Curious question

[britinusa]

About a year before DX ( A few years ago now) I was suffering from the fatigue but hadnt had an attack or anything at that time to make anyone think  MS. I did however have a very very high strep count (although no ovb signs of a strep infection, just fatigue) I had many courses of antibiotics but my strep level was, and still is still very high, has anyone else encountered this?? I obv went through all the testing to rule out everything else during my first year after my first attack but nothing showed up in my blood work. I am curious as to whether this is just a natural state for my body or if there is a link.

Isabel :)

[britinusa]

That makes total sense Quix I had symptoms of MS years before DX and its possible way before the high strep levels. I am and still in denial I am afraid, always thinking if things that could be the reason I have this,and then thinking of cures. It drives me insane somedays :)

[Quixotic1]

I would like to take Alex's explanation a little farther.  While most researchers do believe that there may one or more specific infectious triggers triggers to the immune attack on the central nervous system, they have not found evidence for more than a few organisms.  The ones that have shown the most evidence are the EBV virus, specifically after a bout of the severest form, infectious mononucleosis, chlamydia pnuemoniae, and Human Herpes virus 6 (HHV-6).

But, this process of beginning the first damage is different from an infection that causes MS (which is already in progress) to show up.  If someone is already forming the lesions that cause MS (from whatever reason) anything that ramps up the immune system like a respiratory infection, a bacerial infection in any part of the body, a fungal infection, the period post-partum when the quieted-down immune activity of pregnancy reve's back up, can cause the already-triggered MS damage to show up with the first attack.

Say you had the flu and a couple weeks later you have your first attack of MS.  What happened is that the damage of MS was already at work sometime before you had the flu.  But, the immune activity caused by the body's attempt to fight the flu virus, was enough to cause the first attack.  You were going to have that first attack at some point later, but the acute infection caused it to show up earlier.

Does this make sense?

Alex - gee lady, do you glow in the dark??

Quix

[HVAC]

Many Researchers believe there is a trigger to MS but that it can be different with different people. It may be three fold genetics, an illness, and environmental. I carry high levels of EBV. In my case my mother smoked several packs a day, drank alcoholically, and took speed through out her pregnancy. Doctor's believed in low birth weights and thought the placenta was a guard back then. I weighted just over four lbs at birth. They gave my mom alcohol during delivery because she was having D.T.s. I have had all kinds of allergies and asthma my whole life. Oh and a military base I grew up on is in a government investigation for dry cleaning fluids in the drinking water. MS is one of the illnesses they are looking at. They only thing cool would be if I got money out of it.

It does not really matter to me how I got MS. It is like a cucumber, once it becomes a pickle it can't ever go back to just being a cucumber.

It matters for future generations, I hope for them they will unlock the mystery and stop this disease.

Alex

[jensequitur]

That's interesting...  I don't know whether there's a connection between strep and MS.  I know that more than a year before diagnosis, I had a bad staph infection from a brown recluse spider bite.  It took a year to heal up, and then I started experiencing MS symptoms.  

I think that many people who develop MS had an injury or illness that caused their immune system to 'wake up.'  I don't know whether it's because the injury causes a relapse, or if it's something else.