http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/spotlight/2001-09-21-sandler-ms.htm
09/21/2001 - Updated 03:01 PM ET
By Adele Slaughter, Spotlight Health
With medical adviser Stephen A.
Shoop, M.D.
Perhaps the last thing you expect from funnyman Adam Sandler is a serious side. But when it comes to Multiple Sclerosis (MS), he's learned the importance of being earnest.
Over the past five years Sandler has watched his 24-year-old cousin Jana Sandler cope with MS — a chronic, often disabling disease that attacks the central nervous system.
"My cousin and our family feel very optimistic about a major breakthrough being found in the next few years," says Sandler. "Jana tells me there are breakthroughs happening all the time."
And the Sandler family is doing what they can to help the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS) that supports research and programs for individuals who suffer from this chronic disease.
Sandler was joined last week by such superstars as Kevin Spacey, Warren Beatty, Annette Bening, Bill Pullman, Lin Shaye, David Hasselhoff, Young & the Restless star Don Diamont, and over 1,500 others who attended the 27th Annual Dinner of Champions in Los Angeles. The event honored Fox Filmed Entertainment Chairman Jim Gianopulous for his help in the fight against MS.
"Tonight's event is a wonderful opportunity to do whatever you can do to beat this disease," says Gianopulous, "because there is hope for a cure and there are new treatments being discovered every day."
The event raised over $3.25 million and allows the NMSS to spend more money on MS research than any other voluntary health organization in the world.
MS basics
In the United States, at least 350,000
people suffer from MS. Although people of all ages can become afflicted
with the disease, young people — particularly women who grew up in northern
latitudes — are especially susceptible.
Multiple sclerosis is one of the
most common diseases of the central nervous system. In a process called
demyelination, cells and proteins that usually defend the body instead
attack the myelin sheath protecting nerves in the brain and spinal cord.
"We now believe that MS not only
attacks the myelin, but there's also an attack on the nerve fiber, the
axon of the nerve," says Dr. Norman Kachuck, director of the MS Comprehensive
Care Center of the Keck USC School of Medicine. "When the axon dies you
end up with disability that is permanent. That axon may die because it
no longer has the myelin sheath to protect it or might die as a result
of being attacked."
What actually causes the immune system
to destroy the central nervous system is a mystery. A viral infection in
conjunction with an inherited genetic predisposition is the primary suspect.
"A person's immune response with
MS looks like someone fighting a virus," says Kachuck. "We haven't found
a virus though."
The impaired transmission of nerve
impulses to muscles and other organs and can cause a variety of symptoms::
"Jana doesn't talk about her MS that
much," says Sandler. "We even forget she has a disease. On occasion she
has a tough time walking because her balance is off. Sometimes we're all
screwing around and she has a difficult time keeping up and that really
upsets her."
Since there is no laboratory test,
symptom, or physical finding that positively affirms a person has MS —
doctors rely on a variety of indicators:
"Later, at 19, I was visiting Adam
and at the airport I got really bad vertigo so once back at school I saw
an ENT doctor because I figured it was my allergies — by now I had complete
double vision. He put me on 5 milligrams a day of prednisone and everything
went away."
But not for long.
"As soon as he took me off the prednisone,
everything came back — worse — my hand was tingly and numb," recalls Jana.
"They told me it was either lupus, Lyme disease, or MS. The only person
I knew with MS had the worse possible kind. She was confined to a wheelchair
and couldn't feed herself. So, I was praying for Lyme disease."
A specialist in New York confirmed
the diagnosis that Jana indeed had MS. Fortunately, she had the least severe
form of the disease called relapsing-remitting MS.
MS ABCs
Three drugs, known as the ABCs, have
been approved by the FDA for MS patients, says Kachuck. Avonex and Betaserone
are based on the drug interferon, while Copaxone works in a different way.
Avonex is the most popular, but Copaxone is gaining the most new users.
Avonex is an intramuscular injection
that Jana says she takes twice a week now.
"I haven't tried Copaxone yet because
I'm doing well with the Avonex," says Jana. "It definitely makes the episodes
less severe and less frequent. The shots aren't so bad anymore because
I've gotten used to it. Still, it's a hassle, and the anticipation doesn't
get any easier, because it is an inch-long needle."
But there is growing hope that needles
will soon be replaced by oral medications — a development many MS sufferers
would welcome.
"I would do anything for a pill,"
Jana jokes.
"The medicines we have are imperfect
therapies," says Kachuck. "Most patients stabilize, they don't improve.
The next step is going to be making them better."
According to Kachuck the next phase
in treating MS patients is "add-on therapies," or supplemental medications
that boost the effectiveness of a patient's primary treatment. The most
popular add-on is a steroid called methylprednisolone (SoluMedrol).
"There is some evidence that methylprednisolone
may improve control of the disease," says Kachuck. "It is a potent anti-inflammatory
medicine, which alters the immune system and shuts down the blood brain
barrier to further transport immune cells into the central nervous system."
"I just finished up a three-day IV
steroid treatment," says Jana. "I took 1,000 milligrams a day of SoluMedrol,
which is basically like prednisone, only harsher. It's such a high dosage
that it kind of puts your whole system into shock. But it's like a miracle
drug every time I do it."
And other miracles may be on the
horizon.
The USC MS Comprehensive Care Center
is testing the first MS vaccine, which is not meant to prevent MS, but
to neutralize the immune response. Kachuck predicts the vaccine will stop
the progressive nature of the disease.
Until a cure is found, Jana says
she finds inspiration in her more famous cousin.
"Every time I start to doubt what
I can do, I think of Adam. He's done everything he's ever wanted to do
in life," says Jana.
"My family is very close and this
has made us even closer. We spend a lot of time together and we're all
pulling for her," says Adam. "It's good for her and good for us to all
deal with it together. I know I take fewer things for granted now."
"I have been a little selfish and
I'm sure I'll continue to be, but less so, because I see Jana having to
deal with something out of her control. It makes me appreciate my health
a lot more."
© Copyright 2001 USA TODAY
These not only vary from person to person
but also can be different on any given day for each individual.
"When I was a senior in high school
both my feet went numb," recalls Jana Sandler. "They wanted to do an MRI
and we said forget it. The numbness ended up going away."