Index to "WHERE ANGELS FEAR TO TREAD"

| INDEX | TWO | THREE | FOUR | FIVE | SIX | SEVEN | EIGHT |

| WAFTT index | TOP | Home | amateur glossary |

More on the autonomic system (bits of this are quoted).
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~lindafrd/page12.html

Where Angels Fear to Tread (WAFTT) 7



It's spring! I'm using the air conditioning in Mum's little car. I've found out (with Betty's help) maybe why.



A team from Adelaide Uni have been doing some work on heating and MS. Many of us say that MS symptoms are worse after a hot shower, or on a hot day. [OK, I know, the Queenslanders, one of them, say the opposite. But mostly we say it's worse in the heat.] There's plenty of anecdotal evidence about that.

We can change the way that we live. Try, somehow, to keep our cool. To understand what is going on though, the scientists need to work hard. And understanding helps us. It helps the medical profession and, maybe could lead to political changes too. [PwMS has been pushing for tax deductions for air conditioners, for example.]

Back to Adelaide. 20 people with MS and 20 people without MS had their body temperature raised by one degree. (Centigrade) The people with MS heated faster than the 'controls' and they had reduced sweating, especially in the lower leg, during heating.

This study was supported by a research grant of $20,000 from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. All of the other research projects carried out with the help of these grants (last year) were about myelin and autoimmunity. [One was on the break down of the blood-brain barrier; is that about immunity?] Are MS Societies mesmerised by demyelination and auto-immunity? [I've asked that question before. Now I'm also hearing it on the Internet and at public lectures at JCSMR even...]

This work is being done by Drs. Tonkin, Hallpike, Waddy and Faunt in the Department of Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology. It is on "Thermoregulation and autonomic dysfunction in multiple sclerosis."  Dr A J McDougall at the University of Sydney is also studying "Autonomic Function in MS." [I wonder if he is working with Professor Jim McLeod who is also interested in the autonomic system and is in Sydney.]

And, well you may ask "what is it that I am talking about? Is it a spelling mistake?" The word is AUTONOMIC.



It comes from the Greek; auto meaning self and nomos meaning law. It's a law unto itself. It keeps your heart pumping, your lungs breathing and your body sweating. It regulates your responses to temperature; your thermoregulation. It makes sure that you go to the toilet, that you sleep and that you wake up. Unless we do yoga, we don't usually try to change these things, they just happen.

There are two parts to the autonomic system, like breathing out, and breathing in, or sleeping and waking; two sides of a coin. One is called the Sympathetic system and the other (parallel to it) is the parasympathetic.



The Sympathetic system is what wakes us up, and especially what operates when a lion comes around the corner. It's your get-up-and-go, and especially, your "fight or flight" responses.



Bladder and bowels and sleep and rest are more under the control of the other part of the autonomic system; called the parasympathetic.

Getting particularly technical, we can say which neurotransmitters are involved with these systems. Adrenaline (yes, it can be a neurotransmitter), Noradrenaline and Serotonin are the important neurotransmitters in the Sympathetic System. [All three might be called something else in different literature. Adrenaline is a copyright (?) word in USA, so it's called epinephrine. Then there's also norepinephrine (noradrenaline). Serotonin is also known as 5HT.



Another way to tackle this is for to be really personal and to talk about my own reaction to a "sympathomimetic" drug. This was a drug which enhanced my own sympathetic system. I knew that some things were not quite right, but as my body changed, I started to "add things up" and as I found out about the sympathetic system these things really made sense.



The drug is an anti-depressant, and its effects are supposed to take some weeks to show themselves. But that is the effects against depression, not the physical effects.



The morning after taking my first dose, I wanted to get up. It was a totally new feeling. Never before had I wanted to get up.



Thirst, hunger, decision making, pupil size, all changed. I was warmer in bed and bladder problems improved. Best of all, when a door slammed, I jumped. My adrenaline is back. I had lost it eight years before. It is very good to have this friend back! I really missed it.



Disclaimer: The writer of this column., [Linda Anchell] has neither medical nor scientific training. I do have enough boldness to use Uni libraries and question the way we think about things.



MS affects us in many different ways. For me a particular medication hit a particular deficiency right on the head (or the nail). But I still think that there is a more general question to ask here. Fatigue and the effects of heat and bladder problems are commonly associated with MS. This is autonomic stuff. Let's say it and ask people like the Adelaide and Sydney groups to keep on keeping on. Who knows where it might lead?

"Correspondence will be entered into. Email me at lindafrdATpcug.org.au replacing AT with @

| INDEX | TWO | THREE | FOUR | FIVE | SIX | SEVEN | EIGHT |

| WAFTT index | TOP | Home | amateur glossary |

More on the autonomic system (bits of this are quoted).
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~lindafrd/page12.html