REGINA – “I still remember the exact moment when I first noticed it. Every time I put my head down, I’d get a sensation of electricity zinging down my spine,” recalled Nicole Tiller, a Regina wife and mother of two.
She was diagnosed with MS in 2012, following years of fatigue and earlier diagnoses of low blood sugar and hypo-thyroid.
Canada has the highest rate of MS in the world.
“You have a higher risk of getting MS in our country than you do in any other country,” explained Erin Kuan, MS Society Saskatchewan division president.
What’s more, is women are affected at a rate three times that of men.
Whatever causes the disease, the symptoms can come on suddenly:
“You just never know when you’re going to have an attack, how bad it’s going to be, what kind of attack it’s going to be,” said Tiller.
Currently, there are a number of treatments for relapsing and remitting forms of MS, but not progressive MS.
New research might change that – earlier this year, clinical trials of stem cell therapy were announced. Therapeutic cells will be taken from the patient’s bone marrow, grown in a special lab and then put back inside their bodies in much greater numbers.
The hope is it will halt the damage the disease does to the central nervous system.
“I see an acceleration happening, both in Canada and internationally that really excites me. I believe in my lifetime, we’re going to see a cure. It just can’t come soon enough,” said Kuan.
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