Everyone seems to have Epstein-Barr in my family. My mom, who has celiac disease and sciatica, and my sister, who has lichen sclerosis.
Given that typical MDs don’t seem to have answers for my mom’s pain, she reads a lot on possible ways to help herself. She told me that in this book, the author claims that Epstein-Barr virus (EB), the one that causes mononucleiosis, is the source of most autoimmune diseases… or at least the catalyst. Now, I don’t necessarily agree with that as I’m positive Lyme brought on mine, and I tested negative for EB, but there might be something to this. Just as Lyme “kickstarted” my autoimmune disease, this virus ostensibly has the potential to “kickstart” multiple sclerosis.
According to this study in Neurology, instances of mono in adolescents and adults indicated four times the risk of developing MS in Black and Hispanic participants, and two times the risk in White participants.
Multiple sclerosis is a neurological disease where the immune system attacks the myelin sheath of nerve cells, resulting in nerve damage, in some cases permanently. In progressive cases, some patients can lose complete daily function. To learn more about MS click here.
This study means that EB can be an indicator of MS later in life. This could mean faster diagnoses for patients if their doctor can connect their exposure to EB with their symptoms. This could also open the door for researchers to look more into EB prevention and treatment to impede the development of possible autoimmune diseases connected to it.
