Ask anyone who has to live with MS themselves or known a friend or family is suffering from the debilitating disease and they will tell you how much and pain and suffering it brings. Some people may experience fatigue while others may have a vision or mobility problems. The symptoms of multiple sclerosis are different for every single patient, but one thing I would say that most have in common is that severe sufferers would do almost anything to rid the disease.
Well, there may now be light at the end of the tunnel for multiple sclerosis patients as research has been carried out that confirms this new form of treatment can literally cure people of the disease. The study, based in Canada, concluded that out of the 24 people that took part, 17 saw their condition either improve or at least stop progressing.
The treatment is a type of stem cell therapy and works by extracting the cells that cause MS so that they can be purified in a laboratory. Then the patient’s immune system is deliberately destroyed by a drug before finally injecting the ‘cleaned’ stem cells pack into their bloodstream. Here, the newly formed, no longer causing MS cells, navigate their way back into the bone marrow and begin rebuilding the immune system.
The treatment for multiple sclerosis has stopped the disease progressing in 70 per cent of those who have tried it, but one person in the trial died.
Although the treatment may have been discovered by accident, the results are still astonishing. One wheelchair-bound patient who took part in the trial, Jennifer Molson, returned to a normal life after receiving treatment, including driving, going to work, and even skiing, so she is proof that the new technique is working, but at what cost?
Currently, there is a significant drawback to the treatment, and that is that patients are left without an immune system for long enough for their body to be able to repair itself. Although this is not impossible to overcome, it is obviously a very big risk to take and so is currently only being offered to very severe suffering MS patients.
This breakthrough is one of many that are constantly being introduced to the medical world, and if we can overcome the challenge of making this treatment safer, then it really could be the next cure for MS.
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