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SPONTANEOUS REMISSION PART TWO

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From the top of Mount Erie Washington State

    

      Recently I wrote about a case of spontaneous remission that occurred with a friend from the past and I would love to be able to track her down and see how she’s doing now. But I doubt that’s ever going to happen as our life paths were quite different and she could be anywhere in the world.

     However writing that piece reminded me of something else that one of my Neurologist’s said a few years back during one of my appointments. She didn’t question at all that I had been diagnosed with MS as I had a few lesions in several of the Magnetic Resonance Image scans that I brought along with me to our first meeting. I was excited to have her as my Neurologist as multiple sclerosis was her specialty and she only took certain patients so I felt lucky to get her.

     It was something she said after looking at my brain scans that surprised me as we started talking at our appointment. The very first thing she said was that she was quite surprised that I had any symptoms of MS at all. Of course I was extremely curious to know why she felt this way so she explained that my MS lesions were all, as far as she could tell, deep brain lesions and that most people with these kinds of lesions did not have the typical MS symptoms. And in fact many of them didn’t have any symptoms at all. And in my case she guessed that I must also have some unseen damage in my spinal column as well that spinal scans didn’t show. She continued by adding that she wouldn’t be surprised if at some future point my MS might go into a long period of remission as this was something that she had encountered in other patients. Unfortunately that hasn’t happened yet but I’m still very hopeful that day will eventually come to pass.

     With all of that said, I think that it is very important for anyone who has Multiple Sclerosis to have a talk with their Neurologist about just where on their MRI’s their lesions are showing up and what that means for their own long term prognosis. It may not change anything but I do think that it’s important to know and may add some information about your future MS progression. Remember the information about Multiple Sclerosis is changing everyday so cross examining your Neurologist may be something to consider especially if you haven’t done so for awhile!  

Bill Walker

MS and Environmental Mercury Poisoning

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    100_0362 Researchers have contemplated for years that Multiple Sclerosis may have an environmental component to it. Whether or not it’s the main trigger or just one of many factors that happens to fall in just the right order to disrupt the immune system is what scientists are currently trying to determine in an effort to eventually be able to break the chain of this devastating disease.

     One thing that has gotten quite a bit of scrutiny is our body’s reaction to heavy metals in our environment with mercury being at the top of that list. The reason for that is simple; the symptoms of mercury poisoning are very similar to those of Multiple Sclerosis. And mercury is, and is becoming, ever more prevalent in our ecosystem. It’s in our water, our soil, and even in the air we breathe each and everyday. It’s becoming an environmental disaster as it combines with other compounds in the ocean as it increasingly builds up in the fish and the plants that we eat everyday. And the vast majority of this newly released mercury is being caused by one factor, the burning of coal for our vast energy needs.

     There are still some people who do not believe that coal is having a global effect on our weather patterns. But no matter how you view the climate exposure to the burning of coal, the end result does mean, pouring vast amounts of mercury and other heavy metals into the air where it finds its way into everything else that it comes into contact with. And if you are a person with MS this cannot be considered, by any means whatsoever, a good thing.

     I realize that we just can’t produce the energy that our country needs without burning some kind of fossil fuels but we have vast reserves of natural gas and still a healthy supply of oil that can be used until other alternatives can be developed and employed. But we have to learn to live without the worst of these environmental polluters, and that’s coal.

     The DVD’s in the picture above are about coal, its use, and its extraction, if you’re interested in seeing them. You can find most of them at any local library or they can order them if you ask. And if you have MS, or any autoimmune disease, this is as much about your personal health as it is about the planets!

Bill Walker

MS Pesticides Silent Spring

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Rachel Carson, the author of the book Silent Spring, is often credited with having started the modern day environmental movement. Her work with the United States Government from mostly the 50’s through the 60’s was primarily researching the effects of pesticides on both humans and wildlife alike. And her findings were what she used to write her book.

     If you have any interest in a quick, about an hour, video about her life then I would encourage you to check your local library for the film, Rachel Carlson’s Silent Spring. The film touches briefly on her work in the government but is more about her own life though I think it is still worth seeing. In fact I was so impressed with her work overall that I think Earth Day should be renamed Rachel Carson’s Earth Day and be recognized around the world as a holiday and certainly a national holiday here in the US. And how many women’s holidays do we now celebrate?

     Now what does this have to do with multiple sclerosis? The pesticides that are used today are mostly created to sterilize the females of whatever insect you’re using it on unlike those first generation pesticides that were developed to attack the insect’s nervous system. And with that in mind I would love to see most peoples faces as they100_0370 watch one scene in particular from the film where a pesticide truck is actually fogging several tables full of kids and there parents while they are eating lunch outdoors. The foggers clearly are telling these folks that this is a completely safe practice with no adverse health effects to worry about. And this just kind of makes me wonder, since I was a kid through all of those years, if perhaps my own eventual diagnosis of MS might have in some way been a direct, or indirect, result of this kind of thinking. Especially when you consider that many researchers today believe that some kind of environmental factor could be at least partially to blame for the onset of many autoimmune diseases including multiple sclerosis. They don’t actually think that these kinds of events cause the disease in question but they are starting to seriously consider if environmental issues like this may kick start the immune system into an adverse reaction to other factors such as a gene irregularity. We may never know, but I think it’s worth considering!

 

Bill Walker

Scroll down for other articles:

    MS and spontaneous remission, MS and vitamin D3, Can MS burn itself out?