#55: Ideology for Neurology, Installment #4 [26:04m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (531)

#55: Ideology for Neurology- Working toward neurological perfection Installment: #4.

Publication Date: Feb 2, 2007.

Show Notes: Some ‘alternative medicine’ approaches for treating Multiple Sclerosis (MS) are showing promise empirically, but controlled studies are largely lacking. If the scientific evidence of efficacy substantiates some of the treatments, it may then be time to integrate them more fully into ‘conventional medicine.’ Possible examples include omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin D, ginkgo biloba, cannabis sativa, bee sting therapy (’apitherapy), acupuncture, hyperbaric oxygen, and maybe even someday the avoidance of dairy in select people.

A French neurologist in the early 1990s conducted a prospective study on more than 200 women with MS. He found that the MS relapse rate dropped by about 80% during pregnancy. Early this year, investigators will start enrolling women with relapsing-remitting MS in a multicenter trial designed to evaluate whether treatment with physiologic levels of estriol - comparable with levels which can be measured during pregnancy - will induce the same reductions in MS activity that have been documented during pregnancy. And MRI measures will be used to assess the MS patients’ progression.

And finally: MRI has revealed that adolescents who play violent video games have less activation in their prefrontal lobes, compared to those who played non-violent video games. The pre-frontal region is not a part of the brain we want to be less active in our young (or older) society members!

Show links: www.vitasearch.com (review of vitamin D as possible preventive and treatment for MS).