This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Community: Knowledge & Support

I'm going to step out on a limb here and ask a silly question. We all think about MS and its possible causes a lot, I presume. My question:

What has entered your mind as a possible cause or factor that seems too crazy to mention?

I can give two. (remember, I'm stepping out on a limb, here)

1. Childhood stress with resulting shrinking of the hippocampus

2. Nasal administration of drugs. (illegal, vaccinations, over-the-counter)

If no one answers, I'll know my limb broke.

Terry

I think I've always had it.

I'll play...childhood exposure to pesticides, maybe leading to epigenetic changes...coocoo, coocoo...

Some researchers are tying certain proteins to MS and since proteins are already being tied to Alzheimer's and Parkinson Disease, among other diseases, I think they may be the culprit.

The bird info that cheerleader posted about on another thread sounds plausible too.

I just know that when I am reincarnated I would like to come back with fur, a long tail and pointy ears so I'd be cured of any disease fast.

gwa

Some thoughts I have had. Virus, polio infection in childhood, environment, environment, environment. Linda

This will surprise no one here: I think my childhood diet rich in Sugar Crisp, Wonderbread, mashed potatoes, KoolAid, cookies, candy bars...sugar, sugar, sugar...programmed my pancreas to produce too much insulin. Somehow pneumonia in first grade which left me with sinus drainage since then plays into this too.

And now I cannot get my pancreas to produce an appropriate amount of insulin! "Arterial passageways are damaged by insulin itself." (line from recent reading) I believe this damage results in the feelings in my legs--burning, feeling of fine cuts up and down, "starbursts," shivering sensations. I think this damage is even responsible for the swelling (edema) in my legs and feet. And then the immune system comes in to fix things...and what a mess ensues!!!

I like this game!

I think it's cooties...

Actually, I think what is known as MS is actually a collection of a few different diseases that share some common symptoms. Each of these diseases have different causative factors. I'm quite sure that bacterial or viral infections play a part, along with the daily exposure to toxins we all experience in everything we eat, drink, and touch. 21st-century life in industrialized societies seems designed to create illness...

Marcstck,

I was diagnosed by classmates early in kindergarten as having cooties, along with severe stinkiness, but it never developed into anything more. I have almost outgrown both.

Seriously though, there is a new article out in Nature Neuroscience suggesting that MS plaques (via proteomic analysis of 1000 proteins) have approximately 100 proteins of interest, some of which are related to blood clotting functions. Targeting these in EAE mice shows very effective reduction of plaque development for about 30 days. Then there is development of a reaction (immuno?) to the therapy. I'll have to go back to the article but it sounded interesting. Blood thinners were a possible short-term treatment. Perhaps with heavy-duty research teams, molecules (like blood thinners) can be modified through rational drug design to create new versions that are more tolerated by the immune system. I still feel like this is treating the symptoms rather than the cause but it is probably a step in the right direction.

Wesley

.

I'm in...

I had a very bad 'hyper-immune' response to a mantoux test (test for TB) - it was so bad, they thought it was a fluke, so they repeated it, not once, but twice! I had high fevers, lymphadenopathy, massive cellulitis, and still have a bad scar on my left forearm from just the blister that developed with the third exposure (that was in 1997).

I developed my first ms symptoms in 1999 - I believe that these exposures sent my immune system haywire and possibly directly lead to the development of my ms (I had chemo from the 1997 exposure until mid 1998, which depressed my immune system at that time). I just feel that this massive mobilisation of my immune system, repeatedly, followed by chemo and then very soon, ms, is just too coincidental - must be a link for me, and whether or not ms is an autoimmune disease, I think that our immune system is responsible for the damage to the CNS.

My 2 cents worth!

_________________
Al

Interesting....hmmm.

Well, I'm with Terry on severe childhood stress.

Undiagnosed coeliac disease until age 31. Milk and egg allergies in childhood.

No exposure to normal childhood illnessess until age 5, then all at once.

Over-hygenic childhood environment.

Bacterial pneumonia age 11.

Glandular fever age 19, then immediately followed by sarcoidosis.

Binge drinking and smoking 18-30.

The really BIG triggers were probably pneumonia age 11 as that is when I can pinpoint the first symptoms to, and glandular fever age 19 when clear relapses began a year later.

By the way WHAT are cooties? Is that a US phrase?

Cooties are imaginary bugs or germs. Little boys say girls have cooties when they are going through that girl-hating stage, and the little girls will say boys have cooties when they are going through their boy-hating stage. When they get to adolescence, they seem to forgot about cooties and start chasing each other.
Maybe it is just an American thing or perhaps it is no longer used and I am showing my age.

Wesley

It was used when I was that young(only 14 or so years ago)

cooties are known in Aus, and from memory, they were real... they must of been eradicated like polio, and hence not so well known these days.

Cooties: According to Webster, according to Hasbro.

What you really don't want are whale "cooties" as these can be up to about an inch in length.

One summer I was at a marine biology lab on the Oregon Coast and a dead whale washed up on the beach. One of the researchers in the lab went down to collect some whale lice, cyamids, since their hemolymph, blood, contains both hemoglobin and hemocyanin respiratory proteins which is unusual for an invertebrate. The cyamids have particularly sharp hooks on the end of their legs and it dug right into the fingers of the person handling it and needed to be pulled off. I guess those hook like claws make it easier to hang onto a whale but they were particularly painful to a human hand!

NHE