Multiple sclerosis week, 2009
National MS Awareness Week runs from March 2nd to 8th.
Lets review the past year of CAM research in MS.
Use of CAM
- Up to two-thirds of patients with MS use CAM
- Most useful CAM according to MS patients.
- Reflexology
- Massage
- Yoga
- Relaxation
- Meditation
- Acupuncture
- Aromatherapy
- Patients are motivated to use CAM because of frustration with conventional treatments.
Breast-feeding
- “Women who have MS may reduce their risk for relapse after pregnancy if they breast-feed.”
- Check with your doctor on this one.
Marijuana
- “Smoking marijuana can have a harmful effect on the cognitive skills of people with MS.â€
- No benefits in psychological symptoms, reasoning, abuse, tolerability, quality of life, fatigue, and ability to control movement in patients with MS who had never before been exposed to cannabis.
- Sativex (spray cannabis) in patients with central neuropathic pain due to MS failed to provide adequate pain relieve after those patients had failed conventional therapy.
Fatty acids
- “The data available are insufficient to assess any potential benefit or harm from polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) supplementation.”
3/5/09 13:52 JR