[doingtheiroming]

I'm sure you're awayre that lots of evidence now that MS and many other AI diseases are caused / induced by acute or chronic viral infections:

https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2022/01/epstein-barr-...

It really feels at this point that not by connecting these diseases together and treating them as a class, we're missing the woods for the trees. Sadly, all of the economic incentives are to keep treating them separately and reductively because chronic diseases are great long-term revenue generators. TBC, I'm not attacking the drug companies here (UC was a killer until pred was discovered in the 1950s and Vedolizumab is working fantasically well for me) but we need the immune system to be treated as genuine clinical and research discipline to really cure these things.

My last UC flare was preceeded by a bout of shingles which is caused by an opportunistic latent virus. My doctors always talk of my immune system as being over-active. It really seems to me that it's more the immune system becoming disordered - which latent viruses play a major role in. My docs aren't remotely interested in having that discussion because it doesn't involve the details of gut epithelial cells. Fascinating as they are, I don't think we're going to cure UC or any other AI disease by focusing on them.

[jassyr]

There is very convincing research that Epstein Barr Virus causes Multiple Sclerosis, and the current treatment I am on for MS destroys the B-Cells the latent virus lives in. I think you're spot on, infections are probably the cause of most of these auto-immune diseases.

In MS we're getting closer to finding the cause and ultimately the cure. It does take a while for research to get funneled to the right person with the right specialty and right funding -- sometimes years, decades.

I'm not sure tying the diseases together would be a winning strategy...? My MS could be caused by the EBV living in B-Cells and a genetic or environmental (or both) trigger. Your UC may be caused by a certain bacteria living in your gut triggering a T-Cell response by a different genetic or environmental element.

And yeah, the doctors don't want to hear my pet theories. hah. I have done my own labs, brought them in, and the doctor just gives me a condescending look like - why are you even trying? I guess they don't know how desperate most of us are for answers.

[haldujai]

> There is very convincing research that Epstein Barr Virus causes Multiple Sclerosis

Eh, the strongest evidence is one large study from last year of 10 million military personal followed for 20 years that identified ~800 total cases with a hazard ratio of 32 for EBV seropositivity.

There’s strong evidence of an association but I don’t think the causation question is answered. The challenging thing to reconcile is how low the incidence of MS is despite 90% EBV seropositivity in healthy controls (99-100% in MS).