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How do steroids help ms patients? |
| Steroids decrease the inflammation which causes the damage in MS. They reduce swelling around the lesions and may kill some white blood cells. (N.B., these are glucocorticoid steroids, not androgens or estrogens.) They also increase energy for a while, and make hospital food taste fine. Unfortunately, they seem to be effective only for short periods. Then the immune system escapes and starts causing damage again. Prolonged use of steroids will cause many serious side effects. This is why we do not use long-term high dose steroids to treat MS. |
- Dr. Anthony Reder
University of Chicago
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