Down the MS Research Rabbit Hole

Here in the annals of Life With Multiple Sclerosis, I search for answers and reasons for our (yours and my) experiences with the disease, and while a good bit of my personal thoughts may come through in these columns, I try to base the topics covered and the writing about them in research and fact.

Sites like the National Library of Medicine from the National Institutes of Health, the Multiple Sclerosis Journal, and The Lancet Neurology are often my starting points when I begin researching a topic related to multiple sclerosis (MS).

However, my attempts to back up opinions and musings with data have on many occasions left my head spinning as I go from one study to the next. Sometimes I forget what I was trying to find out in the first place!

The recent publication of research on Alzheimer’s disease as it may relate to multiple sclerosis was the impetus of this particular bout of internet digging. It brought to mind earlier research suggesting that genetic variants that increase the risk of MS protected ancient humans from some animal-borne pathogens.

And, well, off I went.

It Doesn’t Take Much to Get Lost

It’s probably important to point out that I was nearing the end of a week in a nursing home following a week postoperative in the hospital. I was trying to find something to keep my mind occupied between institutionally scheduled meals, snacks, medications, and physiotherapy. A bit of internet searching was just the thing — until it wasn’t.

Very early on in the writing of this column, I mentioned that the internet is a wealth of information and knowledge. It can also be a scary place.

I ended up reading well-researched papers on balanced polymorphism, autism spectrum disorder, amyloid clearance, and blood-type disorders. I was well down the research rabbit hole with nothing to save me but the 2 p.m. tea trolley.

Thank goodness for a cuppa and a bourbon cream biscuit!

By the time I was thankfully interrupted, I was to the point of likening MS to sickle cell disease in my head, and I felt there was no stopping the spiral.

As I gleaned from reading far too many social media posts, I wasn’t the only one balanced on a precipice between a mountain of research and chasm of conspiracy theory. I fear that many of those whose posts I was reading had long since leapt off the cliff.

How We Ask the Question Can Determine the Answer

When I stopped long enough to come up for air, I came to a simple conclusion to a difficult question.

There are answers to all of our questions if we ask them a certain way. Asking a biased question is going to result in biased answers, so if we go looking for links, by god the internet will help us find them, real or otherwise.

When we go looking for answers — about MS or about anything, really — we should ask our questions plainly and seek out the plainest answers. Occam’s razor (the philosophy that the simplest explanation is often the correct one) isn’t always the solution, but it’s usually the sharpest tool in an amateur researcher’s kit.

Wishing you and your family the best of health.

Cheers,

Trevis