Who Gets MG?
 

I wonder if folks living in the country get MG more often than our urban neighbors? Raised as a farm boy and currently living in the country, I have always lived close to the fertilizers, weed killers and pesticides applied by tractor and airplane in crop fields adjacent to the house. If you add in the organophosphates and carbamates used by the military in combat zones I served in, then consider the fact that research proves that exposure to some of those chemicals cause MG....it would be interesting if we found out MG diagnosis occurs more often in rural areas or areas where some of the strong chemicals are regularly used..

Interesting thought. I was raised in a small town in northern NJ, no farms, no factories, heck not even a traffice light in town. Gee I miss it. I was told by my Dr. {many years ago, so I am sure this has changed} that the only link between MGers was an abusive childhood and or an alchoholic parent. I didn't and still don't see how that could cause MG so I never put much stock into what he said.

Not abused
 

Well, we weren't abused. As far as alcoholic parent..I remember my Dad would buy a half pint of whiskey or a small bottle of Mogan David wine and store it in his dresser drawer in October or so for cough medicine. The next spring, the bottle and its contents were still in the dresser drawer!

Hi. Autoimmunity is complex and it's hard to know exactly why people get it. Some genes have been determined to be more common in some people with MG. But someone can have a "gene" of a disease and never get it too.

Having said that, I am very aware of the effect of pesticides on MG. I did a lot of research last year when our neighbors decided to "illegally" fog our Park with them. I knew about the dangers of them before but wanted to know exactly what was up with that crap in relation to MG. Some people I know spray them as liberally as some people do perfume.

One thing many pesticides do, especially organophosphates, is to get rid of the enzyme called acetylcholinesterase in the body. That enzymes job is to mop up after acetylcholine once it's done its job. So what you have then is an over abundance of acetylcholine.

As we've talked about before, caffeine does this same thing. As do the nightshade foods (tomato, potato, eggplant, peppers, etc.).

So if, on the 4th of July, you spray for weeds, have potato salad, a coke and then coffee, plus some Mestinon, you are going to be having a cholinergic crisis from too much acetylcholine! ;)

Another thing that those chemicals do, again especially organophosphates, is to destroy the neuromuscular junction, just like MG does. There could be people who are born with a "destroyed" or minimized neuromuscular junction because parents had one. Meaning they may not have MG but a genetic destruction of that area.

Here are a couple articles on this. There are lots of them if you choose to go do some research on your own. You can look up pesticide toxicity or organophosphate toxicity. Or acetylcholine pesticide, etc.

http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7...7249--,00.html

http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=4047030

My entire family on both sides came from farms but this was before they started using chemicals. They couldn't afford chemicals back then! However, that doesn't mean that farms around them didn't use them.

Also, there are still places around the country who do spraying for bugs from airplanes. Especially for mosquitoes to get rid of West Nile Virus, which I think is dangerous and ridiculous. Having individuals take care of themselves is far more effective, like it is with the flu.

For a doctor to say something so unscientific like having an alcoholic or abusive parent causes MG is borderline unethical. Stress can bring on illness but not those specific problems! We don't need to add shame and guilt to the already difficult nature of disease.

Annie

Well Said
 

Well put, Annie. Thanks.

As I have said before.. Annie, you are the best. Thank you for writing that. I just had my weekly Aralast infusion and my home health nurse and I were talking about how when I was a child I played with Mercury, now back then it was a "toy" we even played with it in science class, so I am wondering if mercury has anything to do with it. Going to go do some research now :)

Wow, check this out.. http://www.mercurypoisoned.com/symptoms.html I hope that link works.. For anyone with fillings, this is very interesting. OK back to research LOL :rolleyes:

Oh Joanmarie, I did too! It was the fifties and early sixties and that stuff was just so cool!

Dang it, now I have a bad urge to play with mercury.. :eek: That was a lot of fun.

Hi Joanmarie!
 

Hey there! THanks for the laugh! It felt GREAT!!!!!!!

Big hugs!
Erin:D