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Stress caused adverse entanglement of the nervous and autoimmune systems: A case for MS.

Schad JN.
Retired Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, UCB, 376 Tharp Drive, Moraga, CA 94556, USA. Electronic address: Jaschadn@gmail.com.

Abstract
The adverse role of stress in daily life, on human health has long been recognized and is being firmly substantiated by scientific investigation. Though many comforts of the modern life are owed to progress in the post-industrial age, increased levels of stress, in daily life, are also attributed to it, as well. Comparing life in the agrarian era with that of post industrial one, the change of the background sustained stress levels, among humans (not to mention Nature), is very dramatic. Variations in overall living conditions and psyche can further aggravate the state of stress. Living with such levels of stress - outside of the realm of evolutionary learned survival preparedness of human beings - is bound to wreak havoc with our mental and biological construct, rendering various levels of unease and diseases. Multiple Sclerosis can be of such origin. Medical Sciences has little to offer in the way understanding of the cause(s) of deterioration of brain cells, other than noting it as a kind of likely attack of the autoimmune system on the nervous system. Following some observations made in the paper, a hypothesis for the onset and prevention of MS is put forward.

Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
PMID: 23207182 [PubMed - in process]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23207182

Thomas,
Nice find! The body's response to stress is the release of cortisol and aldosterone which causes a cascade of physiological changes, deficiencies, and upregulation of certain immune system components if not stopped by the negative feedback loop. In MS, the stress response is constantly activated and we are bathing in cortisol and aldosterone. The negative feedback loop is b0rked.

I'm in the midst of finding out what happens if you inhibit the production of cortisol and aldosterone. I've noted definite improvements but I'm not sure it's the end-all, beat-all thing to do for MS. Time will tell.

If you are curious about day to day details, I post them in a thread titled "Clonidine diary" in the general forum. Also, current trials for lisinopril and amiloride are indirectly targeting some of the fallout from our constant stress response. Lisinopril will probably only work short term...amiloride will likely stop new lesions from forming by preventing the osmotic demyelination I suspect causes our lesions. That's my uneducated guess anyway.

Hi! pardon me, i'm interested in your post and statement. So if i may conclude that stress (negative emotions/mental health) can affect our physical health. Is it true?

Thank you.

I am sure this is true, so true, however only one facet of a multi-facetted disease..

Though it's just a simple correlation, but who knows it could answer a lot of questions. Like why a same treatment can have a different result in different individuals.
Thank u.