TB Vaccine Propaganda to aid sales using multiple sclerosis as the lure
The Unhived Mind [UHM]
5 December 2013 Last updated at 01:00
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-25207033
TB vaccine ‘could help prevent MS’
By Helen Briggs
An anti-tuberculosis vaccine could prevent multiple sclerosis, early research suggests.
A small-scale study by researchers at the Sapienza University of Rome has raised hopes that the disease can be warded off when early symptoms appear.
More research is needed before the BCG vaccine can be trialled on MS patients.
The MS Society said the chance to take a safe and effective preventative treatment after a first MS-like attack would be a huge step forward.
MS is a disease affecting nerves in the brain and spinal cord, causing problems with muscle movement, balance and vision.
Early signs include numbness, vision difficulties or problems with balance.
About half of people with a first episode of symptoms go on to develop MS within two years, while 10% have no more problems.
In the study, published in the journal Neurology, Italian researchers gave 33 people who had early signs of MS an injection of BCG vaccine.
The other 40 individuals in the study were given a placebo.
After five years, 30% of those who received the placebo had not developed MS, compared with 58% of those vaccinated.
“These results are promising, but much more research needs to be done to learn more about the safety and long-term effects of this live vaccine,” said study leader Dr Giovanni Ristori.
“Doctors should not start using this vaccine to treat MS or clinically isolated syndrome.”
Dr Susan Kohlhaas, head of biomedical research at the MS Society, said it was a small but interesting study.
“It’s really encouraging to see positive results from this small trial, but they’ll need validating in larger and longer-term studies before we know if the BCG vaccination can reduce the risk of someone developing MS.
“Ultimately, the chance to take a safe and effective preventative treatment after a first MS-like attack would be a huge step forward.”
The findings add weight to a theory that exposure to infections early in life might reduce the risk of diseases such as MS by stimulating the body’s immune system.
Dr Dennis Bourdette, of Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, US, said the research suggested “BCG could prove to be a ‘safe, inexpensive, and handy’ treatment for MS”.
He wrote in an accompanying editorial in Neurology: “The theory is that exposure to certain infections early in life might reduce the risk of these diseases by inducing the body to develop a protective immunity.”
Pink Rabbit says:
That means 42% did still develop MS by 5 years in the treated group, and they said they expected 50 % to get it by two years so that is really not much different except in how long it took to get the final diagnosis, ie 2 years instead of 5 years. Placebo rate of MS compared with vaccinated group could be due to chance. That is what a p value refers to. That’s why they need a second study to verify and larger numbers and longer time would be best. In the study 70% of MS developed treated vs 42% not treated so half the rate at 5 years if you get the vaccine. But many still got it. So many studies with MS turn out to be false later. The jugular stent and cladribine were initially promising and then were dropped. 73 patients seems too small study for a reduction of rate by half at 5 years. And how could it really be blinded? Researchers have been shown in a study to subconsciously judge events and enter data supporting the study expected result and be unaware they were doing it. So if they knew who really got the vaccine they could make the results one way perhaps (if the researcher bias study is correct). If an MS patient said “my leg is heavier or my leg is number or my vision is more blurred or my double vision is worse than before” it is a judgement call whether it is just being overtired or it is really a second attack. If the study required an objective change on an MRI to prove conversion to MS I would be surprised as that would be harer to fake. I once was forced to head a drug company study at my prior hospital on migraines and even choosing which patients to allow to enroll in the study was questionable as my group was paid money for every patient we enrolled and we had incentive to include as many headache patients as possible. I wont ever do that kind of research again.
theunhivedmind says:
Migraines stem from a lot of heat usually coming from the Liver (flowing up through the Gallbladder channel) and it can also be the Stomach. The heat then rises into the head and we get the symptoms known as migraine. This is why herbs that cool those organs and the gallbladder as well as the meridians leading off will then remove the migraine. Herbs like Artichoke leaf and Feverfew are just two I can mention but do not take herbs in alcoholic tincture form because the alcohol warms up all twelve main meridians and corresponding organs thus resulting of a buffering of what we are trying to achieve. We do not need pharmaceutical sorcery and quackery, all we need is proper metabolic typing, nutrition, herbal tonics and homoeopathic remedies for the root cure. The only part of the medical system we really need is surgeons and some drugs for those surgeons but the rest of it, well almost all of it can be scrapped.
-= The Unhived Mind