2. CCSVI

My last blog was a little bit suggestive about pharmaceutical companies and their motives. This is just an opinion that I share with many other people on the internet. Isn't the web a fantastic medium for being loud and controversial whilst hiding behind your computer terminal? I am not trying to be in any way controversial, I am just talking about this illness that we have and I was just sharing my beliefs. Right or wrong, it is my opinion, I'm not stating it as fact. Writing about Gilenya when little changes can be quite tricky. 

Anyway, to keep up the 'conspiracy theory', I'll mention another one doing the rounds. Before I do though, I must say that  it is a theory that I do NOT follow. You ready for it? Here it comes: MS is not an autoimmune disease at all. The damage is caused by veins that are too narrow to allow the blood to drain away properly. 

The Chronic Cerebalspinal Venous Insufficiency (CCSVI) theory has been doing the rounds for a while now. 

I personally believe that CCSVI is a condition of MS, nit it is not a cause. Maybe it is a different illness to MS completely, but they both have the same result - lesions. Maybe there are other causes. Maybe there are other illnesses that are diagnosed as MS that actually are not. 

Take Lyme disease, for example. Read a list of the symptoms of Lyme disease and you can be forgiven for wondering if you too have been mis-diagnosed. There is a simple way of ruling out Lyme disease though: Lesions. If your MRI scan results show any scars on your brain or spinal cord, it definitely isn't Lyme. 

CCSVI can be treated. It is a relatively straightforward operation where they insert balloons into your veins and pump them up with the intention of widening them. Approximately, a third of people who have the procedure have noticeable improvements, but it isn't one that is available on the NHS. In fact people have gone to back street clinics all over the globe for four, even five figure sums for treatment that needs to be done every few years. It isn't a one off operation 

I believe that some people who are primary progressive and skipped the relapsing remitting stage could have the potential to have CCSVI and not MS. 

I also believe that the relapsing remitting, then the secondary progressive phases of MS is autoimmune, so it definitely is MS. 

Dan