A recent study on ascorbic acid shed more light on its potential for treatment in children and researchers remain hopeful that ascorbic acid could be beneficial to children with mild CMT. 

In a stunning announcement, researchers announced that a promising therapy developed at UC Irvine that made paralyzed rats walk again will become the world's first embryonic stem cell treatment tested in humans. Immediately after the announcement, scores of people with CMT chimed in on various CMT forums and expressed their excitement that stem cell treatments are now in the pipeline that could ultimately help people with Charcot Marie Tooth.

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have made an interesting discovery that could one day lead to therapeutic strategies for neurological diseases characterized by axonal loss, such as Charcot Marie Tooth disease.
 
Researchers at the Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan, have discovered that use of anticonvulsant drugs may help alleviate the pain associated with neuromuscular diseases, including CMT.

Recently, while perusing the CMTUS Forums on Yahoo, HNF came across a flurry of email posts from a 33-year-old New Jersey man named Andy Garval, with a severe case of Charcot Marie Tooth disease, who bemoaned his doctor’s lack of care and wondered, “Is this as good as it gets?” He wrote about his frustrations in terms of getting responsive medical treatment and his feeling of being “at the end of his rope.” We decided to talk to him directly about his experiences, as we think many of you will relate to his frustrations and concerns.

Exercise has always made me feel queasy. I’d watch people doing contortions on floor mats and know that just wasn’t for me. I knew that once I got down on the floor I’d never get up again without a lot of help. But you can exercise with CMT.

The Helios braces made for me in Vegas by Mitch Warner (I have CMT) gave me a whopping blast of confidence, they gave me a saucy superior, star-size eagerness. What a great way to begin the New Year. 

If you’re extremely fatigued after a mild workout, it just might be that your CMT is to blame rather than your exercise routine. Published in Nature Advance, the study identifies a faulty signaling pathway that appears to cause exercise-induced fatigue in mouse models of muscular dystrophy. Strangely enough, the study shows that the erectile dysfunction drug, Viagra, can overcome the signaling defect and relieve the fatigue by increasing blood flow to the muscles.

Recently, HNF teamed up with a group of experts to create the Helios Brace Performance and Production Study. The premise of the study is that the Helios, a revolutionary ankle-foot orthotic bracing system that can store and release energy, can help to compensate for neuropathic impairment in the lower extremities of CMT patients and improve their gait. The main goal is to improve mobility for people with CMT.

There’s been a lot of chatter on Yahoo’s popular CMTUS chat group lately about a pain-relief technique called “Intramuscular Stimulation” or IMS, developed in the ‘70s by Dr. C.C. Gunn, a pioneer in the treatment of pain and president of the Institute for the Study and Treatment of Pain in Vancouver, Canada.  In Gunn’s words, Gunn IMS is a “safe and effective technique” using needles for treating 'the shortened muscle syndrome.'  Since the discovery, doctors from the US to Europe have been applying the therapy to treat everything from low-back and knee pain to myofacial or soft-tissue pain. For CMT patients, the treatment offers relief for a host of painful symptoms.

If someone told you that you could increase your likelihood of maintaining independence by 41 percent by participating in a simple walking program, would you do it? For older adults with CMT who are able to walk without pain or difficulty, there is mounting evidence that a walking...