Confirmation of Epsilon Toxin as a Possible Environmental Cause of MS
August 22, 2018
A major focus of the Vartanain lab is understanding how new MS lesions are formed. We believe that a bacterial toxin produced in the gut is responsible for new MS lesion formation. Specifically, we believe that the epsilon toxin produced from the bacteria Clostridium perfringens is an environmental cause of MS in people who are genetically-at-risk for the disease. In 2015 in the journal of PLOS One, we published a study that demonstrated that MS patients have increased exposure to both the...
What is the best diet for patients with MS?
August 7, 2018
Diet is important for everyone but especially for patients with multiple sclerosis. I am always asked about diet by my patients.The best study recently is reported in Neurology this year. Diet quality is associated with disability and symptom severity in multiple sclerosis. Kathryn Fitzgerald, ScD is first author.They used the North American Research Committee (NARCOMS) registry to have large data base of patients. Almost 7000 patients were analyzed. Patients filled out patient derived disease...
New study addresses the safety of intravenous methylprednisolone (IVMP) during breastfeeding.
August 6, 2018
It is well known that the risk of an MS flair increases dramatically in the post-partum period. As a consequence, women with MS who have recently given birth are faced with the difficult question of should they continue breast feeding while taking steroids (methylprednisolone is a glucocorticoid, a type of steroid) or should they stop breast feeding. There has been little scientific guidance on this subject in the past leaving women in the difficult position of deciding on their own as to the...
