5 ms·

What are you referring to peiple accepting? That polio has no cure, or that we we don't know how to cure paralysis due to nerve and motor neuron destruction? T

What are you referring to peiple accepting? That polio has no cure, or that we we don't know how to cure paralysis due to nerve and motor neuron destruction? The former I think people accept because if we can eradicate it through vaccination then it's a problem solved, so we are working towards that. The latter I don't think anyone actually accepts, it's just a hard problem and progress is slow.

DoreenMichele 3y ago
You tend to hear mostly about research into repairing nerves damaged due to injury. It seems to me that a broken neck would be a harder thing to fix than neurons impaired by infection. It seems likely to me that if you can identify the nutrients depleted by the infection and also actually clear the infection from the body, this should be relatively easy to repair compared to something like a broken neck. I did a quick search ("are there any organizations working specifically on polio paralysis" on Bing) and most hits are about the news currently under discussion, not about research into treating the paralysis. I did find this page on The Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation site: https://www.christopherreeve.org/todays-care/living-with-paralysis/health/causes-of-paralysis/post-polio-syndrome-poliomyelitis/ https://www.christopherreeve.org/todays-care/living-with-par... They indicate there are a lot of studies on Post Polio Syndrome, which is not per se research into treating paralysis. Some stats from the page: Over 12 million people, worldwide have been affected by polio as indicated by the CDC. There is no central system for reporting post-polio syndrome, but it is estimated that 300,000 individuals are survivors of polio in the United States and have mild to severe symptoms. Of the 300,000 survivors of polio, it is estimated that of one fourth to one half may develop some form of post-polio symptoms.
- dralley 3y ago
  > It seems to me that a broken neck would be a harder thing to fix than neurons impaired by infection. Does it? We're still unable to cure MS, just slow or stall the progression of it.
  - DoreenMichele 3y ago
    Yes, it seems to me that way. AKA personal opinion.
    - fastball 3y ago
      I think your intuition is probably a bit backwards in this case. Viruses (especially ones like Polio) wreak havoc. A broken neck is mostly "superficial", in that the connection is severed but the underlying structures can be mostly undamaged. Polio is destroying motor neurons throughout the CNS, including the brain (which in general is always going to be the hardest organ on which to perform any interventions). But even when a virus is not targeting the CNS, generally they have the ability to do a lot more lasting damage than blunt force trauma, as a virus can cause DNA mutations / changes at a sub-cellular level, which you will not see from BFT. Compare it to a skin issue. Which is more difficult to treat: a large blister caused by touching the hot stove, or a blister caused by herpes?
      - DoreenMichele 3y ago
        I live with a serious genetic disorder and deal a lot with illness. I've pursued a lot of alternative remedies to cope with a condition Western medicine can't fix. In my experience, viral infections aren't that hard to treat and I no longer get fever blisters (which happen to be caused by herpes, coincidentally). There are lots of natural antivirals out there and this was common knowledge on an email list I once frequented which no longer exists. I list it as my personal opinion not to say that it's merely a wild-assed guess based on nothing in particular but to say that you aren't going to change my mind and I don't have any sources to cite and don't wish to get into an argument over it.
        shiroiuma 3y ago
        Herpes is a normally-dormant virus that, when it flares up, causes those annoying blisters, until it goes dormant again. Tons of people have this problem, it's extremely common (this virus causes cold sores, canker sores, etc. Probably most of the population has this virus.). So sure, if you can find some kind of antiviral that suppresses or kills the virus, you can avoid those blisters. And luckily, the effects of herpes simplex are almost always minor and temporary in nature, not life-changing. What we're talking about here with polio isn't suppressing or eliminating a virus, we're talking about fixing damage caused by a viral infection to the CNS. At this point, the polio virus isn't even a problem: people who recover from it don't have the virus anymore, they're just stuck with the damage it's caused, much like people today with "long Covid". This isn't something that's going to be easy to fix.

DoreenMichele 3y ago

You tend to hear mostly about research into repairing nerves damaged due to injury. It seems to me that a broken neck would be a harder thing to fix than neurons impaired by infection. It seems likely to me that if you can identify the nutrients depleted by the infection and also actually clear the infection from the body, this should be relatively easy to repair compared to something like a broken neck. I did a quick search ("are there any organizations working specifically on polio paralysis" on Bing) and most hits are about the news currently under discussion, not about research into treating the paralysis. I did find this page on The Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation site: https://www.christopherreeve.org/todays-care/living-with-paralysis/health/causes-of-paralysis/post-polio-syndrome-poliomyelitis/ https://www.christopherreeve.org/todays-care/living-with-par... They indicate there are a lot of studies on Post Polio Syndrome, which is not per se research into treating paralysis. Some stats from the page: Over 12 million people, worldwide have been affected by polio as indicated by the CDC. There is no central system for reporting post-polio syndrome, but it is estimated that 300,000 individuals are survivors of polio in the United States and have mild to severe symptoms. Of the 300,000 survivors of polio, it is estimated that of one fourth to one half may develop some form of post-polio symptoms.

dralley 3y ago
> It seems to me that a broken neck would be a harder thing to fix than neurons impaired by infection. Does it? We're still unable to cure MS, just slow or stall the progression of it.
- DoreenMichele 3y ago
  Yes, it seems to me that way. AKA personal opinion.
  - fastball 3y ago
    I think your intuition is probably a bit backwards in this case. Viruses (especially ones like Polio) wreak havoc. A broken neck is mostly "superficial", in that the connection is severed but the underlying structures can be mostly undamaged. Polio is destroying motor neurons throughout the CNS, including the brain (which in general is always going to be the hardest organ on which to perform any interventions). But even when a virus is not targeting the CNS, generally they have the ability to do a lot more lasting damage than blunt force trauma, as a virus can cause DNA mutations / changes at a sub-cellular level, which you will not see from BFT. Compare it to a skin issue. Which is more difficult to treat: a large blister caused by touching the hot stove, or a blister caused by herpes?
    - DoreenMichele 3y ago
      I live with a serious genetic disorder and deal a lot with illness. I've pursued a lot of alternative remedies to cope with a condition Western medicine can't fix. In my experience, viral infections aren't that hard to treat and I no longer get fever blisters (which happen to be caused by herpes, coincidentally). There are lots of natural antivirals out there and this was common knowledge on an email list I once frequented which no longer exists. I list it as my personal opinion not to say that it's merely a wild-assed guess based on nothing in particular but to say that you aren't going to change my mind and I don't have any sources to cite and don't wish to get into an argument over it.
      - shiroiuma 3y ago
        Herpes is a normally-dormant virus that, when it flares up, causes those annoying blisters, until it goes dormant again. Tons of people have this problem, it's extremely common (this virus causes cold sores, canker sores, etc. Probably most of the population has this virus.). So sure, if you can find some kind of antiviral that suppresses or kills the virus, you can avoid those blisters. And luckily, the effects of herpes simplex are almost always minor and temporary in nature, not life-changing. What we're talking about here with polio isn't suppressing or eliminating a virus, we're talking about fixing damage caused by a viral infection to the CNS. At this point, the polio virus isn't even a problem: people who recover from it don't have the virus anymore, they're just stuck with the damage it's caused, much like people today with "long Covid". This isn't something that's going to be easy to fix.