Subject: Re: heat

From: LaVonne Murphy <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 23 Aug 1997 21:50:00 -0700

Hi Gang

There is a newer article with newer study results and where to call to
get info on the cooling suits of different sorts and prices in the
newest issue of MS Quarterly.  Bet you can't guess what I read today
when I was pooping around in the heat of tha day and avoiding moving a
lot.  Anyhow, you can get it from any NMSS office and get a subscription
from Demos Vermande.  (I have put their info up here countless times
before.)

         L
David G. Baker wrote:
> 
> Maintaining your early morning body temperature (lowest of the day)
> and preventing the normal daily increase by taking cool showers, using
> wet towels or air conditioning will make you feel better.  But,
> lowering your temperature 1-2 degrees will make you feel even better.
> 
> The phenomena - that small changes in temperature produce dramtic
> changes in symptoms - derives from the fact that symptoms emerge from
> comples nerves composed of large populations of axons with all degrees
> of demyelination, some partially demyelinated while others totally so.
> 
> As your body temperature rises as it does in the afternoon or with
> exercise, there is a conduction blockade of an increasing proportion of
> the nerve fibers; signs and symptoms worsen or silent one appear for the
> first time.  Fortunately, as temperature falls, conduction is restored in
> an increasing proportion and symptoms improve or disappear once again.
> 
> The exact electrophysiological mechanism may be a bit more complicated
> (than just short-circuited depolaring currents).  However, it has been
> worked out in great detail in several laboratories during the early 70s
> (including that lab. of F. Davis, MD), and work continues today.
> 
> It is interesting that uncovering of the underlying
> physiological mechanisms was instrumental in stimulating the discovery of
> a family of drugs that have a similar beneficial effect, the potassium
> channel drugs like 4-AP, soon to be big business, if approved by the
> FDA.
> 
> The idea that you must decrease your body temperature 1-2 degrees to
> obtain the full impact is an important one, recognized in 1959 by
> C. Wesley Watson, MD in an excellent article in New England J. of Med.
> (261:1353-1359, 1959).  (This is a classic paper that should be taken
> to your neurologist).  By decreasing your temperature, you not only
> prevent conduction block of those nerve fibers sensitive to any
> increase in temperature but also restore conduction in those blocked
> at normal temperature and still sensitive to small decreases.
> 
> Sorry, if I get going on this subject;  But I feel strongly that "cooling"
> is still not well understood nor is it utilized by all.
> 
> Best, db

-- 
Loftus's Law
Some people manage by the book, even though they don't
know who wrote the book or even what book.