A treatment that some claim can help combat multiple sclerosis is taking fire from the Food and Drug Administration because they say a correlation cannot be established that would prove the treatment’s efficacy.
Under scrutiny is a form of treatment known as liberation therapy. This type of treatment involves using stents or balloon angioplasty devices to open up veins in the neck and chest that have otherwise been narrowed in persons suffering from what’s known as CCSI, or chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency.
How would this help multiple sclerosis? Well, there are those out there who say that, because narrowed veins prevent the proper drainage of blood from the spinal cord or brain, the condition could actually contribute to or directly cause multiple sclerosis.
But the FDA disagrees, saying that there has been no link established between the two maladies. According to officials, there haven’t been any clinical trials that have been able to prove any kind of tie between MS and CCSI. In fact, they go so far as to say that the liberation therapy treatment could potentially harm the patient. There have been reports of stroke, abdominal bleeding, and even death among people who have undergone this liberation therapy.
The FDA is instead encouraging those affected with MS to speak with a physician to discuss alternative methods of treatment for their disease.