MS research sources

[shoshin]

On Shell's thread about what people want to see on the forum, many people expressed interest in MS research so I thought I'd share some of the sources I use and maybe other people can add theirs.

My current favorite is a blog called Multiple Sclerosis Research ( http://multiple-sclerosis-research.blogspot.com/ ). It's run by some UK neuros/researchers for people with MS. What's nice about this blog is that not only do you get the research abstracts, but they also give some sort of context or commentary as to why you might be interested or how promising they think whatever it is will be. As a bonus, if you have a question about the research, they will often answer it in the comments.

They also do series on various topics such as

Underlying biology of progressive MS and possible treatment strategies:
http://multiple-sclerosis-research.blogspot.com/2011/08/whilst-trying-to-explain-how-white.html
http://multiple-sclerosis-research.blogspot.com/2011/09/educationtargeting-progressive-ms-part.html
http://multiple-sclerosis-research.blogspot.com/2011/09/education-targeting-progressive-ms-part.html
http://multiple-sclerosis-research.blogspot.com/2011/09/educationtargeting-progressive-ms-part_12.html
http://multiple-sclerosis-research.blogspot.com/2011/09/education-targeting-progressive-ms-part_14.html
http://multiple-sclerosis-research.blogspot.com/2011/09/education-targeting-progressive-ms-part_16.html
http://multiple-sclerosis-research.blogspot.com/2011/09/education-targeting-progressive-ms-part_19.html
http://multiple-sclerosis-research.blogspot.com/2011/09/education-targeting-progressive-ms-part_08.html
Postscript: http://multiple-sclerosis-research.blogspot.com/2011/09/education-treating-progressive-ms.html

Gray matter and MS:
http://multiple-sclerosis-research.blogspot.com/2011/06/grey-matter-1-cortical-demyelination.html
http://multiple-sclerosis-research.blogspot.com/2011/06/grey-matter-2-cortical-lesions-and.html
http://multiple-sclerosis-research.blogspot.com/2011/06/grey-matter-3-atrophy-mainly-affects.html
http://multiple-sclerosis-research.blogspot.com/2011/06/grey-matter-4-meningeal-b-cell.html
http://multiple-sclerosis-research.blogspot.com/2011/06/grey-matter-5-b-cells-baminercept-in.html
http://multiple-sclerosis-research.blogspot.com/2011/06/grey-matter-6-and-b-cells-combination.html

They do have definite points of view and research agendas and are up front about that. I don't always agree with them (but what do I know?), but it does make them less faceless. I'm reminded of a conversation I had with a junior neuro when I was in a trial. I was telling him something my regular neuro had said and the junior neuro's rather diplomatic response was that if you got a hundred MS neuros in a room, they'd all have different opinions on many things. We all know there are far too many neuros who can't even seem to get a grip on the consensus in the field, but the reality is that there are still a huge number of unknowns in MS research and a great many controversies.

There are a number of other sites that publish information about selected studies or press releases. Some of the ones I read are:

MSIF (Multiple Sclerosis International Federation) research news: http://www.msif.org/en/research/ms_research_news/index.html
MSRC (Multiple Sclerosis Resource Centre): http://www.msrc.co.uk/index.cfm?fuseaction=show&pageid=7
Medical News Today: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/sections/multiple_sclerosis/
ScienceDaily: http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/health_medicine/multiple_sclerosis/

You can also get tables of contents and abstracts from various journals either as RSS feeds or email alerts. For example:

Multiple Sclerosis Journal: http://msj.sagepub.com/
Lancet Neurology: http://www.thelancet.com/journals/laneur/issue/current
AAN Neurology: http://www.neurology.org/
Nature Reviews Neurology: http://www.nature.com/nrneurol/index.html

You can even get feeds for Pubmed ( http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/ ) searches, although if you're not careful, you're likely to get quite the flood since so much is published on MS. Pubmed is the U.S. National Library of Medicine's database of biomedical literature citations.

I also periodically check out Medscape ( http://www.medscape.com  ), which is for busy health professionals and often has useful news items or overview articles or continuing education topics that cover the current basics of various topics, such as

Managing Patients with Neurogenic Bladder: http://www.medscape.org/viewarticle/747816
Chronic Spasticity: Optimal Interventions: http://www.medscape.org/viewarticle/751430

You have to create an account to access Medscape, but it's free.

What research sources do you use?

sho

[Lulu54]

Hi Sean_P, if you would do us the favor and post this on a separate thread, that would be great.  Many people won't respond because your story has little to do with the information on research articles.  Hope to see you around, Lulu

[Sean_P]

For a while I have been getting very mild sensations to my left shoulder, going up my neck.  It usually happened about 1-2 times a week.  Nothing serious.  But then this morning I went to my P.E class and we play some indoor basketball.  Towards the end I have the ball and take a shot...and that's when things seemed to get really BAD.  Right as I took the shot I felt the same thing as what I just told you but easily 1000x worse.  All of a sudden I felt like I had to sit beside the wall because of how bad it felt.  Once I did, then I noticed that the left side of my tongue went numb.  Then this reminded me of something I've heard before, where people get strokes on one side of their body, and I panicked somehow without getting my blood pressure soaring to figure out what to do.  Then 1-2 minutes later, the pain and numness subsided, but I still felt a throb in my head.

I'm getting a little worried if this is going to change my life.  I'm a freshman in high-school and I want to know if I can play sports with this 'condition'.

P.S.- I've looked at some other threads/forums and found out that it might of happened when the shoulder blades press up against your main nerves system.  They say your body is trying to tell you your nerves are damaged.  Also I found out that most of the electricity that the human body conducts is put into your back.  This might explain why people always feel like they've been 'shocked' bacause maybe we're conducting electricity differently than others.

Also I should add that before my heart-surgery in 3rd grade, I would be able to tell exactly when a light was about to flicker.  I remember one day in 2nd grade when word got around my classroom that my 'skill' seemed legit.  There was this light in the classroom that would turn off and back on every 5-60 seconds, and I was able to tell my classmates 1/2 a second before eack time it would flicker.  My classmates were amazed and I did the same thing in the cafeteria a week later.  Although a seemed to loose alot of qualities by my 3rd grade sergury, it seems some of them are coming back to me.  (I just wanted to add this because other posts seemed to tell something similar

Anything will be apreciated.

[shoshin]

Anybody else have any suggestions on this?

If you actually want to read articles, you might check out PubMed Central, which has only full-text content: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/

sho

[Guitar_grrrl]

Sho, I LOVE those guys!  ProfG, and the MouseDoctor are my latest faves!  I echo the other suggestions given here, though I have nothing to add :(

[sllowe]

Tingle T, and Kwaren! I've never visited those, and look forward to doing so!

Keep em coming folks!

[sllowe]

These are excellent sources. Have visted them myself, and I double and triple and quadruple Sho's recommendation to use them!

Thank you so much for sharing these, Sho!!!!

[kwarendorf]

My research facility of choice is the MS Research Center of NY. It's the research side of my MS Day Spa :-) They about to begin an autologous stem cell study aimed at repair and regeneration in patients with progressive MS.

http://www.msrcny.org/home-news

[tingletingle]

Hi Sho,
Amazing amount of resources presented. Thank you for taking the time to post this.

I like the Pubmed information and, in my opinion, the best guy to bring all the research together I've discovered is here:
http://www.overcomingmultiplesclerosis.org/Resources/Links/

Blessings
Alex