Cannabis, experimental therapies and gene research offer hope to people with multiple sclerosis (MS), new studies show.
MS is an autoimmune disease that damages the brain and spinal cord and can be debilitating for roughly one in seven patients.
Many people with MS do not want their employers or friends to know about it so the disease is hidden.
But it was ranked 10th on Discovery Health's barometer of chronic disease claims in September 2009.
Harley Allkins, who has MS, said: "If you came across me, you would never know there was anything wrong with me from my physical appearance."
Madelein du Toit of the Multiple Sclerosis Society of SA described the latest research as very exciting.
"This is a disease where doctors mostly say: 'We don't know what is going to happen. You need to wait and see,'" said Du Toit.
MS is not infectious, and a mixture of environmental and genetic factors are believed to trigger it, said Dr Vinod Patel of the Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital in Durban.
MS is rare among black people - with only 12 reported black patients from South Africa and Zimbabwe with possible MS. According to research published in the SA Medical Journal, about 89% of MS sufferers are white.
The SAMJ research results came from a study of 430 patients, 73% female and 71% aged between 30 and 59.
MS therapies include disease-modifying drugs and/or drugs to treat the symptoms, said Patel.
Patients usually get interferons - drugs used to "modify" the disease - through intramuscular injections, and South Africans are now participating in a global trial for a tablet form of interferon.
New studies suggest that expanding the standard treatment with another drug (Lancet journal this month), and using "cannabis for a reduction in spasticity and an improvement in mobility" (BMC Neurology December 2009) are beneficial.
Source: Times Live
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