DH & I attended a half-day educational seminar Saturday sponsored by a drug company with several area MS doctors as speakers.
The doctors are very well educated MS experts who do quite a bit of research in addition to seeing px. Because they are accustomed to talking to other doctors they used a lot of big words, such as the chemical names of DMD instead of the brand name so I had to figure out what they were talking about.
For me, the most interesting was the talk about Vitamin D. My take away: they don't fully understand the importance/role of Vitamin D but we all need more. For those of us with family members we are concerned may develop MS taking Vit D now may slow down (or reduce?) the progression. Also, researchers have found the Vit D levels are reduced following a relapse. My question (that I didn't get answered) was do relapses "eat" Vit D or is there another cause for the reduction? Personally, if I were in a relapse I would increase my Vit D intake.
The talk about the news drugs was interesting too. Four of five neurologists believe BG12 to the most promising drug potentially becoming available in the next 12-18 mos. Of course they talked about how none of these DMD cure or repair damage. It really stuck with me that he said DMD reduce or slow down progression but the INFLAMMATION remains. For me that underscored the importance of combining anti-inflammation diet w/DMD for the best possible outcome.
Met some nice people, got a good lunch so it ended up being a pretty good day!
The doctors are very well educated MS experts who do quite a bit of research in addition to seeing px. Because they are accustomed to talking to other doctors they used a lot of big words, such as the chemical names of DMD instead of the brand name so I had to figure out what they were talking about.
For me, the most interesting was the talk about Vitamin D. My take away: they don't fully understand the importance/role of Vitamin D but we all need more. For those of us with family members we are concerned may develop MS taking Vit D now may slow down (or reduce?) the progression. Also, researchers have found the Vit D levels are reduced following a relapse. My question (that I didn't get answered) was do relapses "eat" Vit D or is there another cause for the reduction? Personally, if I were in a relapse I would increase my Vit D intake.
The talk about the news drugs was interesting too. Four of five neurologists believe BG12 to the most promising drug potentially becoming available in the next 12-18 mos. Of course they talked about how none of these DMD cure or repair damage. It really stuck with me that he said DMD reduce or slow down progression but the INFLAMMATION remains. For me that underscored the importance of combining anti-inflammation diet w/DMD for the best possible outcome.
Met some nice people, got a good lunch so it ended up being a pretty good day!
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