A Multiple Sclerosis Analogy
It’s MS Awareness Month here in Canada, so I felt that it was an ideal time for a good analogy.
A couple of years ago, we were having trouble with our hot tub. The power was tripping pretty well every time that it rained. The power cord for our hot tub runs underneath our deck. We figured that the power cord was likely damaged. We pulled up a few deck boards to access the power cord and confirmed what we had suspected – a rodent had been chewing on the wire insulation and a section of wire was exposed. After stripping back the damaged wire insulation and wrapping it in self-amalgamating tape, our hot tub was functioning again, rain or shine.
Why do I tell you this story? Because I think that it is a good analogy for MS.
The human body has roughly 7 trillion nerve cells (neurons). The brain alone contains roughly 100 billion neurons. Most of these neurons are made up of a cell body, dendrites, and an axon. Nerve cells carry information back and forth between the brain and spinal cord (the central nervous system) and the rest of the body (the peripheral nervous system). Most neurons receive signals via the dendrites and send out signals down the axon. At the majority of synapses, signals cross from the axon of one neuron to a dendrite of another. The axon of the neuron is analogous to an electrical wire. It transmits electrical impulses from one neuron cell body to the next.
Myelin is a lipid-rich material that surrounds nerve cell axons to insulate them and increase the rate at which electrical impulses are passed along the axon. Myelin can be likened to the insulating material (thermoplastic or thermoset) around electrical cords. When the myelin becomes damaged, electrical impulses cannot pass as readily along the affected axon, if at all. Just as when a rodent chews up the wire insulation of a cord, the cord may not function properly, when an MS attack damages a section of myelin, the axon may not function properly. The degree of functional loss depends on the amount of damage to the insulation/myelin. Damaged myelin along the neurons of my left optic nerve has left me with impaired vision in that eye. Sclerosis means scarring. These areas of damaged myelin in the central nervous system make up the scars of MS.
Currently, the treatments for MS are geared toward preventing future demyelination (damage to the myelin). Using my analogy, they are akin to hiring an exterminator to rid the yard of those pesky wire chewing rodents (albeit in the case of MS, the “rodents” consist of your own overactive and confused immune system). However, the hope is that we can reach the stage of remyelination. Using my analogy, remyelination therapies would be akin to our use of self-amalgamating tape to repair our hot tub cord. Remyelination therapies are currently in preclinical and early clinical development. There’s a long way to go, but it looks like this may be on the medical horizon.
As many of my readers know, I am currently fundraising for my first MS Walk on May 29, 2022. The money raised will support cutting edge MS research, so that, perhaps, one day we have remyelination therapies to add to the roster in fighting MS. Your donation might get us closer to that self-amalgamating tape! To those who have already donated, I cannot thank you enough! My husband recently expressed that every time that he is notified of a new donation, he feels like he got a warm hug from a friend. I completely agree. If you would like to support me in raising money for MS research, you can do so here: https://msspwalk.donordrive.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.participant&participantID=11437.
