A number of Finnish patients suffering from Multiple Sclerosis have been travelling to Poland for an experimental new treatment.The treatment is for chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency, or CCSVI, a condition that is characterised by poor
removal of oxygen-depleted blood from the central nervous system. Many
patients report improvement in their condition after the treatment using
balloon dilation to ease the constriction of veins in the neck to speed
up the blood flow.
The treatment remains experimental, and doctors in Finland are waiting for further studies. Meanwhile, about 30 Finns have made the
trip to Poland to a clinic that offers the treatment.
One patient, Heidi Murtola-Tamminen has been to Poland twice for the treatment. In June her left jugular vein was dilated and in October, the
right vein. She was diagnosed with MS 34 years ago at the age of 20,
but she says that she could already feel symptoms at the age of 14.
The symptoms have varied in intensity for a long time, but she went into a decline six years ago. Murtola-Tamminen has been on a
pension for nearly 20 years, but she still works as an occupational
health nurse a couple of days a week.
“At the beginning of a year I was in a good phase, but then I started to stumble, and all kinds of things happened. I could not walk
even a couple of metres without support. When I went to the hospital I
grabbed my purse, and fell and hit my head on the doorframe. I thought
that I can’t go on like this.”
There were testimonials on the internet of dramatic improvement for patients undergoing the procedure. Some reported an end to all symptoms,
while others were able to give stop taking medication and return to
work. Some felt that the fogginess in their brains had gone away, while
others reported improved eyesight and hearing. In one video, a patient
got out of his wheelchair and was able to walk with the help of
crutches.Murtola-Tamminen said that she would have been content with simply
no further deterioration, but she did not expect actual improvement.
“Soon after the procedure my toes were of normal colour and warm. They had been cold and dark purple for decades”, she says.
Stiffness in her back was also reduced, as muscular cramps that had bothered her for years eased. She was able to resume her boating hobby.
“I have been released from a full-body cast, and I am moving around more easily. I can lift an object from the floor by bending over,
I can put my socks on, and getting dressed is no longer painful.”
“The procedure has raised a good deal of discussion”, says Professor Irina Elovaara of the University of Tampere. She recently attended a
meeting on MS, where participants discussed the CCSVI treatment.
“There is evidence of success in initial studies, but we need further studies with years of follow-up, where patients getting the
treatment are compared with those who do not”, Elovaara says. Experts in
Finland are waiting for results of a study being conducted in the
United States.
Murtola-Tamminen is also careful not to get too excited. However, she emphasises that nothing else that she has tried has eased
the symptoms as much as the treatment that she got in Poland.
http://liberationtreatmentccsvi.com/2010/11/finnish-ms-sufferers-travel-to-poland-for-experimental-treatment/