Hey Everyone!
So after reading the article on bee sting therapy I decided to look up more alternative therapies for Multiple Sclerosis. Before I list these I should reiterate that none of them have been supported by any scientific findings, much like the bee sting therapy. Also the majority of these were described as “co-therapies” and were not meant to be the main course of treatment. The first co-treatment was massage. According to some massage therapy helps relieve stress and depression, which are both thought to progress MS. However, several websites cautioned against this form of treatment, since many of the mainline MS treatments can lead to bone thinning and osteoporosis. Depending on the severity of bone thinning, massage therapy has the possibility to be quite harmful. The next therapy suggested was acupuncture. According to some patients acupuncture relieves pain, lessens muscle spasms and helps with bladder and bowel control. However there is some research surfacing that acupuncture can actually be harmful. There is no hardcore scientific research pointing either way. The third alternative therapy was evening primrose oil also known as linoleic acid. Of the four studies I found, three of them were torn on the affects of linoleic acid and believed longer studies needed to be created to truly observe its affects on the myelin sheath. The last two alternative therapies were magnetism and marijuana. The magnetism studies I found were horribly designed and completely unscientific. Most of the information I found on marijuana strongly warned against its use since many MS patients already have cognitive impairments.
Brianna, this was a really interesting post! I was totally unaware that there were so many informal therapies for MS. I was particularly interested in the marijuana studies/therapy and looked up a bit more info. In the March 26th issue of Neurology, I read about the pros and cons of this particular therapy.
ReplyDeleteThey said that marijuana has been shown to relieve insomnia, tremors, pain, spasticity, bladder problems, and emotional distress. On the other hand, just like you had mentioned, these patients performed significantly worse on specific cognitive tests measuring speed, executive function, and visual perception of spatial relationships. The extremity of the side effect of "clouded thinking" from marijuana use was also noted.
This must be quite a difficult dilemma; if the side effects are worse than the symptoms of the actual disease, do you just deal with it? Thank goodness for alternate methods of therapy.
Thanks for the post Bri!
This is an interesting discussion on using medical marijuana to treat MS. I found a article (this maybe the same article you are referring to) about the pros on using marijuana to treat the symptoms of MS, this includes muscle spasms, tremors and even balance. It was a good mix of being a lay article with a little bit of a review to it (even has sources). The article does mention some studies that have looked at the benefits of using marijuana, however it looks like most of the results come from the patients own perception, much like to bee sting group. Here's the link...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.php?id=4558#note12
I actually recently came across a show on Discovery Health, talking about the physiological effects of marijuana. They did mention it's beneficial use in combating MS. I was able to find on youtube a video that they showed of a patient whose ability to simply sit and speak is only existent through the use of marijuana. The show did also mention it's benefits in Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, Arthritis, IBD, and much more.
ReplyDeleteHere's a link to that short video:
http://youtu.be/z0kFONk9jfk