squiffy2
09-15-2008, 02:32 AM
http://www.msrc.co.uk/images/gallery/img_hormone.jpg
Hormones increasingly are shown to affect brain functions, and now they may battle MS symptoms, too.
When it comes to the brain, hormonal influences are the butt of many tactless jokes and at the heart of Rhonda Voskuhl's seminal findings regarding neurodegenerative disease and protection.
Speeding down the length of the axon, nerve cell impulses, taking a fraction of a second to travel from head to toe, orchestrate choreographed muscle movements. This process is so in sync with our will that most of us can take our ability to walk, see and swallow for granted. But when it breaks down, as it does with the disease multiple sclerosis, unwieldy symptoms emerge.
Paralysis, tingling, uncoordinated movements, blindness and cognitive defects are all symptoms that can coincide with MS - a disease affecting 2.5 million people worldwide. Nerves, normally insulated in white myelin, become demyelinated - exposed -the impulses sputter, dissipate and may never reach their destination. While the immediate cause, scar tissue (sclerosis), will show up in brain scans, the underlying issue is thought to arise from an immune system malfunction (relating to inflammation).
But naturally, it's more complicated than that with environmental as well as hereditary factors as possible contributors to the disease. And, hormones have something to do with it, too.
Research involving hormonal influences on the brain is the rage right now. Yet, while one study suggests hormone therapy in postmenopausal women is detrimental to cognition, another shows memory-enhancing properties in patients with the neurodegenerative brain disorder, Alzheimer's disease. And with regard to MS, the effects of hormones are largely anecdotal. These confounding reports make untangling the specific roles of hormones, and how they relate to disease, challenging..............
For the full report please go to MSRC: MS Research News : New Discoveries : Hormones And MS Research (http://www.msrc.co.uk/index.cfm?fuseaction=show&pageid=708)
Hormones increasingly are shown to affect brain functions, and now they may battle MS symptoms, too.
When it comes to the brain, hormonal influences are the butt of many tactless jokes and at the heart of Rhonda Voskuhl's seminal findings regarding neurodegenerative disease and protection.
Speeding down the length of the axon, nerve cell impulses, taking a fraction of a second to travel from head to toe, orchestrate choreographed muscle movements. This process is so in sync with our will that most of us can take our ability to walk, see and swallow for granted. But when it breaks down, as it does with the disease multiple sclerosis, unwieldy symptoms emerge.
Paralysis, tingling, uncoordinated movements, blindness and cognitive defects are all symptoms that can coincide with MS - a disease affecting 2.5 million people worldwide. Nerves, normally insulated in white myelin, become demyelinated - exposed -the impulses sputter, dissipate and may never reach their destination. While the immediate cause, scar tissue (sclerosis), will show up in brain scans, the underlying issue is thought to arise from an immune system malfunction (relating to inflammation).
But naturally, it's more complicated than that with environmental as well as hereditary factors as possible contributors to the disease. And, hormones have something to do with it, too.
Research involving hormonal influences on the brain is the rage right now. Yet, while one study suggests hormone therapy in postmenopausal women is detrimental to cognition, another shows memory-enhancing properties in patients with the neurodegenerative brain disorder, Alzheimer's disease. And with regard to MS, the effects of hormones are largely anecdotal. These confounding reports make untangling the specific roles of hormones, and how they relate to disease, challenging..............
For the full report please go to MSRC: MS Research News : New Discoveries : Hormones And MS Research (http://www.msrc.co.uk/index.cfm?fuseaction=show&pageid=708)