As Tania Acosta went through her normal morning routine in July 2007, she realized something was wrong. The 29-year-old couldn’t control her left side, even her face. “Literally the top of my head to the bottom of my foot on the left side of my body could not feel anything.”
The next day, Acosta spoke with a doctor at the New York City hospital where she works as a medical secretary. He told her that she probably had a pinched nerve and to see a chiropractor.
But chiropractic care didn’t help. Months later, Acosta needed a cane to get around, and moving her left leg and arm required lots of concentration. She couldn’t work. Numbness and tingling made cooking and cleaning difficult. It felt a bit like looping a rubber band tightly around a finger until it loses sensation, Acosta says. Once the rubber band comes off, the finger tingles for a bit. But for her, the tingling wouldn’t stop.
Finally, she recalls, one chiropractor told her, “I’m not too big of a person to say there’s something very wrong with you, and I don’t know what it is. You need to see a neurologist.” In November 2008, tests confirmed that Acosta had multiple sclerosis. Her immune system was attacking her brain and spinal cord.
Acosta knew nothing about MS, except that a friend of her mother’s had it. “At the time, I was like, there’s no way I’ve got this old lady’s condition,” she says. “To be hit with that and know that there’s no cure — that was just devastating.”
Why people develop the autoimmune disorder has been a long-standing question. Studies have pointed to certain gene variations and environmental factors. For decades, a common virus called Epstein-Barr virus has also been high on the list of culprits.
Now, recent studies paint a clearer picture that Epstein-Barr virus instigates MS when the central nervous system gets caught in the crosshairs of an immune response to the virus’s attack. This recognition opens new options for treatment, or even vaccines. Perhaps therapies that target Epstein-Barr itself — or remove the cells in the body where the virus camps out — could jettison the virus before damage is done.
Vaccines might one day “make multiple sclerosis become a historical disease like polio,” says Lawrence Steinman, a neurologist at Stanford University. “The trials will be arduous,” Steinman says. Still, “I think we might be able to put MS in the rearview mirror.”
For now, there’s a lot to learn, including how exactly the virus triggers MS, says Francesca Alois, a neuroscientist at the Italian National Institute of Health in Rome.
For many people with MS, even with current therapies, the disease can progress. Right now, Acosta’s symptoms are largely under control. Thanks to physical therapy, an anti-inflammatory diet and medication, she has about 90 percent function on the left side of her body. “Things like long-distance running are out of the question,” she says. Carrying grocery bags with her left arm is a challenge
It's good content bro
You must be logged in to post a comment.