Epstein Barr (the virus that causes mononucleosis) is another virus that tends to lie dormant within us forever, and has been associated with more other ailments (including all IBDs) than I can count.

I can't prove anything (nobody can) but I think every major ailment I've contracted during my lifetime has coincided with a virus (cold/flu) - Crohn's/IBS, Migraines, PN... reactivating something. The migraines were pegged to the EB virus by the migraine specialist, and digging into what he said, I believe he pegged it spot-on. I have a distant relative with chronic fatigue and is hyperallergenic (that may not be the correct term, but she pretty much lives in a bubble) that are both related to EB.

They've always told us that contracting these childhood diseases as children builds up immunities to all kinds of things later in life, and I don't doubt that. It's the reactivation by some other virus that seems to be the connection, and as viruses are always mutating, there's no way to predict or protect.

EB, Chickenpox (herpes), measles... The commonality is that they are all viruses.

More thinking aloud.

Doc