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Vitamin 'may block MS disability'

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Nicotinamide is a form of vitamin B3

Vitamin shots may help protect multiple sclerosis patients from

severe long-term disability, a study suggests.

Currently, there is no effective treatment for the chronic

progressive phase of MS, when serious disability is most likely to

appear.

 

Researchers cut the risk of nerve degeneration in mice with MS-type

symptoms by giving them a form of vitamin B3 called nicotinamide.

 

The Children's Hospital Boston study appears in the Journal of

Neuroscience.

 

MS, which affects about 85,000 people in the UK, is a disease of the

central nervous system.

 

It causes the break down of the myelin sheath, a fatty protein, which

coats nerve fibres, disrupting the ability to conduct electrical

impulses to and from the brain.

 

Many patients develop a form of the disease called relapsing-

remitting MS, in which bouts of illness are followed by complete or

partial recovery. In this early phase anti-inflammatory drugs can

help.

 

But eventually patients can enter the chronic progressive phase, for

which there is no good treatment.

 

 

Women are twice as likely to be affected by MS as men

 

The Boston team worked on mice with an MS-like disease called

experimental autoimmune encephalitis (EAE).

 

They found that daily nicotinamide shots protected the animals' nerve

cells from myelin loss, and stabilised the condition of those cells

that had already been affected.

 

The greater the dose of nicotinamide, the greater the protective

effect.

 

Rating disability on a scale of one to five, mice receiving the

highest doses of nicotinamide scored between one and two, while

animals who received no shots at all scored between three and four.

 

Key chemical

 

The researchers found that nicotinamide boosted levels of a crucial

chemical called nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) in the

animals' nervous systems.

 

Nicotinamide also significantly reduced neurological deficits even

when treatment was delayed until 10 days after the induction of EAE -

raising hope that it will also be effective in the later stages of

MS.

 

Lead researcher Dr Shinjiro Kaneko said: " The earlier therapy was

started, the better the effect, but we hope nicotinamide can help

patients who are already in the chronic stage. "

 

The researchers said nicotinamide was cheap, and thought to have few

side effects.

 

However, they said further work was needed to test its effect on

humans.

 

Simon Gillespie, chief executive of the MS Society, said: " Any

potential treatment for reducing the chronic progression of

disability in MS deserves pursuing.

 

" This is interesting early research which we should like to see

developed, adding our usual caution that what works in mice does not

always work in men. "

 

A spokesperson for the MS Trust said: " These are interesting results,

but studies in mice with the experimental equivalent of MS may not

necessarily translate into a successful treatment for people with

MS. "

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i have two very good friends who have developed MS within the last three years.

both had to break up their bands because of it as well..

:(

fraggle

 

As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances,

there's a twilight where everything remains seemingly unchanged, and it is in

such twilight that we must be aware of change in the air, however slight, lest

we become unwitting victims of the darkness.

William O. Douglas

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It is not a good thing to get. We have acquaintances with it - one in a

wheelchair for several years. One lady has had a lame leg for many years

but luckily doesn't seem to get any worse (thanks to a certain substance, I

believe) and one went downhill very rapidly but seems to be recovering

somewhat now. When Peter was at school one of his favourite teachers had

ms, and killed herself :-(

 

I have read quite a bit about it and reckon that a difference could be made

by taking lecithin to help keep the myelin sheath healthy, and Vitamin D.

Trouble is, nobody is prepared to take them for some strange reason. I know

I would if I had it.

 

Jo

 

-

" fraggle " <EBbrewpunx

 

Thursday, September 21, 2006 6:18 PM

Re: Vitamin 'may block MS disability'

 

 

>

> i have two very good friends who have developed MS within the last three

years.

> both had to break up their bands because of it as well..

> :(

> fraggle

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