Recently, one study has assessed the thermoregulatory center and its impact on multiple sclerosis (3). In this study of a single subject with a history of multiple sclerosis and thermoregulatory dysfunction, temperature thresholds were calculated as the core temperature was slowly warmed to sweating and again as the core temperature was gradually cooled to vasoconstriction and shivering. It was found that the sweating threshold was a full 1°C higher than normal and the vasoconstriction threshold was 2°C below normal, making the calculated sweating-to-vasoconstriction range four times the normal amount. The shivering threshold was also lower than normal (31.8°C), making the vasoconstriction-to-shivering range more than twice the normal amount. Providing such information may sound academic and simplistic; however, this may be an important point to those with multiple sclerosis, altering them to the extent of dysfunction, and to others like caretakers and insurance companies, alerting them to the hazards of increased body temperature and the need for cooling devices.
Since we talk about an improvement in the ability to sweat as one of the outcomes of the CCSVI procedure, it is good to establish that a deficiency in sweating is characteristic of MS. This study showed that the sweating threshold in people with MS is a full degree higher than in the healthy controls.