Doctor Challenges Cause Of MS And Treatment

by GRETCHEN CUDA KROEN, npr.org, January 31, 2011

One day 7 years ago, after a long walk with his dog along the Hudson River in Manhattan, Marc Stecker noticed he was limping. Not long after, he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

"Fast forward now, and my entire right side is pretty much paralyzed and my left side is weakening," Stecker says.

Stecker is now confined to a wheelchair, from where he writes a blog about his disease, called Wheelchair Kamikaze.

More than a year ago, Stecker started writing about a theory Italian physician Paolo Zamboni proposed in 2008 called chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency, or CCSVI.

Its been thought that multiple sclerosis is caused by a misguided immune system that attacks the nerves of the brain and spinal cord and can lead to muscle weakness, paralysis and death. However, Zamboni suggests that the disease instead is the result of blocked blood veins — leading to inflammation, which, in turn, causes the immune system to attack nerves in the brain and spinal cord.

Zamboni proposed that treating it may be as simple as opening them up. Stecker was hopeful. Read more>>