I don't think I've seen it in print online ever ( but haven't really looked admittedly), but my neuro has told me that his MS patients that are smokers seem to do better than the non-smokers. Obviously, this is probably the only thing it is possibly good for, if so lol

Sandy, please tell Jim "ditto" for me too (especially the chemicals and the Central America part). We do things for the DoD when ordered to do so and never know what will be the long-term consequences (except some psychological issues based on what we did). For me, it was Nicaragua in the late 80's.

-Vic

Laura, just put mutiple sclerosis and nicotine in your browser.

I went from Mono to MS, no real break in between, never felt right after the mono.

For me, I point to long-term job stress.

Niko

Not officially dx'd - still probable but had symptoms since 1996/97.

Hep B vaccine [or] a bad fall with head injury. Symptoms began soon after both those events.

I also was a child who had every childhood disease imagineable.

Snoods

I never felt right after I had mono either.

I'd get tired a lot easier than I did before the mono. Seemed like things that I could do before the mono were so much harder afterwards.

I had mono in late 1995 and early 1996. (started feeling sick in November, was flat-on-my-back-sick from late January till mid February...didnt feel well enough to go back to work till late March)

It makes me wonder if in some people, mononucleosis might trigger MS, or an indistinguishable-from-MS type of illness that only affects certain people. Since some people can have a raging case of mono and not have any weird aftereffects.

Ahem! Reading through this and happening to watch a PBS special on the polio vaccine reminded me of something else...

I have had 5 smallpox vaccinations. I have had both the Sabin and the Salk polio stuff. Twice. Each. I have had every shot known to man and most of them more than twice.

Wonder how I did that? My Dad was in the service for 38 years. Every time we were shipped overseas or returned overseas after a visit home back in the 60s, we spent a week getting shots.

I have my records from when I was a kid (not easy to find when you are a service brat!) and when I showed them to my doc, he was shocked at how many vaccines and preventative shots I had. He said it's no wonder my immune system seems to kill everything that I get within a day or two!

Too bad it didn't kill the MS!

I did get a vaccination about two weeks before I had my first experience with numbness in April of 2006. I had an MMR vaccine because the mumps were going around Nebraska and Iowa at near epidemic proportions.

Two weeks later, my right thigh went numb while on a trip to the Omaha Zoo. (boyfriend and I got to ride in the engine of the steam powered train that is at the zoo) Stood right behind the firebox where they burn the wood/coal, and it was a fairly warm day for April. It was really hot riding on that engine. After I got off the train (practically fell off, feet felt weird) I realized my right thigh and hip were numb. Got home and was in serious pain in the thigh. (apparently sprained it or something when I fell off the train...actually fell twice, getting on, and getting off)

I do think that MMR vaccine had something to do with the MS. I think I already had the MS, but the vaccine might have triggered an exacerbation.

At the age of 38 I had a bad case of mononucleosis (Epstein Barr) which I never really got over. After 9 months it morphed into chronic tonsillitis, and then a year later it morphed into MS. I really think it was the nasty Epstein-Barr virus that made my immune system go haywire. Prior to that I NEVER got sick and had no identifiable MS symptoms.