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positve results for JC virus, power of belief

According to the Wall Street Journal, it seems another MS “cure” fails again.  There was a theory saying MS was a cardiovascular disease (chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency or CCSVI)  rather than a disease of the immune system.  It turns out the blockages are more prevalent in patients with MS than healthy subjects, but the difference is 44% to 25%.  What’s more 42% of patients with other neurological conditions had the blockages. It is interesting to note subjects who had MS for longer were more likely to have the blockages, leading some to theorize MS and other neuro conditions may cause CCSVI instead of the other way around.

I can’t say I was happy to read the results.  In reading it, I do wonder if some of the symptom relief was due to increased blood flow post surgery.  Regardless, I think one of the most telling points in this whole treatment process may be just how important hope, attitude and placebo effect can be.  It seems treatment after treatment whether it’s bee stings, MS diets, or massive amounts of vitamin D (like I take now) all have populations who show some general improvement of symptoms.

I know it’s easy to look at most of these as clinical failures when it comes to providing lasting relief or a cure.  What if what they show in aggregate is the power of believing one will feel better if one but follows a course of action?  It’s funny because I’ve seen little meta analysis across studies for different “cures.”  We have a lot of anecdotal evidence for how stress seems to make one far more likely to have a flare.  Maybe all of these studies in aggregate actually show the opposite can be true where belief one is going to get better actually makes one better.

edit:
If one believes in fate, one might laugh when told 5 min after I posted this I was called by my neurologist and told my blood caries the JC virus making it slightly more than twice as likely for me to get PML (usually fatal brain infection) if I continue taking Tysabri.  I’m not horribly big on the fate as god’s cosmic joke line of thinking, but I do find some irony in posting how important good thoughts are for good outcomes only to be told the treatment I use has twice the chance previously advertised of killing me.  In case anyone thinks this is dramatic I’m going to die news, it raises the odds to 1 in 200 of getting PML.

Guess maybe it’s time to live up to the logic I said I would use in this situation.  Give me fewer good years over more numerous crappy years.  Time to keep living happy for all I have and can do.  Now back to regularly scheduled programing of positive thoughts.

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compliments, Pacific trip

I think the biggest reason I enjoyed my trip to the Pacific was not the weather, the scuba, the comparatively huge amount of free time without obligations. It wasn’t even the beautiful women.
It was the seemingly cultural habit of building up people in conversation. It took me almost half my 3 week trip to finally isolate it. When I and my friends talk, there are far fewer compliments, and even those are edged and constrained like “She is almost as gorgeous as X.” or “She is the smartest person I’ve met since X.” There is a need for comparison, and it seems we habitually feel a need to compare things in order to assign a value in our heads. It’s a kind of pervasive stoicism because rarely are things the worst or best it’s ever been. In doing this, I think maybe we lose a bit more than we get in our trade off for what would seem an emotional insurance way of thinking.
When I was in Guam and CNMI, most of the people spoke in ways building up my self esteem. Even recognizing some (OK most) of it as BS, it still feels good. I sat on a corner eating a chicken kabob and just listened to the crowd. It’s not just to the tourists. Even the teenagers seemed to build each other up without tearing down their peers.
Now, I’m not going to lie and say all of the other cool parts of my trip weren’t great. I got to exercise every day. I took 6 scuba dives. I ran a 5k there where the organizers had to open up the 2XL shirts for me because I was the first of the big people to finish. The sunsets were gorgeous. To top it off, I had little by way of MS symptoms. All in all, it was a great trip.
Add in some humor, and it was the best pick me up I’ve ever had. A lady came up to me in Godfathers (a bar with good cheap food) and said, “You have the darkest green eye’s I’ve ever seen.”
Me,”So dark they’re brown?”

During a massage “You know where I come from in China, chest and back hair is exotic. Most of my friends would think this is a turn on.” I wanted to reply, but I was too busy laughing.

A couple of fun pictures

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