September chitchat

[flatcap]

Agate, I have to admit I don't get much exercise anymore. I haven't for many, many years. Except for the several years I spent in my early 20s riding a bicycle instead of owning a car, I never considered myself much of an athlete. Not even then, to be honest, and I was on the bike every day, often just for fun. Once I started my career and bought a car, things went downhill from there. I got on the bike a few times over the years, but not nearly as much as I should have. Now, I miss it greatly, but I couldn't balance on a bike if my life depended on it.

We don't have much of a Spring or Fall here. I used to say to anyone who might ask that the leaves would turn color one day in the Fall and the next they were on the ground. Not much to photograph, that's for sure. Spring is similarly abbreviated. I have a couple of coats suitable for temperatures in the 50s-60s, and they get so little wear they will no doubt last forever. I would replace them with new ones that fit — or at least one that does — but I'm a waste-not, want-not type person. I won't go that route until they start looking like tents on me, possibly not even then.

[agate]

It's much easier to keep clothes that are too big than clothes that are too small. I've been finding this out lately because all of my pants are suddenly very baggy and yet I can wear them. They just look, well, unstylish.

Could you manage an exercise bike? I've known people who have really liked them though they probably cost an arm and a leg. You don't have to balance on it, and it's said to be good exercise. I've heard that people can do things like watch TV or listen to music or an audiobook while on the exercise bike.

[flatcap]

They have a stationary bicycle and few other exercise machines in our building, but I have never used them. There is also an indoor pool, but I haven't used that either. I'm just not into exercise for the sake of it. I know I should be, but I'm not. I never was.

[agate]

I never was much for exercise either, flatcap, other than swimming and walking. But quite a number of courses of physical therapy over the years persuaded me that when MS is combined with aging, there are real, noticeable benefits. It's very dreary and tiresome to get on with the exercise routines every day but I try hard not to miss a day. I'm very inclined to make excuses, like: "This day has just been too busy--I don't have time for this" or "I'll make up for missing a day by doubling up on the exercises tomorrow."

[flatcap]

I imagine everyone but me has heard of this, but I thought I would post it just in case. I found it in today's news.

According to the article, "phase I safety trials are underway in multiple sclerosis."

Only registered and activated users can see links., Click Here To Register...

[agate]

They just might be onto something there, don't you think? It's only in Phase I and so it will be a while until anyone with MS is benefitting from it.

After decades with MS I've noticed that a cure hasn't been found. Nobody is stopping MS in its tracks. But that doesn't mean it can't be done. It just hasn't been done yet. Maybe this new research will be the answer.

[flatcap]

I tracked down the maker of this new treatment, and it looks like the med is for RRMS. (Big surprise — not. There is some hope, though — I guess.) Maybe it will prove to be useful for progressive forms. As for a cure, this doesn't sound like one, but I could be wrong. It would be nice if I were.

In other news, I recently mentioned that I had ordered a new cap from Jonatan Cordova, and that it did not work out. As he has done in the past, Jonatan asked me for feedback, so I told him the cap was beautifully made but I didn't like the way it looked on me.

Jonatan then offered to ask one of his customers if he wanted to buy the cap from me. Long story short, his customer did indeed buy it. I had told Jonatan's customer he could have it for free, but he wanted to pay me for it, so after he received the cap, he did. I recouped 70% of what I spent on the cap, so it was far from a total loss.

Call me a happy camper. I wish the cap had worked out for me, but it could have been worse, and Jonatan went out of his way to ensure it wasn't. Hard to beat, if you ask me.

[agate]

flatcap, may I ask where you found this information indicating that the treatment would be meant only for RRMS?

I'm curious because I looked up the article in Nature Biomedical Engineering, and though most of it is very much beyond me, it looks as if the researchers studied mouse models (EAE) for two types of MS (or the MS-like disease that mice get)--which they're calling "chronic" and "relapsing-remitting" forms. I'm not sure what is meant by "chronic" here as it seems to me as if RRMS is "chronic" since the relapses and remissions keep recurring. Doesn't that make it "chronic"? On the other hand, progressive MS is also "chronic" but in a different way--?

I don't know if others will be able to see the article but I'll post the link after quoting from the article to show what I'm talking about. I have a feeling nobody is going to want to wade through the entire article as it's very technical:

The efficacy of pGal–antigen treatment in the context of antigen-specific autoimmune responses was next tested in mouse models of EAE. EAE is a mouse model of MS with autoimmune responses directed against myelin peptides. This drives an autoimmune attack against the myelin sheath of the central nervous system ultimately resulting in paralysis. To model chronic disease, splenocytes are adoptively transferred from donor mice vaccinated with myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG) antigen. By contrast, the relapsing–remitting (R/R) model of MS uses the myelin proteolipid protein (PLP) antigen along with pertussis toxin (PTX) to induce disease.

Only registered and activated users can see links., Click Here To Register...

[flatcap]

Agate,

Going back to the article I posted, the sentence after the one I quoted above reads as follows:

"Those trials are conducted by the pharmaceutical company Anokion SA..."


Next, I once again found the Anokion SA website, where they show only one ongoing MS clinical trial: Only registered and activated users can see links., Click Here To Register...

They are calling this trial MoveS-it.

Seriously.

(Replace the "-" with an "h," and you really have something there — LOL)


Qualifications for MoveS*it :

• 18 – 60 years old
• RRMS diagnosis
• Not wheelchair bound
• Some medications allowed

(Emphasis added.)


As for the MS nomenclature ("chronic," etc.), Anokion SA is based in Switzerland. I recall hearing different terms for MS stages from other parts of the world, so maybe the Swiss have their own lexicon. Looking at the abstract, though, it is not clear if that is the issue; the lead authors are at the University of Chicago. Whatever the case may be, I doubt they meant that MS, overall, is not chronic.

Other than that, the full article is paywalled. Were it not, perhaps the layperson might glean something useful from the figures and graphs. The text by itself might as well be in Swahili, as far as I am concerned: I have no idea what they are talking about.*

The article I referenced is news, not science. It is also open for anyone to read for free. Heck, it's even in English. I posted it only as an informal FYI.


*It would nevertheless be interesting to know how you got past the paywall. I always thought that Nature journals were locked up tighter than drums.

[agate]

The university where I was a student offered alumni access to some scholarly and scientific journals through JSTOR. That's how I got access to it--I thought maybe I'd be allowed to share that access with a few people here but apparently not. Sorry I wasn't successful in transmitting the article.It looked to me as if it would be visible to everyone reading here.

Did you by chance try to view the article by using the doi link that appears at the end of the SciTech article you posted about? It might work for you--I don't know.

[flatcap]

That explains it, except for one thing:

If you have JSTOR access, you must be logging in somewhere. If you are logged in wherever that is, I'm sure you can read whatever you want. If you never explicitly logout, and if you never delete cookies, then you remain effectively logged in any time you open your browser. Others have no such cookies on their device(s), much less access to JSTOR through your account(s).

Why would you think otherwise?

I'm sure you know all this, so I'm a little confused.

[flatcap]

Google Scholar

I suppose everyone knows about this, too, but if you are looking for journal articles this is the place to go:

Only registered and activated users can see links., Click Here To Register...

Hope this helps.

[flatcap]

Did you by chance try to view the article by using the doi link that appears at the end of the SciTech article you posted about? It might work for you--I don't know.

Yes, I did, and no, it didn't.

All I can see is the abstract, which, I should add, is more than enough for me.

[agate]

That explains it, except for one thing:

If you have JSTOR access, you must be logging in somewhere. If you are logged in wherever that is, I'm sure you can read whatever you want. If you never explicitly logout, and if you never delete cookies, then you remain effectively logged in any time you open your browser. Others have no such cookies on their device(s), much less access to JSTOR through your account(s).

Why would you think otherwise?

I'm sure you know all this, so I'm a little confused.

No, I didn't know all this, and thank you for enlightening me. I don't recall what I did to get access to the article but do recall that the journal provided the option of "finding your institution" on a list of institutions. I found mine listed and that got me to the article. I was assuming it was through JSTOR because of a notice I received about a year ago announcing this JSTOR access. I have a user name and password for JSTOR and am assuming that the Norton password manager had it saved. I don't know much about cookies at all other than being partial to those involving chocolate.

[flatcap]

Now, I want a cookie. Thanks a lot. LOL