Posted on 01/20/2007 9:56:21 PM PST by neverdem
A prolonged bout of intestinal parasites seems to slow the decline of patients with multiple sclerosis, according to a study released today. The results suggest that immune-modulating molecules from parasites could be developed into drugs to ease autoimmune diseases, and that by conquering parasite infections, modern medicine may have inadvertently increased our vulnerability to these illnesses.
Autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS) occur far more often in developed countries than in developing countries. And parasitic infections, which have been beaten down in the United States, are still common in South America and elsewhere in the developing world, says neuroimmunologist Jorge Correale of the Raúl Carrea Institute for Neurological Research in Buenos Aires, Argentina. What's more, studies have shown that infecting mice with parasites eased symptoms of an MS-like syndrome.
To see if the parasite-autoimmune link held up in humans, Correale and his colleague Maurício Farez identified 12 MS patients with high levels of parasite-fighting white blood cells called eosinophils and then confirmed parasite infections by examining stool samples under the microscope. They tracked those patients and equal numbers of uninfected MS patients and healthy people for 4 and a half years. In MS, the immune system attacks the insulating myelin sheath of nerves, disrupting the transmission of messages. Infected patients as a group suffered just three instances of new or worsening symptoms, compared with 56 in the uninfected patients. As measured by a standard neurological test, the degree of disability increased in 11 of the 12 uninfected patients, but in only two of the 12 infected individuals.
Next, the team measured white blood cells and immune-signaling chemicals called cytokines from each patient to understand how the invaders changed the immune system. Parasite infections induced much higher levels of three types of immune cells called regulatory T cells, the researchers report in January 2007 issue of Annals of Neurology. They propose that while fighting the parasite infection, these three types of cells also happen to dial down a different arm of the immune system that attacks myelin to cause multiple sclerosis. By finding the immune-signaling molecules responsible, it may one day be possible to identify parasite molecules that deactivate the immune system arm that causes autoimmune attacks, Correale says.
"It's a provocative study, and it would be interesting to do this in a larger number of individuals," says immunologist David Hafler of Harvard Medical School. If the results hold up, he says, it would underscore the emerging consensus that "an idle immune system is probably not good."
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"very grateful to be on your ping list"
You're added, but I almost missed your request. That's why I recommended FReepmail requests. Adios
Thanks Neverdem.
Actually she actually emailed me back already with other articles by this author. This new one isn't available on PubMed yet ... it's not even on the Annals of Neurology site yet ... where it's supposed to be published already. It should be there by the end of the week.
I'll summarize and post once I get the full article. The abstract doesn't say much more than the "for public consumption" ones did.
Oh, and please add me to the ping list.
Freepmail coming.
You were lucky. The recent NIH Access study did not did not find any remissions longer than 2 years.
I am a huge fan of Vitamin C that one would think I sell the stuff or own stock in a company making it. It's worked miracles for my rheumatoid arthritis and other problems. I've been reading a lot about intravenous Vit C, too. Wish I knew of someone to administer it, if I ever need it.
Know someone that has MS with many exacerbations a year of varying degrees in intensity, since they've been on a low dose of cozaar (25 mg daily) not one exacerbation in over two years... lots of stress and mitigating circumstances to warrant an exacerbation but not one, a bit of weakness from time to time but nothing that required medical intervention. The doc said that it wouldn't hurt, so let's try it, and they did.
Oh yuck! A gut full of worms sounds nasty but it would be nice if these parasites can someday lead to a cure.
Was blood pressure checked when the person complained of feeling weakness? BTW, I couldn't find anything reported about cozaar and MS. Maybe something else has done it, e.g. meds, bee sting or parasites, etc.?
IMHO, a well written abstract is enough to make the take home point and satisfy my curiosity. Otherwise, the stuff in a whole article gets dense on time consuming details, usually only good for arguing those particular details or having its references, although it's nice to have.
Well, we are already basically made of bacteria. A regular human has literally hundreds of trillions of bacteria in himself, many, many times more than regular human cells.
There's a lot out there, but here are a few.
From the National Institute of Health:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=12480795&dopt=Citation
From The University of Maryland Medical Center:
http://www.umm.edu/altmed/ConsSupplements/Omega3FattyAcidscs.html
www.genomed.com
Although for MS the Genomed study is very limited, however this person has had very positive results. The use of cozaar for tx of kidney disease has been published. Think of aspirin for the use of headaches before they realized all of the other health benefits that it offers.
I know, a lot of the things people did were really sad. There was another one I knew who did not take a bath for months in order to grow a fungus on his skin. That did not work either.
Two others faked drug addictions. I am sure that there were a lot of other stupid one's. The things those people did were really bad. I met one of them years later. He only regretted that he messed up his record. I would not want to be associated with any of these people today unless they had some type of a real change.
It's been 30 years.
My sarcoidosis was diagnosed by taking one of my lymph nodes out. The eye doctor was the first one to suspect. My eyes turned totally red and I was sensitive to light. I remember staying inside with the shades drawn and sunglasses on. When I went outside it was night and I had to wear sunglasses and avoid looking anywhere near streetlights.
Good luck to you. A sunny disposition helps a lot too.
Cozaar is an angiotensin receptor blocker(ARB) normally used for treating high blood pressure, aka hypertension. But if anyone has their blood pressure lowered too much they will complain that they feel weak, faint, dizzy, passed out, etc. Blood pressure is a balancing act. You have trouble either way, whether it's too high or too low.
I had a patient who forgot to take their medicine for high blood pressure one day. So the next day, he doubled the dose and passed out, most likely because his blood pressure was too low. If your friend taking Cozaar with MS originally had a normal blood pressure, episodes of fealing weak are not surprising, although it could be due to the multiple sclerosis itself.
For me, it's been 23 years since the big trouble hit, and 15 since the sarcoid diagnosis. I never saw anything that said vitamin C would help, though I did try it along the way for symptomatic relief, though not at the doses you mention. It didn't seem to help much.
I have found that the antibiotic protocol I'm on is getting rid of the sarcoid. A lot of the other getting-old-fast stuff is going away too, like cholesterol and triglycerides and insulin trouble and high PSA tests.
The next question would be if you have any other auto-immune trouble like arthritis, or diabetes, asthma or psoriasis. The current research suggests that these are all tied to the same set of infections.
As long as they have cafeterias and recess, we'll never have to worry about them staying too clean.
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