My friend (US vet) got both MS AND a type of cancer that a lot of vets seem to be coming home with (leukemia, I think?). Of course civilians are exposed to things that can cause the same diseases, but the trick would be to use these high prevalence groups to determine what it might be.

As an example, IF they determined it might be uranium exposure, many Europeans, Canadians, Americans, NZ and Ozzy's live in houses that are (inadvertantly) designed to suck the uranium up from our basements. No doubt nurses are exposed to uranium in their work environment too ...

I have two friends, who were die-hard non-smokers (wouldn't allow it in their presence, even before it became socially unacceptable to smoke), and they both died of lung cancer. What they think is that were both exposed to toxic mold in their homes, and I know at least one of them was (don't know about the other though). Then you run into people who chain-smoked for 50 yrs, and never get lung cancer, or if they do, they are past an average lifespan anyway.

We are all probably pre-disposed to some weaknesses from our particular genes, but it's just that the odds are that MORE people (higher number then the "norm") will develop these diseases under certain conditions. If we can learn what those "conditions" are, we might be able to reduce the incidence of the diseases.

Given that MS is a fairly new disease (only 180 yrs or so), and growing in popularity all the time, chances are we are being more and more exposed to whatever the cause is. I think it's great they've determined a demographic that is "prone" to MS though, cause I think this will ultimately give us some clues.

(Sorry for going a bit off topic . . . and I'm glad for this ruling!!)

Cherie