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Multiple Sclerosis is currently believed to be an auto-immune disease characterized by the loss of myelin coating nerves. Thus, the nerve impulses cannot travel down the axon . . . or they travel very weakly or slowly. Getting the myelin to "recoat" the nerve is the major thrust of current MS research.

Here are a couple of recent news tidbits in that area:

http://www.acceleratedcure.org:8080/node/1159

There is a clinical trial of a new drug underway:

http://www.msclinicaltrials.com/

AND here are 2 tidbits that kind of prove that the spinal cord is more than just a cable of axons or a pathway to the peripheral nerves. Several rehab centers have introduced "gait-training" in which low-level paraplegics are trained to "walk" by reawakening the "subconscious ability" of the spinal cord to coordinate the pattern needed for all the muscles involved in walking.

http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=13508675

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-178897822.html