[EdsMom]

Hi I am new... and worried...

ABV, never heard of it until my now 30yr old son was diagnosed. I know nothing about this virus and what it's ramifications are or can be. But I have a suspicion he has had this for a long time.

As a teenager he was extremely hard to handle, bouts of depression, anger, violent behavior toward himself and other's. Many hours of counciling and what he called "Head Checks" ~~various tests ~~were done over the years. At the time we thought it was bad attitude mixed w/ drug and or alcohol usage.

He has been clean and sober now ( as far as I know ) for 2.5 yrs and was diagnosed last yr ( I was just informed yesterday). I always thought his depression, even as a kid was related to his not getting enuf sunlight. The only time I remember when he seemed depression free ( easy to see now, looking back ) was when we lived in the Philippines for two years, FL and California almost 2. ( military family)
He is a musucian by trade and seemingly can go for months with out really spending anytime in the real world of sunlight. Winters were always a bad time for him. Every year between Thanksgiving and Spring has been an upsetting time... Is this a different thing altogether or could this infact have been a contributing factor to his behavior and actually a result of the EBV?

Sorry to ramble... just concerned , don't have anything to go on, he is very closed about what he considers "his problems" and doesn't want to dicuss them with me nor his father. His wife is equally as so. I would like to know the standard treatments, holistic treatments and would like to know how easily it is transmitted (EBV ) and if my 4 yr old Grandson and my son's ex wife should be tested?

Now, with this diagnosis it seems to me ( a Mom ) that maybe the Vit D or lack thereof is a REAL factor in his life. Right now he is having an episode is what he calls it.... not sure what beyond extreme fatigue and headaches he is experiencing, his voice sounded real bad too, very raspy. He has a lot of work lined up over the next few months and is definately feeling the stress, can this be a trigger for a flare up?

Geesh this is going to read like a bad book, sorry, if someone could just shove me in the right direction I would be so very thankful...
EdsMom

[glenntaj]

--do you mean he has EBV (Epstein Barrr virus)? The top line of the post says ABV, and I don't know any acronym like that, but then later you mention EBV . . .

A number of things about this. Epstein Barrr Virus, also known as Human Herpes Virus 4, is so ubiquitous that immunologists have joked EBV should stand for "everybody's virus". More than 95% of people in the Western world have been exposed to it by age 35--usually, their first exposure results in mononucleosis or a similar type illness. (These initial exposures tend to be much less severe in yonger children, so if you've worried about the 4-year-old getting it, it might actually be a better idea at taht age than later, similar to getting chicken pox, which is anohter herpes family virus>)

Like all human herpes viruses, after the initial exposure, the cirus becomes immortalized in the body--in the case of HHV4/EBV, in the B-cells of the nasopharynx--so that one "carries" it for life (and there are antibody tests that can indicate this). Usually it is held in check by the immune system, but under conditions of stress or immunocompromise, the virus can "reactivate" and cause a number of health problems. It has been implicated in two rare cancers--nasopharyngeal carcinoma and Burkitt's lymphoma--and in a number of autoimmune molecular mimicry syndromes, including peripheral neuropathy. It has also been implicated, probably through a similar mechanism, in the development of multiple sclerosis.

For a while in the 80's people thought of EBV as being behind chronic fatigue syndrome, but recent epidemological research seems to indicate people with chronic fatigue are not any more likely to have EBV reactivations than those without chronic fatigue symptoms, and, moreover, many people without chronic fatigue do show reactivation profiles. The association seems to be stronger for human herpes virus 6 and chronic fatigue than for EBV.

The Wikipedia article, though technical, is actually a pretty good primer:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epstein-Barr

There's also some good info, including a summary of the testing involved to determine if one has a new, dormant, or reactivated infection, in the CDC material here:

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/ebv.htm

What, precisely, do you think EBV may be causing in him? The constellation of symptoms there does not seem to be very characteristic, unless there was some sort of neurological damage with his initial infection.

(BTW, welcome to Neurotalk.)

[Darlene]

EdsMom,

Hello and welcome to NeuroTalk. Great to see you have come to be with us. You will find a great number of caring, supporting members here willing to help each other as they can.

Sorry to hear about your sons problem. It really gets to a mother when one of our kids are going through things like this.

Again welcome, looking forward to seeing you around.

Darlene