11/2/10 Some Math and a New Hypothesis

Quick Question: which will flow more water in a common household plumbing line, a single 3/4 inch pipe or two half inch pipes? The answer often surprises people; it's the 3/4 inch pipe. This is possible because of the reduced friction in the larger pipe vis the two smaller ones, but also by the simple math we use to calculate the area of a circle. Recall that the area is PI times the radius squared. Thus, a 3/4 inch pipe is .441 sq inches, while two half inch pipes is about .392 sq inches. The 3/4 inch line is about 10% more than the two smaller pipes.

So how does this pertain to CCSVI and vein narrowing? The human jugular veins and Azygos vein are major return lines to our circulatory system. These veins are usually around 10-12mm in most people, or let's say an average of 11mm. Assume each of these veins is narrowed or blocked at one point, as we're seeing in CCSVI exams like mine, down to 8 mm. One might think that's not too much, only a 3 mm reduction, or just under 30%. But not so fast. Use the same formula for calculating the area. An 11 mm vein should have a cross section area of 95 sq mm, while an 8 mm narrowing/choke point drops that area down to about 50 sq mm, an almost 50% reduction. Narrow the vein to 7 mm and it's 38 sq mm, almost 2.5 times less than the 11mm vein.

Now combine the three. Two Jugulars and an Azygos all narrowed by a few millimeters means a significant reduction in blood flow, perhaps as much as 50-80% in these important veins. I'd suspect some MS patients are even more blocked. I really am having a difficult time understanding how the medical community has missed this for all this time.

I'm not a doctor, but the drain line in our sink clogged up today and my contractor mind kicked in. Open the drain line and the sink operates properly. Obsessed with blood flow these days, I couldn't help but think how utterly simple the repair for an MS patient is. Open the veins and let the blood flow, allowing the body to work freely. Come on, really? Is it really that easy?

Thinking about this simple formula and the fact that my legs improve daily to the point where I am almost ready to book a ski vacation, it dawned on me today that MS is not a disease at all. It's a condition, not unlike a broken leg. A thousand years ago I'd be flogged for such a contrarian thought, but we live in more civil times and I get to throw my thoughts out there for discussion and possible ridicule.

If blood restriction leads to venous back pressure and thus in turn leads to perfectly symmetrical lesions surrounding veins causing damage to the myelin sheath, you have a condition, or an affliction, not a disease. If a person wraps a tourniquet around their neck and dies of cardiac arrest, they didn't die from heart disease; they died from the restriction of air flow which led to the heart attack. Under this obviously loose hypothesis, the MS patient isn't suffering from an incurable disease, simply because MS isn't a disease. Rather, the MS patient suffers from an affliction of somehow malformed veins, possibly from a vitamin D deficiency since birth, which led to the neurological problems that have vexed us all for years. Repair those choked veins, and the affliction goes away.

Blasphemy you say? Aren't severely disabled MS patients who don't leap off the table after a CCSVI still diseased? I don't think so. I think they have several months of rehabilitation ahead of them (as I do) to recover from severe atrophy and other neurological damage, but when the affliction goes away, the neurological condition becomes muscular and the healing can take place, the patient can recover. I'll bet anyone suffering from MS would be willing to hit the pool or the gym as able to recover once they know they can recover. All they need is to know that they are improving, not worsening.

I am convinced that CCSVI is not a cure for MS. I am equally convinced it is a release of a condition leading to the disability that will allow healing of MS patients. I started this blog a couple of years ago with a belief that diet and exercise would do better than any MS medication in dealing with this "disease". I think I was half right. Because good diet and a lot of body movement promotes blood flow, it's no surprise that I was holding my own pretty well. But I was also fighting a difficult, possibly impossible battle and I needed something more. I knew somehow I didn't need drugs. I'm not an anti-drug person, but it just didn't make sense that any drug would help with MS when I never believed MS was a disease of the immune system attacking itself. "More" seems to be the opening of my veins to allow 50 to 75% more blood to flow, promoting the healing of this horrible condition.

I have a long road ahead to fully recover. My legs are still a little weak, I still don't have the bladder control of a normal person, and I still have some other issues to deal with. I know other people who have had the CCSVI surgery have other challenges to overcome, especially those who have become less and less mobile. But I'm willing to work at it and do whatever I need to. To anyone and everyone who has had a CCSVI procedure done or is considering it, I offer that the surgery should e treated like the repair of a broken leg or arm. The surgery itself and the medications don't do the healing. They simply allow the healing. Diet and exercise will do the rest, as the blood will flow even more.

Back to the pool tomorrow and the juice and enzymes continue.