This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Community: Knowledge & Support

My boyfriend has MS. I have had genital herpes for 17 yrs from oral sex. I have always been very conscious of my body and I've NEVER given this to anyone through the years. With that said... I am extremely scared of the chance of passing this to my boyfriend who has MS. Would this hurt him if that small chance was to happen to him. I love him and care for him a great deal and I would never want to do anything to cause him more harm than what he's facing. Could you please help me with this?

all i can suggest is making sure both your antiviral nutrients are topped up, and maintain your usual level of care not to transmit. zinc and selenium are key in the antiviral department. i have seen a study where they looked at HIV patients' serum selenium levels, and just tracked who lived and who died over time. the ones with high selenium status were the ones who survived. your boyfriend might do well with testing for the standard nutrients shown in research to be low in ms. doctors do not tend to bother with this established info so it's up to the patient. serum zinc, magnesium and 25(OH)vitamin d3 would be good, and you may as well suggest a serum selenium test, although it's not truly as useful a test compared to the first three. when they tell him everything's 'normal' just bring the results here and we'll help you figure out an action plan. depending on the symptoms, sometimes nutrients can really help. welcome to the forum and thanks for looking out for your man

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my approach: no meds so far - just balanced whole foods (partial 'paleo', much less outright elimination), science, supplements, & bloodwork
my regimen - www.thisisms.com/ftopict-2489.html
www.whfoods.com, www.nutritiondata.com

Thank you so much for you reply. I am very concerned since he is under the impression that having sex with me would kill him. I've never ran a crossed this and I've done a lot of research on MS. There is just a limited amount out there and it all pretty much says the same things. It has said that herpes virus is found to be connected to MS, but it doesn't tell anything about the effects if someone who has MS was to get it. I by no means would ever want to give it to him... but there is always a small chance. I've prided myself in always being up front about it before ever having sex and always taking extra precautions because I NEVER want to be responsible for inflicting this on someone else. I just don't know what to do to make him feel any better about it.. It's not like I have AID's.. it's just herpes that you get on your lip.. just ended up in another place. With it being over 17 yrs, I rarely have a flare up. God knows I'd never want to hurt him.. Can it kill him?

check this out. zinc kicks HSV-1's scrawny viral @$$. it's lowest in infected individuals in the acute phase, and zinc is also known to be low in ms patients. optimize your zinc and you both win. off to the lab with you

Comparative analysis of salivary zinc level in recurrent herpes labialis
Abstract.
"Background:
Recurrent Herpes Labialis (RHL) is one of most common infective vesiculoulcerative lesions. According to some studies administration of topical and/or systemic zinc compositions has been effective in treatment and prevention. This article aims to comparison of zinc level in healthy subjects and RHL patients in acute and convalescent phases.
Materials and Methods:
This was a retrospective case – control study, carried on 80 individuals (40 normal and 40 RHL patients) mean age=34.5 and 34.4, respectively. Saliva samples were taken in patients in acute phase once and after healing of lesions in convalescent phase (averagely 21 days later) and in normal individuals. Salivary zinc level concentration was measured by flame atomic absorption spectrophotometer by dry digestion method. The results were statistically analyzed with SPSS software by t-test (α=0.05).
Results:
Results showed that salivary zinc level in case group in acute and convalescent phases were 160.8 ngr/ml and 205.7 ngr/ml respectivly and significant differences between them were existed (P <0.05). Also significant differences were existed between zinc concentration in healthy subjects and patient groups (in both phases) (P=.001 and .002 for acute and convalescent phases respectively).
Conclusion:
According to the results, zinc level is significantly lower in acute phase than in convalescent phase and significantly lower in both phases compared to healthy individuals,so determination of serum zinc level and prescribing zinc complement in low serum status has both treatmental and preventive effects in RHL patients."

_________________
my approach: no meds so far - just balanced whole foods (partial 'paleo', much less outright elimination), science, supplements, & bloodwork
my regimen - www.thisisms.com/ftopict-2489.html
www.whfoods.com, www.nutritiondata.com

Do you know if you have Type I or type II herpes?

Either way, I don't think his catching the infection will make a lot of difference with his MS. Some 2/3rds of the population has the virus, one type or the other, and that includes MS patients. I am not aware of any study that shows MS patients with herpes are dropping any faster than those that don't.

if it's oral herpes tranferred to genital location, i think that means it's HSV-1 and not HSV-2. can you confirm, waiting?

_________________
my approach: no meds so far - just balanced whole foods (partial 'paleo', much less outright elimination), science, supplements, & bloodwork
my regimen - www.thisisms.com/ftopict-2489.html
www.whfoods.com, www.nutritiondata.com

FLJhawk I have type I, I got it from someone who was getting it on their lip and didn't tell me during oral sex. It sucks but I've learned to live with it and control it. I do not have bad outbreaks and they are rare. I've never given it to anyone because I had a wonderful doctor who helped me recognize the warning signs and how to know my body. Like I said I've had this for 17 yrs. it's never really been an issue until now and I've never passed it because I always obstane during an outbreak or if I feel like one might be coming. I know my body and I know all the signs ahead of time. I know all the statistics on herpes and how common it is.. I also know that most people have had sex at one time or another with someone that had it and they didn't even know it because they didn't tell them. I choose to be up front about it. I've nearly went blind trying to do research on this and ms. I've been up for 3 nights and there isn't anything on it causing problems with someone with MS after the fact.. only thing I've found is that there's a link to herpes causing it....

Jimmylegs... Thank you so much you have been such good help in my efforts to seek out a solution and I appreciate any information to help on my education on this topic.

hey there, waiting! you're welcome. if you go for a serum zinc test yourself, you can bring your results here too, if you like.

_________________
my approach: no meds so far - just balanced whole foods (partial 'paleo', much less outright elimination), science, supplements, & bloodwork
my regimen - www.thisisms.com/ftopict-2489.html
www.whfoods.com, www.nutritiondata.com

Does your BF ever suffer from cold sores? If so, and maybe even if not, he may have already been exposed to Type I and has nothing to worry about.

It is uncommon to pass Type 1 to the gentiles, but it obviously happens, but it less likely to for you to transmit it to his gentiles if you are indeed Type I.

FLJhawk,
Yes he does get them. That's the point I made to him, but he can't hear past genital herpes.. and yes it does transfer it's harder but lucky me it did.. (sigh) The good thing is that since it is type1 it's never bad and not often like it would be with type2

arg, sounds like he could increase intakes of magnesium and fish oil too. there's a whole list of good tests for PwMS, and a serum magnesium test is a good choice for sure. ms patients tend to be lower in magnesium, and low levels can lead to increased anxiety (among a few hundred other things).

_________________
my approach: no meds so far - just balanced whole foods (partial 'paleo', much less outright elimination), science, supplements, & bloodwork
my regimen - www.thisisms.com/ftopict-2489.html
www.whfoods.com, www.nutritiondata.com

The mechanism of the antiherpetic activity of zinc sulphate
http://vir.sgmjournals.org/content/71/12/2989.full.pdf
"We conclude that the molecular mechanism of the therapeutic effect of ZnSO₄, in the treatment of herpetic lesions is not due to a cytoinvasive intracellular inhibition of virus replication, but to the drastic inactivation of free virus in skin tissues, intercellular vesicles and blisters."

Zinc in the eye
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ar ... 5782901953
"Zinc supplements added to tissue cultures of kidney cells infected with HSV-1 block the formation of giant cells induced by the virus."

_________________
my approach: no meds so far - just balanced whole foods (partial 'paleo', much less outright elimination), science, supplements, & bloodwork
my regimen - www.thisisms.com/ftopict-2489.html
www.whfoods.com, www.nutritiondata.com

If he already has the virus, then he can't get it again! He has the antibodies for it. (As you know, outbreaks are a different matter - the virus comes out of hiding but, in this case, if he gets a new infection, the antibodies are there to kill it before it can re-infect gentile region.) I understand his concern, but it appears to be groundless if his cold sores are due to Type I HSV.

FJhawk, he feels like it is different since he gets it on his lip and get it down there... but it's not.. anyway.. I'm playing a waiting game until enough information has been collected. Right now I'm waiting on him to decide if he wants to continue seeing me or not.. and what his doctor has to say about it. God knows I don't want to do anything to make his life anymore hell... it's opposite.. I want to help him..