In the Spring, CBC News did a feature on the prevalance of MS in Canada. It raised some very interesting questions about the geopraphy of MS, and I thought it was worth taking another look.

Canada has one of the highest rates of multiple sclerosis in the world, according to an international survey.

The 2008 Atlas of Multiple Sclerosis showed MS strikes 133 out of every 100,000 people in Canada, the fifth highest rate among countries surveyed between 2004 and 2005.

Prevalence was higher in the United States, Germany, Norway and Hungary, according to the World Health Organization and the Multiple Sclerosis International Foundation, which published the report.

The MS Society of Canada says the rate of MS in this country could be as high as 240 per 100,000 people.

Some people with MS experience little disability during their lifetime. But up to 60 per cent are no longer fully able to walk 20 years after onset, which has major implications for their quality of life and costs to society, the report said. Symptoms appear around 30 years of age on average.

"The Atlas of MS reveals how these implications impact women more than men, by at least two to one, at an age when they are starting a family and developing a career," said Dr. Benedetto Saraceno, director of the WHO's department of mental health and substance dependence.

Canada has been a leader in terms of diagnosing, treating and working to improve the quality of life of people with MS. But keeping people with MS employed remains a challenge, the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada said.

Canadian women are more than twice as likely to get multiple sclerosis than men, according to a major study published in November 2006. Among those born in the 1930s, about two women contracted MS for every one man, at a ratio of 1.9 to 1. For those born in the 1980s, the incidence has grown to exceed 3.2 cases for every one case among men.

Why the sudden increase in the neurodegenerative disease, which attacks the brain and spinal cord, causing inflammation and damage that can lead to paralysis and sometimes blindness?

We don't know. We don't know what causes MS. We don't know what cures MS. The whys and wherefores of this mysterious disease have bedevilled scientists, health-care workers and victims for nearly 200 years.

Recent speculation about the cause has ranged from genetics to environment to vitamin deficiencies to even the birth control pill.

An Italian vascular surgeon — Dr. Paolo Zamboni of the University of Ferrara — has been exploring the theory that MS is caused by blocked veins in the neck or chest, preventing blood from draining properly from the brain. He has developed a surgical technique to treat the problem.

A team at the University of Buffalo — led by Dr. Robert Zivadinov, who worked on an earlier study with Zamboni — has recruited hundreds of patients in Canada and the U.S. to explore the theory further. The patients will undergo specialized neck scans to look for narrowed veins.

Read the full post at: http://www.ccsvi.mx/ms-prevalence-in-canada