[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).