Question for my VERY intelligent NT friends!?
 

I will preface this by saying... this is probably a really dumb question!!! But what the hay... I'll ask anyway!:p Since, everyone here is much wiser and more experienced than I am.

Is it possible for a person to be predisposed (maybe not the right word) to ms, and it just lies dormant until something happens to activate it. I'm just thinking... I had been stressing my body majorly since I was in my late teens, doing physical labor like hauling square hay bales, carrying 50 lb. feed sacks, picking up rocks and working in the garden till I felt like collapsing just to see the beautiful plants with absolutely NO WEEDS! Staying up half the night doing house chores....basically working too hard for the wrong reasons, year after year.

I GUESS I'M JUST WONDERING... DID I CAUSE MORE DAMAGE TO THE MS DUE TO MY LIFESTYLE????????

Like I said, this may be a really dumb question. So Please just ignore me if it doesn't make any sense.

Thank you!:hug:

VERY doubtful
 

It is VERY VERY doubtful that even heavy use of your body in work or daily living would contribute to causing MS.

If you had been doing something to severly aggraviate your immune system by constantly being in a situation that would cause you to get viral or orther infections, then I think you could have made your self more vulnerable to getting some over-active immume disorder like MS.

My opinion is that for a few unfortunate folks that getting a series of very common viral infectons can trigger MS. There are very few enviromental causes of MS. The only one that I am aware of is excess zinc exposure.

Stress can aggravate MS and even contribute/cause a relapse for some.

I hope you can find some truely pleasurable/fun things to enjoy and have a more relaxed lifestyle.

jackD

I agree. I had Mono and Chicken Pox between the ages of 18 and 25. I fully believe that is what triggered my MS......but I didn't have full blown sx of MS until 2003 (both legs numb). Some 20 years later. I had mild sx along the way but always brushed them off and they went away. After my episode in 2005 (double vision, vertigo, bells palsy, numbness) I couldn't ignore it any longer. That's when my dx came.

Your question isn't a dumb one. I had tons of questions early on.....and still do! This is a perplexing disease!

DH says I was spoiled, says my Dad even told him before the wedding )If Dad was saying something he was just trying to be funny. The point is I did very little labor for anyone, unless it was gym or walking for a cause. Shoot, had a c-section for my twins, I've never labored in my life. Have PPMS, late onset of 46, Had a very healthy childhood and adulthood, in a chair (poo) but little else. Being in chair has made dizziness fine, though I'd rather walk dizzily. I think just something (virus, moon in the 7th high??) set it off, wasn't hard work for me.

Yes and predisposed is the correct word ;)

It has been thought for a long time that we are predisposed to MS and "something" triggers it. I believe the trigger(s) will be as varied as the disease.

Each of us have had different life experiences and illnesses at different stages of life. Some of those life experiences and illnesses affect a majority of the population and the majority of the population does not have MS.

I think it's an interesting question.

I believe in the whole predisposed to ms thing (one of those rare people with it on both sides of family), but don't think lifestyle contributes to the triggers. Some have had very little, some have had a lot of physically intensive jobs and lives.

I think major life stresses (like car accidents, etc.), environmental stuff, and certain viruses are much more likely the culprits. What we think was my first flare was right after the first car accident I was in as a teen.

My bro's autoimmune stuff showed up big time after a major accident he was in too, but suspected it was always there. He has RA and Psoriasis.

so to make a long answer short (too late :D ) I don't think the labor intensive stuff made the MS worse.

I believe we are predisposed to MS and there is something that triggers it. I had mono and chicken pox but I also had rosiola and feel those illnesses helped trigger my MS. My first MS sypmtoms happened right after going through a very serious stressful situation as a teenager. So because I experienced those illnesses and went through that stressful period, my MS was triggered. Snce MS is different for every single person who has it, I think different things trigger each case of MS.

why does one identical twin get it, and the other steers clear? I have met several sets of ID twins, and only one has it. Why do several members of the same family do the exact same thing for the exact same amount of time, and yet, only one child in the family has it, or 5 out of 6 have it?

This disease is bizarre. My sister has abused herself to the point of being criminal. She has led a ragged life. She is healthy (not mentally) and is capable of living to be a very old lady. I led a better life, better education, higher standard of living, more services provided, and had better medical care, and yet, I got MS.

I think that you're correct...I feel that some of us are predisposed genetically to autoimmune diseases...just depends on which one pops up.
My mom and sis had rheumatic fever, and my dad had severe psoriasis...so I would think that my gene pool is autoimmune disease prone.
Not a dumb question at all...:)

Short answer is yes, I believe we are genetically predisposed to MS and that lifestyle can be a factor, in triggering it.

Thank you for your responses!
 

I go for long periods of time just carrying on my life, such as it is now, without questioning it. Then, occasionally I start to question...why, when, how, etc.

I guess I may never have the answers in this life. It just would be great if we all could have some answers. I guess I tend to want to blame something... so why not blame myself.

I was having a ton of stress on top of being a workaholic prior to the dx. I won't even get into the stress!!!:eek:

Sometimes I also wonder if the ms was triggered when I was 17. I had, what they said, was hystoplasmosis in my eye. They did laser surgery, which back then was a big deal. I just remember having to travel several hundred miles to get to a hospital that did the procedure. I remember, getting a shot directly below my eye under the lid, to numb the eye before the procedure. OUCH!

But anyway, after the a few weeks after the surgery, I started having constant headaches, very bad. They were continual after that. The surgeon said, the eye problem did not cause it. And my pcp didn't know.

Also, after that I remember being afraid to climb down bleachers at ballgames unless I could hold onto a handrail. I felt very off balance. Now I think maybe that was a sx of ms.

I guess I'll never know if the eye problem was really the onset of ms sx????

Thanks for listening. I am interested in all of you and things you believe started it all. Because, maybe I'm not alone in wondering why, when, how, etc.:o

Thanks for listening!!!:hug: I don't know anywhere else I can have these conversations except here at NT.:grouphug:

Yep, I think Jim was predisposed. Something triggered it, maybe his military experience? Or maybe working in auto body, being around the chemicals, being hit in the head with an air hose. Or perhaps it was mono or maybe the polyps that had to be surgically removed from his throat? Not a dumb question at all and by the responses, no one knows what triggers it, which in turn makes research so difficult to pinpoint a cause.

SandyC,
 

I'm curious how long do you think Jim had ms before he was diagnosed in 88? His progressed to SPMS not too many years after that, right? It's just so strange some can go for so long with not many sx and some progress so fast.:(

You know Friend, we've thought about it but honestly cannot pin point any significant episode that might suggest ms was around before he started having eye problems. Fatigue was always a part of his military career so it's hard to say if that was ms or just normal tiredness. He was a grunt in the field and deployed all the time, never really at rest.

He didn't start having symptoms until we moved to Germany and he was in a mechanized unit. That unit wasn't as strenuous as an infantry unit so can't blame it on that. He was stationed in Germany in November 1987 and was diagnosed in June 1988. He even completed a 15K military foot march prior to receiving a diagnosis. His neuro wasn't too happy with him doing that. LOL He even competed in the Nurnberg male foot march after diagnosis and his medical detachment crew kept walking until they finished the race. They had shut everything down but waited for them all to cross the line.

Prior to that when he was in Ft. Campbell he was deployed to Jordan Egypt, Spain, Canada and Panama.

We did find it interesting that Persian Gulf War Syndrome is now being thought to be what triggers ms in military soldiers. Jim was in Jordan Egypt less than a year before diagnosis. Hmmm.

Yes, I feel it was lying dormant in me, ready to rear its ugly head.
This is going to sound really weird... and I've never aired this thought before... but from a young age, I knew I would become sick before my fifties. I never wanted children; always thought in the back of my mind that I'd not be around for them. Did a brief stint on medical neuro as an RN and honestly, always felt that I would go down with something I was familiar with. Then nursed a few terminal and bedbound MS'rs in the home and felt a weird affinity. Really believed it would be me one day.
Now I know I couldn't have brought it on myself, that's not what I'm thinking.
But there was always a feeling...

Sandy,
 

Jim has certainly had his fair share of stress all the way around! Life just doesn't deal out the cards very fairly it seems. But I think our faith in God has taught us that He doesn't put more on our plate than we can handle. :hug:

Thank you for sharing about Jim. I know I was close to God before my dx, but have learned more about myself and my faith since the dx. Everyday I have lessons to learn and blessings to gather! Seems I'm more aware of this here lately! I guess sometimes I have to learn things the hard way!:o

I swear I read "Everyday I have lesions to learn..." :p

Your right, faith is a very important factor in how Jim and I cope and get passed the bumps in the road. Without our faith who knows where we'd be?