A new study is casting doubt on a medical treatment that many people with MS had hoped would help them.

Despite the new findings, however, those who have had the treatment say it works.

Diane Gordon of Barrie is doing things she never thought she would be able to do again after she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

Just three years ago, Gordon spent $10,000 on what's called liberation therapy. That's where the veins in the neck are opened with a tiny balloon allowing blood to flow. Gordon says it saved her life.

“It’s been a life gainer, because I had no life before this,” she says.

But the study, funded by the MS Society of Canada and led by a University of British Columbia professor suggests the therapy may not be effective after all. It shows the narrowing of the veins leading from the brain to the heart, a condition called CCSVI, is just as prevalent in patients with MS as in people without it.

About 60,000 people in Canada have MS.

Dr. Sandy McDonald is a vascular surgeon in Barrie. He says the study does not clarify if the procedure has any benefit to people with MS. He also says the study used older methods of testing.

“If this is going to be a landmark study then we should be using the latest tools available and the most sensitive tools available,” he says. “And at this point that's not my impression.”

Steve Garvie was the second person in Canada to have the procedure done. At one point he had five personal support workers taking care of him. Today, he is back behind the wheel and even walking.

“How about talking to the thousands of people I have that have had the procedure and are better. How about that?” Garvie says.

Dr. McDonald says he can't argue with those patients who insist they are better because of the surgery but thinks more testing is needed. As for Gordon and Garvie, they both say they have their lives back because of the procedure.