The subject of multiple sclerosis has personal significance for me. My father left my mother and me when I was a toddler. He had the misfortune of being a gay man at a time when gay men were expected to shut the hell up and get married like "normal" guys. I didn't meet him until I was a teenager - by which time he had come down with multiple sclerosis, which took an awful toll on his body. He died about five years ago of heart failure, after struggling against the ailment for over two decades.
Now, there's a ray of hope on the horizon - and we have pregnant moms to thank for it. A study printed in the Journal of Neuroscience reports that the milk production-boosting hormone prolactin may be responsible for causing remission of the disease in pregnant women. If the study holds up, human trials of MS treatments involving prolactin could start within five years.
So thanks, mamas, for kicking biological ass yet again. If he could, I'm sure my dad would thank you.
