Risk factors

[CozyKitty]

Good night,
This is my first time asking a question.  I read a comment that said there are risk factors that may play a role in one having MS and that a prior infectious trigger is one. I've ALWAYS been a magnet for UNUSAL diseases. scarlet fever, immuno-thrombocytopenia , chicken pox (2x). Could any of these have led to RRMS?
Thanks for any light on this.

[Artanis12]

With the usual disclaimers of I know there is no one/definitive cause, only things suggestive, I can't help but wonder if my wicked six-week case of mono at age 31 had anything to do with this. And if the relative lateness of the infection is tied to me presenting late (3 weeks shy of age 52) with MS.
Of course I was(still am but working on it) D deficient too, so that is an additional whammy in the "risk factor" category.

I've also read that women's immune systems are generally stronger than men's, which might account for the over-responsiveness of ours when they go whack at some point.

But at this point, yeah, who knows. Like the next person hit with this crap condition, I ask the question "Why??", but I don't need resolution of that question badly enough to try to demand that reality (which is almost always frustratingly ambiguous in one way or other, regardless of topic) assuage my need for pat answer, that I make an answer up. Hopefully before I die, I will see the breakthrough, the answer of "Why? and "How?", even if I don't get to benefit from it (although that would be wicked cool too, don't get me wrong!).

Karen

[essdipity]

Hi there. It's pretty much impossible to give you a solid answer. It does seem as if many MSers have had a severe bout of mono during their teen years, more than would be expected by chance. That is the infection most often referred to in research literature.

However, a great many others have never had mono. In fact, lots of us seem to have unusually strong immune systems. I, for instance, have gone as long as 9 years between colds, and as a kid there were only a few years in which I didn't have perfect attendance at school. This scenario makes sense from the MS perspective of a strong system getting out of bounds and fighting everything in sight, including self.

However, there are also a great many who seem to catch everything. So who knows? MSers are likely to be females in a certain age group at diagnosis, of northern European extraction, raised in a northerly climate, and so on. Yet around the world there are hundreds of thousands with MS for whom none of these factors apply. Science simply does not know the answers.

It has been demonstrated, though, that some people ultimately diagnosed wih MS have their first symptoms after a significant infection. This does not mean that the infection caused MS, as there is no evidence for this. But it could have been the trigger that brought out symptoms that were developing anyway. This also seems a reasonable assumption.

ess