My theory

[batman12]

Ok so this is what I think....

With MS you have a window of opportunity to treat the disease when it is still in the inflammatory stage.

At this point there are drugs i.e. tysabri, campath that can stop the disease (for some people).

This is only true for rr-ms -we don't know how to address progressive MS

So, for me, the below are true:

- Treat MS as aggressively as possible
- Forget interferon etc - chemo is the way forward

Just my thoughts...

[Sir-Voor]

This is the first I heard of chemo being used for MS, so I will not comment on that.

There are two main reasons we need to lower inflammation.
A. Inflammation of lesions causes most of the damage.
B. Inflammation of the blood/brain barrier is what allows MS T-cells to pass into the brain where they start creating lesions.

Those are just the main reasons; there are lots of other reasons, for example for MSers one is that inflammation is bad for O.N..


For lesion inflammation think of it like this; the lesion is a car and the inflammation is a fire on the car, and you need to get the car up to 100mph to put out the fire.
Now would you rather start of cruising at 55mph with an anti-inflammatory diet, or be stopped or in reverse with an inflammatory diet. (High sugar and fats)


And for DMDs (like Tysabri, copaxone, etc) there are trying to reduce the number of MS t-cell your immune system is making and has nothing to do with inflammation.

[LisaDG]

Very interesting theory. In all of my research, I have read that the injectables are only truly effective at slowing the progression of MS for the first 3-5 years after diagnosis. After that, the disease takes the course it will take.

So many variables, opinions and ideas on how the appropriately "treat" each individual case. I try to be open minded about all of them.

Your theory provokes more reading for me! Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

[techie]

interferon

I think going on Avonex a month after my dx definitely slowed things from getting out of control and rollercoastering into something much worse.
techie