Monday, July 13, 2009
New clues to the causes of multiple sclerosis
Regular readers know that multiple sclerosis is a subject of personal interest to me, and that I occasionally pass along news on the science of that disease, included research into its causes, which are as yet undetermined. Well, there are, possibly, significant new developments on that front.
4 Comments:
By 
, at
Tue Jul 14, 12:11:00 AM:
Is there a geographical correlation with MS?
By , at
Tue Jul 14, 03:00:00 AM:
"Is there a geographical correlation with MS?"
Yes. Very strong. Here in NZ we have recently concluded a study where we believe we have found 96% of all people with MS and have a high percentage of returns and interviews.
These show that the rate of MS is 50/100,000 in the North of the country (closest to the equator) compared to 150/100,000 in the far South (nearest to Antactica).
We have a full workup of ethnicity as well, so Europeans might have a general 80/100,000, Asians 8/100,000 and Maori and pacific Islanders 2/100,000.
You never know, we might find some corelationship between the groups and the stenosis.
JC
By 
TigerHawk, at
Tue Jul 14, 05:55:00 AM:
I do not have the data at my fingertips, but Scandinavians have high rates as well, including Scandinavian-Americans. Of course, most Americans who are all or mostly Scandinavian live in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and the Dakotas, also very northern.
By Willuz, at
Tue Jul 14, 01:45:00 PM:
This is very interesting information and also led me to information on inclined bed therapy. I was very recently diagnosed with MS and no doctor has ever mentioned inclined sleeping. It's certainly worth a try, especially since this study suggests that circulation could be closely related to the cause.
