The Essential Role of Epstein-Barr Virus in the Pathogenesis of Multiple Sclerosis
 

Research just published has proposed that the Epstein -Barr virus infection is essential for the development of multiple sclerosis.

The author, Professor Pender, also states that sunlight and Vitamin D can keep MS under control by increasing certain cells available to control the EBV infection.

He also makes predictions that MS could be successfully treated and even prevented, by controlling any EBV infections.

Here is a link to the research article for those interested:

http://nro.sagepub.com/content/early...381531.full.pd...

I've read in reports that 100% of MS patients tested have the EBV...I'm surprised the medical profession doesn't routinely test MS patients for this...

Makes sense to me. For years after I got mono I said it was like I never recovered from it. This was back when to me MS was some mysterious disease the woman from Beach Blanket Bingo had. In hindsight, I am absolutely convinced that my mono infection was what triggered my MS.

When I went to the site for the research article it said content not found :confused: any suggestions ?
Linda

I didn't find a problem with the link Linda, but here it is again, just in case.
http://nro.sagepub.com/content/early...381531.full.pd

When trying to access a link, you do need to go back to the original as links showing in quoted texts sometimes don't work.

If you're still having trouble, try inserting the title of this thread into your web browser. You should get it up that way.

a link to the abstract, full version is a pfd http://nro.sagepub.com/content/early...81531.abstract

My MS followed Mono and I also suspect a link.

Add me to the EBV=MONO=MS club..:mad:

Have they come up with anything to conteract it and turn MS around?

I never had EBV and the only contact I had was when my daughter caught it at age 17. I was diagnosed just after her birth, so I'd already had the disease a minimum of 17 years by then.....BUT..... I did get rubella about 8 years pre diagnosis, and that was another virus they threw around back then (in the 70's)

I haven't found anything that says so Sal. I think those of us who already have lesions are stuck with them and the ongoing hassles they do and will cause.

What is good about today's research and the products of that research, is the fact the maybe our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren might be spared what we've gone through.... and for me it's been 33 years of symptoms, consultations and probing. I didn't do the injections but many others have, so that's years of sticking yourself with something you don't know for a fact will help you, but I do believe you have to put your trust in something.

Unless I accidentally walk in front of a bus, then I'll probably have to put up with more of the same for another 10, 20 or more years to come. I'd like for my offspring to be spared the same.

what i don't understand is that over 95% of the general population has had the EBV.....so of course most MS patients have had it also, it is just that common.

I have never been diagnosed with EBV....but, many times in by busy life, I've suffered through illness because "moms don't get sick"!!! So who knows... I don't know if it would have been possible to have mono and just eventially get over it...or if it would have gotten be down so much I would have HAD to go to the doctor for it????

When I got hit with mono, I got hit very hard.

2 weeks bedridden. I still remember my Mom had to help me the few steps to the washroom, and I spent the majority of the time sleeping. Even 30 minutes out of bed was too painful and fatigue inducing to bear.

I know folks who've been the complete opposite though, just feeling 'unwell' for several months before being informed it was mono, etc.

Daisy is right, as far as I remember from statistics read. The vast majority of all people in America (can't speak for abroad, probably the same) have endured EBV, sometimes referred to as "mononucleosis". I had it in college, a typical place to get it. Later, it
was shown to have left a signature on a viral screen test.

Nevertheless it could be one of the triggers for MS, but most people fight it off and don't get MS from it. I remember I had a big boil on my neck from it, but when I got over it, it was gone for good.

And I had MS symptoms before I had EBV.

I hear you Mariel.

EBV has been tossed around for 3 decades now (or more) so I tend to believe it IS a virus that sets the disease off. Maybe it's not EBV, maybe it's not Rubella... nor Distemper, or any of the other viruses that they've targetted over the years, but I think from this and many similar articles, we'll eventually have to accede that a virus of some kind, is behind the trigger.

Maybe it is the EBV......maybe not, but it's good to know that all of these preceptors that we've heard about for decades now, are now being fully investigated.

I was tested for EBV about 10 years ago to see if I have had it in the past. It showed that I did indeed have it in the past, but it showed it was inactive at the time. The doctor said it was encapsulated, dormant.

It remains in the body for life, once exposed. I don't remember having Mono, but my doctor said some people just get a bad cold from it and don't realize it was not a cold virus but the EB virus.

Yes 95 percent of the population has had it at some point in their lives. Some get it bad and end up with Mono. Just like some have a bad case of the Flu and others get it minor case, like a bad cold. We are all different.

As a virus I don't know how they can eradicate it from out lives. Viruses are hard to treat, or not treatable, and run their course. They can't cure the common cold virus after all this time.

Perhaps a vaccine, but even the Flu vaccine is not stable enough to stop some Flu's that mutate. People that had Rubella, can still get shingles, even those who had the vaccine.

I hope they can do something to stop EBV, but even with today's modern medicine it seems they can't do much to actually destroy it, it may stay dormant, but can reactive just like the herpes viruses and PR, by molecular mimicry.

Good research article find Koala, let's all hope they continue to work on it. Mono is bad enough and MS is a pain in a donkey's hindquarters.

I actually wonder if my MS was triggered by hystoplasmosis http://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/communi...oplasmosis.htm
that I contracted when I was 17. I know what it was because it happened to show up in my eye and I had to have laser surgery and lost my central vision in that eye.

Not long after that I began having very bad headaches. Had Never had a headache before that. The doctors could not explain why. They said it was unrelated to the eye problem. Also, I began having balance problems.

Hind sight is always easier. Now I definitely think that was the first MS symptoms.

Hystoplasmosis is not a virus, but I sure have a gut feeling that it is what activated it. But I could be wrong and it could have just been a coincidence. But definitely think that is the same time period it all started. ??????????:confused:

I had mononucleosis in late 95/early 96.

I also had shingles in December of 95. (think Shingles is a retrovirus also linked to MS)

The mono knocked me flat on my back about the first or second week of January 96, but I'm pretty sure I was sick with it for at least a month before it got so bad that I had to stay in bed for about a month. So, I'm pretty sure that I had mono AND shingles at the same time.

I've read somewhere about a retro virus (shingles) and a herpesvirus (mono) at the same time having some sort of connection to triggering MS. I'll have to look and see if I can find those links again.

The mono did a number on me. I had weird little cold sores all over the inside of my mouth. I lost my hearing AND my voice for at least several weeks. I'm pretty sure I was awake for nearly two weeks (would sleep about a half hour between some weird nasal drainage problem that I had. Literally constant drainage. I had to sleep sitting up or risk drowning in it. sorry...TMI)

My throat had swollen up so bad that it affected my hearing. I was happy that I'd gotten a brand new tv for Xmas that year and it had closed captioning (something that wasnt quite standard yet) I had the worst bout of laryngitis that I've ever had. I was taking sign language classes at the time and had to drop out of school because of the mono, but I taught my parents a few signs so that I could at least ask for food and water and to tell them how crappy I felt.

I have never been that sick before or since. I've never felt as if I recovered all the way after that. It was about a year after the mono that I started having vertigo attacks. I was pretty sure they were connected to the mono, but thought it was because the sore throat and ear infections I had during the mono had damaged my inner ear or something. I'm pretty sure the vertigo and some of The Hug were my first MS symptoms way back then. I'd get the vertigo at least two or three times a year.

I had a really high fever for a few days during the mono. Had a few that reached 104 degrees. I kind of wonder if getting the MS after an episode of mono has anything to do with the fever and how high and long it lasts. Or if it's just the mono virus interacting with our immune systems that causes the damage.

When I had my blood tests for diagnosis for the MS, my EBV titer was positive. So, I know what I had in 96 was mononucleosis. I even know that I got it from someone at work. We had a little mono epidemic where I worked at the time. (and no, I didnt get mine from kissing anyone.)

That dang herpes virus is the culprit, IMHO!:mad:

I've never had a cold sore (herpes simplex) but I did have chicken pox as a child, and shingles during a particulary nasty exacerbation in my thirties. The shingles didn't bring on the exacerbation, rather the other way around. My immune system was so compramised that I got hit badly with the virus.

Shingles and chickenpox were once considered separate disorders. Researchers now know that they are both caused by a single virus of the herpes family, known as varicella-zoster virus (VZV). The word herpes is derived from the Greek word "herpein," which means "to creep," a reference to a characteristic pattern of skin eruptions.

VZV is still referred to by separate terms:

Varicella: The primary infection that causes chickenpox
Herpes zoster: The reactivation of the virus that causes shingles

I got chicken pox when I was 29 and 4 weeks pregnant with my DD...I got it BAD...
I wonder...hmmm...I've also read reports stating that researchers think a retrovirus triggers a gene in our codes that hasn't been active since we were dragging our knuckles, which turns the gene on and Voila! MS...

I guess it is a good time to have MS, if there ever is one...lots of research, and new meds coming down the pipe.

Shingles is definately part of the big picture of MS. Like I said, Mr. Herpes....again.:mad:

I never had a cold sore either. Isn't that genital herpes?

I'm not sure about the genital type Sal. I was talking about the ones people get on their lips, but I have a feeling they're caused by the same strain of the evirus

Herpes simplex is divided into two types: HSV type 1 and HSV type 2. HSV1 primarily causes mouth, throat, face, eye, and central nervous system infections, while HSV2 primarily causes anogenital infections. However, each may cause infections in all areas.

Oral herpes, the visible symptoms of which are called cold sores or fever blisters, infects the face and mouth. Oral herpes is the most common form of infection.

Genital herpes, known simply as herpes, is the second most common form of herpes. Other disorders such as herpetic whitlow, herpes gladiatorum, ocular herpes (keratitis), cerebral herpes infection encephalitis, Mollaret's meningitis, neonatal herpes, and possibly Bell's palsy are all caused by herpes simplex viruses.

I had Bells Palsy about 3 or 4 yrs ago. So add that to my list. Soon they will discover a direct herpes/MS link, too!

Me too! Mine was a complication of the shingles which was on my face, affecting 2 branches of the Trigeminal nerve. :(

I didn't really mind the blisters and the ensuing scabs, I even managed the pain, but I was horrified when one side of my face decided to droop and there was absolutely nothing I could do about it.

I was struggling through a particularly bad exacerbation at the time, and just as the Neuro was talking about starting cortisone to help ease the relapse symptoms, the blisters erupted.

There was no way he'd order the Prednisolone then. He said it was far too dangerous as there was a possibility of the virus spreading to other areas in my body, maybe even affecting my brain, if he added cortisone to the picture. :(

Yup! Glandular Fever (Australian for Mono) fairly bad when I was thirteen. MONSTER dose of Chicken Pox at 27, lots of weird stuff in between Dx RRMS at 30 (after a huge trauma and cold sore breakout), Maybe it is the combination of the two that sets it off. I have always wondered.

Lyn

Just adding to the info...
 

I had a shingles breakout several years before my ms dx. It was during a time a great stress for me.