wrong.  Just as they have been wrong about the brain's "immune privilege" and the EAE mouse model of MS.
http://ccsviinms.blogspot.com/2015/06/rewrite-textbooks.html

The following images are all of the venous and lymphatic drainage of the brain, from the back of the head.

This is an MRI picture from the Kipnis Lab at the University of Virginia, of the newly discovered lymphatic vessels, shown with red dye.  These were also found in human cadaver tissue.  These newly discovered vessels directly follow the path of the brain's draining veins, shown with green dye.



This is an illustration of the veins which drain the human and mammalian brains.  Cortical veins at the top of the head lead into the superior sagittal sinus.  They branch off on either side, forming the transverse sinus, where they eventually head south into the jugular veins. See how nice and open they appear? Lymph vessels follow this system.  Lymph vessels drain lymph carrying immune cells, metabolites, proteins and toxins from the brain into jugular veins.  You can see how the mouse brain image above matches this.




The image below shows the location of the cervical lymph nodes.  All of the lymph collected in the newly discovered vessels flows alongside the veins and back to the cervical lymph nodes. Notice that they are situated alongside the jugular vein.




AND finally, this is an MRV image of my husband Jeff's brain draining veins. Notice the straight cortical veins, leading down into the transverse sinus, where they branch off. And then....what the what? His sigmoid sinus and jugular foramen are pinched off, creating a mess of curly collaterals beneath.  His brain's blood flow and lymph were all slowed to a stall, waiting to be being drained.  He was sick, tired, had over 20 cerebral lesions, and had just received an MS diagnosis.


His sigmoid sinus and jugular veins have since been stented, and he now has normalized flow going through his jugular veins. The collaterals disappeared. How has this impacted his brain health? Well, he hasn't had any more MS lesions and his gray matter atrophy reversed.   He's running around, always on the go, very thankfully still driving me crazy. Yes, this is all anecdotal.  But sigmoid stenting is an approved treatment for intracranial hypertension.  It's not vodoo.  It improves cerebrospinal fluid and blood flow, and helps people heal.  And now we know, this is where lymph flows, as well.

I would contend that this is something SOMEBODY might like to study. All it would take would be to block the mouse veins at the sigmoid sinus, insert the tracer dye into the lymphatic vessels, and watch what happens to the drainage of lymph.   I'll bet you it isn't good.

The time is now,

Joan





18 comments:

  1. there are some more papers and links under this Facebook photo - the CSF paper in comments showing increased ventricle size associated with increased MS disability ties in with the lymphatics paper and the points you have kindly posted above
    https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10200482867452635&set=a.4253980266171.2174798.1185729368&type=3&theater


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. thanks, Alison. Yes, didn't even get into the whole third ventricle/CSF issue in this post, I kept it to the venous vasculature, but you're right, that's even more confirming evidence of the connection! Jeff's third ventricle is wonderfully normal in size. It's all connected.

      Delete
  2. Thank you Joan. Great blog as always. Exciting times! I hope these MS Societies and their researchers move on this quickly. Mind you it sure is quiet out there. I have been looking through the mainstream media. Have you seen/heard anything?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Haven't seen anything in the mainstream press. Reviews have shown up in medical journals like Nature, and on some smaller YouTube science shows, but no Scientific America, no NY Times. I did find one news story in The Guardian, which incorrectly stated that they hadn't found it in humans (which they did--and which was published in the U of V paper.)

      Delete
    2. Here's one from our friend Anne Kingston @MacLeans. I will try to keep count on how may! ONE, ...
      http://www.macleans.ca/society/science/are-we-on-the-cusp-of-a-revolution-on-how-we-understand-the-brain/

      Delete
    3. Was happy to see that Anne put all of the research together so consisely, correctly and elegantly, and that she interviewed the Un. of Virginia researchers. One is better than none :)

      Delete
  3. I had the CCSVI TREATMENT done life was good I had a life again. Then it started going down hill I went back to Doctor who did it the 1st time he no longer does it I cant find anyone around this area that will even do the MRV or any of the testing to see if I need it again the 1st time I did receive a stent in my chest but non in my juggs I can only hope that doctors move fast on this because it can help so many people live again!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The doctor who performed your first treatment and placed a stent should help you find a way to have local follow up via doppler or MRV. No reputable vascular professional should treat a patient and not provide a means for follow up, even if they do not wish to treat you again. There are medical ethics involved. Contact your treating doctor and ask for assistance. I hope you get some help!

      Delete
  4. I think news outlets would lose advertizing revenue from drug companies and ms societies if they report this before those communities of treatment salesmen organize their "spin" on the discovery. I think it will eventually be reported but with excessive doubt built in to the reports.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. true, Brian. I also think the media's "go to" neuros don't have a clue as how to spin this research, thus the radio silence.

      Delete
  5. Thank you very much indeed for all your hard work Joan

    ReplyDelete
  6. Many thanks for connecting the dots. Will we live long enough to say 'we told you so'?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ha! Thanks, Tami. Jeff and I are doing really well for a couple of 50 yr. olds, and God willing, we plan on being around for awhile. I hope the same for you, and all of us working for real health and recovery for those with MS. xox

      Delete
  7. the blog post of the Canadian MS Society's Karen Lee shows that they are determined to hang on to their autoimmune dogma even in the face of the new findings

    'In a blog posted on the MS Society of Canada’s website, Karen Lee, the society’s vice-president of research, called the discovery of a brain lymphatic system “ground-breaking,” before focusing on how the finding could help researchers understand the autoimmune theory of MS that, though unproven, has been the basis of MS research for more than half a century: “Although it’s too early to say for sure, these findings could open up new opportunities for studying the disease mechanisms by which the body’s immune system turns against its own tissues in MS,” Lee writes.'

    as Anne Kingston writes in her article
    http://www.macleans.ca/society/science/are-we-on-the-cusp-of-a-revolution-on-how-we-understand-the-brain/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Saw that...it's an insane hypothesis, and they look like fools for sticking to it. Real scientists and researchers understand the implications, even though they may continue to try and bamboozle patients. The brain is like other organs and has circulating t cells. Dr. Michal Schwartz was right about this, and her student, Dr. Jonathan Kipnis kept exploring. His team has found the vessels and t cell gateway which proves her hypothesis. The inflammatory reaction in the brain is not autoimmune. It never was, it never will be. And the EAE model of MS could not have been more incorrect. sigh. Keep circulating the truth, and we'll keep putting the science out there. It's not going away....

      Delete
  8. Anatomy and specific postmortem facts about the underlying venous pathology of MS are not going to feature in Dr Karen Lee's autoimmune parallel universe of MS.... having read this blog post MS Societies are determined to hang on to their dogmatic views

    http://drkarenlee.ca

    ReplyDelete
  9. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete