If Only Christina Applegate knew …

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News about the actress Christina Applegate and her MS diagnosis ran through world media. I need to wonder again how incomplete is the medial & mainly medical description of multiple sclerosis which I investigated too on my adventurous ALS deciphering journey. A small miracle could cause this information finds its way to Christina and helps her and many other people to better understand MS.

Introduction

What am I missing? What I don´t like? It is the way public is informed and fed with very inaccurate or incomplete information about this very unpleasant neurodegenerative disease (MS). People like me, who are life optimists and curious visioners simply cannot accept those for decades unchanging sceptical and hope stealing information. Ok, let’s not just complain but demonstrate it on facts.

Wrong Medial Shortcuts

I would tend to agree with those critical voices saying we live in mediacracy – in the world where media have big power, world where media are owned by certain subjects which obviously has its consequences and impact on what, when and how is published. In democratic countries we have free media, it is not like in Russia or China. However this does not mean the media are not used to achieve often non-transparent objectives. Every power gets abused – this is a reliable rule describing us, humans.

It is hard to spot this cautious and rather gentle influencing of public, mainly because we got already used to it – politics and elections, sensation, gossip/rumours, incurable diseases etc. this all is inherent part of our lives in modern world and we tolerate minor deviations and wrongdoings. Since everyone is unique the tolerancy level is unique and it is hard to find the demarcation line or the red line which already shall not be crossed. Many of our big problems are caused by far from optimal information and communication.

The benefit of democratic and free speech defending society is that people can freely discuss all the matters and choose what they will consider true, what they will consider rather untrustworthy and manipulative. Our opinions are heavilly formed based on what media bring us. Media affect what people will talk about during lunch, at work, in pub after work etc. It is double edge sword – we can suppress or shift the reality by overstating some aspects and neglecting those other (manipulation) but through media we can also increase awareness, get massive public support and do a good thing, end war, make society aware of bad things etc.

Now consider how media inform about multiple sclerosis, according to medical science, a classical auto-immune disease which is claimed to be incurable. Ordinary person who has no experience with this disease simply accepts such authoritative conclusion – science claims that, so it´s true. People learn that it is unpleasant disease which gradually impairs nervous system leading to mobility issues including paralysis (or vision issues) where MS patients end on wheel chair and get dependent on caregivers. But ordinary people mainly learn the ultimate phrase, it is autoimmune disease, meaning the body or its immune system got wrong and started attacking own tissue. That´s it, some bad luck, it was written in genes, simple truth. In reality rather silly interpretation which still holds though. People are not interested in how such suspicious statement was formed, they simply accept it as they trust experts but experts have no good answers either, which should not be surprising for a rational person due to “incurable” nature of the disease (means people have no clue, cannot be sure about their statements).

As part of Christina Applegate case the media inform about MS in a typically misleading way. Ordinary people do not read scientific journals and thus are mainly dependent on short digests provided by mass media. However these media are failing in their task to educate people. Instead they focus on click-bait sensational emotional posts where the medical aspect is the least important.

MS affects nearly 1 million adults in the U.S., and can be disabling. Most people receive an MS diagnosis between the ages of 20 and 40 and the disease is more common in women than men, according to the Cleveland Clinic, a nonprofit academic medical center. Symptoms can include numbness or weakness in the limbs, electric-shock sensations that occur with neck movements, or tremors. MS can also affect vision and speech, cause dizziness and fatigue, and in cases like Applegate’s, impact one’s general mobility^​1​.

MS is a degenerative autoimmune disease that impacts the brain and spinal cord. There is a myriad of symptoms, from muscle stiffness to vertigo and bladder issues. Symptoms vary from person to person and in degrees of severity. It’s a lifelong condition with no known cure^​2​. [here this post is even in section/category: Entertainment 🤷‍♂️]

Multiple sclerosis is a disease in which the immune system eats away at the protective covering of nerves, and interrupts the flow of information between the brain and the body^​3​.

Multiple sclerosis affects the central nervous system and is considered an autoimmune disease, in which the immune system attacks its own healthy cells. It affects quality of life and can be disabling. There is no cure for multiple sclerosis, which is often called MS, but many people are able to manage their symptoms and adapt to new lifestyles after diagnosis. The disease begins when a person’s immune system attacks the coverings of nerve fibers throughout the body. These protective nerve sheaths are called myelin, and they assist with the communication of nerves. When myelin is destroyed, it exposes the nerves, slowing communication between these cells. The signs and symptoms are related to how much damage has been done. Researchers believe that the disease is the result of both environmental and genetic factors, but the underlying cause is not known. More than 2.3 million people have a diagnosis of MS worldwide, according to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Nearly 1 million people over the age of 18 live with a diagnosis of MS in the US, the nonprofit organization adds^​4​.

Progressive & Innovative Description of MS

During my investigative activities which comprised reading about history of autoimmune diseases, the existing theories (none is proven/bullet-proof; all is hypotheis!) and exploring other related information I have put together very simple theory explaining autoimmune disease and how it should be treated. Similarly as with ALS, which I call a much more brutal sister of MS, I did not come with anything entirely new but instead finished and consolidated those existing scientific theories. What is quite nice aspect of that theory is that it really connects all findings, explains logically all MS related data. It still is hypothesis though too.

If the theory was correct then it would automatically mean humans are doing big mistakes (opposite actions which cannot cure by definition), they disinterpret known behavior and insist on obscurant axiomatic foundations (“body attacks itself“). Recovering from MS should be possible and many remission cases are clear evidence. Obviously with certain non-trivial effort!

As with ALS (much tougher problem) there are omnipresent interests to spread bad news and suppress/ignore/neglect those super-promising positive cases. More on the simple & straightforward theory below. Please can you attack it, can you prove it is wrong?

• Autoimmunity 2.0
• Multiple Sclerosis News – Is EBV anything new?

Mr Underhill From Shire

Please see About Author page.