How does oxygen help multiple sclerosis patients?
Multiple sclerosis is a disease in which there are multiple areas of leakage from the blood vessels in the brain and spinal cord causing symptoms. Treatment should be instituted when the first area is affected, but this is not yet an objective in neurology. Vessels in the nervous system are engineered to form a barrier – the blood-brain barrier – to prevent the leakage of large molecules such as proteins because their escape causes inflammation. The blood vessels involved in MS are actually veins and the leakage causes inflammation in the surrounding area. This is usually in the white matter, which contains vulnerable cells, which form the myelin sheaths. As the damage, progresses the sheaths are removed and the fibers are destroyed causing disability. Further progression is characterized by loss of the structure of the tissue and healing by scarring – known as sclerosis. Once the sclerosis has formed, recovery of the normal architecture is not possible. The key to the successful manag
