PoliticalSpeak: MS prevention, or not?

I have finally purchased myself a pair of rose-tinted glasses; just not sure I should be wearing them. #PoliticalSpeak #MSBlog

"I was invited to at attend the MS Society's meeting on 'Developing our MS Society Research Strategy' (see PDF below) and was asked to chaired the Prevention workshop. It was a very enjoyable day and it is very clear that under the leadership of Michelle Mitchell the MS Society are doing things very differently and with focus and energy. The Prevention workshop was really and extension of the Prevention meeting we had last year at Heathrow (see report below). Interestingly when we had the feedback session yesterday afternoon there was a debate on whether or not MS is a preventable disease and whether of not we should be using the term prevention at all. I am not sure how we can avoid it when the MS community voted prevention number 2 on their list of research priorities as part of their James Lind Alliance collaboration. Stating MS is potentially a preventable disease at least allows one to formulate and test hypotheses. The corollary to this is that by stating that MS is not a preventable disease makes formulating and testing hypotheses very difficult."



Top 10 MS research priorities identified

The MS Society, in partnership with the James Lind Alliance, has identified the top 10 research questions that matter most to people affected by MS and healthcare professionals.

After a year of extensively canvassing the views of a wide range of people, over a thousand questions were narrowed down to the top 10:
  1. Which treatments are effective to slow, stop or reverse the accumulation of disability associated with MS?
  2. How can MS be prevented?
  3. Which treatments are effective for fatigue in people with MS?
  4. How can people with MS be best supported to self-manage their condition?
  5. Does early treatment with aggressive disease modifying drugs improve the prognosis for people with MS?
  6. Is Vitamin D supplementation an effective disease modifying treatment for MS?
  7. Which treatments are effective to improve mobility for people with MS?
  8. Which treatments are effective to improve cognition in people with MS?
  9. Which treatments are effective for pain in people with MS?
  10. Is physiotherapy effective in reducing disability in people with MS?


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