Because his wife had multiple sclerosis (MS), the Italian surgeon Paolo Zamboni discovered that a simple surgical procedure helped a large fraction of patients with MS. The Canadian MS society and some Canadian neurologists have not reacted well to this discovery:
In November 2009, an elated Jamie Chalmers went to his neurologist and handed him a stack of print-outs on the new findings. Without so much as a glance, the neurologist tossed the papers in the garbage. He told Chalmers it was nothing but junk science.
In fact, cause and effect are utterly clear:
The vein-opening procedure involves snaking a balloon through the groin up to the neck and then inflating it where the veins are believed to be narrow. It didn’t hurt, says Stock. “I could feel it . . . it was like plugging your nose and blowing.”
Almost immediately afterward, says Stock, he felt a change: his compromised sense of balance had improved. By the time he touched down in Canada [the operation was in India], he was convinced he had done the right thing. Before the procedure, he couldn’t read a full paragraph. Now, he is reading whole chapters again. Before, he couldn’t stand without support for long and was always hunched over his cane. Now, he can stand and walk for as long as an hour.
Doctors have believed that MS is an autoimmune disease. For example, the Mayo Clinic’s website says:
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a potentially debilitating disease in which your body’s immune system eats away at the protective sheath that covers your nerves.
Thanks to Anne Weiss.
I got the impression that most people who undergo this procedure end up relapsing, so that it’s not a permanent cure.
(sorry, these points have probably been discussed to death… I haven’t been following this story that much.)
So I guess the idea is that this is a good starting point to work on better treatment, and a better understanding of the disease — i.e. not quite the panacea yet?
Jeff, I have not gotten the impression that most people who undergo this procedure relapse. And I have been following the story. What has given you that impression?
Wow such arrogance! Of course I see this as definitive evidence that we need to junk medical professional licensing and move to a certification regime. These organizational cartels have been wrecking havoc.
This reminds of my dad. Back in the late 70′s, before he was diagnosed with MS, we thought his difficulties with walking were due to a back injury. He had surgery to take pressure off some nerves in his neck. He experienced temporary relief of his symptoms but they returned within the year. If people are experiencing some relief from the Zamboni treatment it could be the procedure or it could be the sedatives or it could be placebo effect or it could be the body’s response to an invasive procedure. Hard to say…….
Hi Seth,
I recall it was the NYTimes article published recently that mentioned some relapse cases. I also read a few cases from message boards reporting relapses (I apologize, it’s unfair of me to not go re-find those links).
Either way, I’m hopeful. My mom has MS.
Lauren, you are leaving out of consideration that a large fraction of MS sufferers are found to have abnormal blood drainage from the brain. Which is a prediction of the theory that improving the drainage will reduce MS. It isn’t a prediction of your other explanations of improvement (e.g., placebo).
This is certainly an exciting development to follow! And I agree it is an interesting case study on the way the scientific/medical establishment responds to a promising new treatment that flies in the face of conventional theories about the disease. If it does turn out to work, there have been speculations that similar effects could be at work in the spinal cords of ALS patients, making it of personal interest.
Nevertheless my money is on science in this matter. That is, I suspect that venous insufficiency will not turn out to be a significant cause of MS. It’s hard to believe that medical researchers could be so far wrong for so long. And I’ve seen claims that true venous insufficiency causes obvious symptoms in the brain, which are not seen in MS.
Now I understand that the claim of high incidence of this vein problem among MS patients is significant – if true. That is what the first round of studies is for, to verify this claim. Maybe it’s true, maybe not. We’ll see. And it’s also possible that a blood problem could cause blood cells to leak into brain tissue, triggering some kind of immune reaction. So perhaps this discovery could be reconciled with existing theories.
But the patient stories remain anecdotal IMO. We have all the usual problems of selection effects where the patients who are helped the most are most vocal in demanding access to the procedure for others. And MS is often intermittent in it’s effects, making it peculiarly subject to placebo effects.
Hal, I know of no evidence that placebos can produce the sort of improvement described in my post. Placebos have been studied extensively.
“It’s hard to believe that medical researchers could be so wrong for so long.” Well, doctors used to dismiss the idea that smoking caused lung cancer. You can read 100 randomly selected nutrition books without finding one that recommends fermented foods. According to any weight control expert, sugar causes weight gain — but I lost weight drinking sugar water. I’ll believe that medical researchers have a clue when they start finding safe practical solutions to common health problems.
there is some promising research being done to study the effects of vein widening and stent placement for MS.
whats interesting is how people seem to associate the risks endemic to surgery itself with this procedure as if it invalidates any of the recorded success stories.
anytime people enter a hospital for a surgery there is always a chance of infection, or of a less than sucessful outcome. yet i read one scaremonger story after another questioning the efficacy of these procedures for MS on the basis of single person accounts like “one woman suffered a stroke in hospital, or one person had a sever reaction to the stent bringing to light questions of the safety of the procedure”… this type of procedure is done with such regularity for stroke/cardiac patients w/ all its risks, success and failure yet somehow anything less than %100 success fpr its use in MS seems to invalidate the theory.
show me any sort of vascular surgical treatment that is close to %100 let along %70, without relapse or side effects. the nature of any surgery that involves nerological functioning can be so tricky and a perfect cure elusive.
back surgery, the severing of cranial nerves for neuralgia’s, carpel tunnel release surgery, tenosynovitis treatments, deviated septum surgery, enlarging of the throat for relief of snoring, all of these procedures enjoy moderate success rates at best, come with a host or awful side effects or risks at times yet are routinely ordered and administered.
thus far MS trials using the Zamboni conclusions are enjoying mixed but moderately good success. part of the reason this treatment approach has gone viral is precisely because the procedure itself is relatively non-invasive and safe and can be done in a host of clinics around the world. if it turns out to work only part of the time then it opens another chapter in MS research, one in which the dominant model of immune system malfunction is only a part of the picture.
funny how few people mention the host of side effects, risks and fatal outcomes of the current host of MS treatment which is pharma-based and vaugely successful at best in slow progression of this disease.
good luck to all who are investigating this new treatment option.
Mazmanian et al at Caltech find bacteria can induce MS in sterile lab mice. Viz https://media.caltech.edu/press_releases/13362
Let’s turn a phrase around : ” I find it hard to believe that ‘the doctors’ could be RIGHT about the causes of MS and not have anything that looks like a promising solution. ”
I suspect the medical conservatives have put their eggs in a few favourite research baskets, which approach the disease from a wrong
point of view…. so that every solution they produce is complicated,
expensive and – in the end – not very successful. They will continue to do endless statistical studies to show a 5-cent improvement . Zamboni’s research doesn’t look like junk science; he was trying to cure someone,
tried out a procedure, and it looks like he may have done something – at least in some cases/
MS patients should demand a chance to try the procedure and allow themselves to HOPE . They may be disappointed, but there’s no point in
playing ‘neutral observer’ when YOU are the patient . Leave that nonsense to the medical professionals, while you focus on getting better.