The evidence mounts up…
Infection with a common bacteria could be the switch that turns on the autoimmune response in multiple sclerosis (MS) according to the findings of Wayne State University PhD graduate, Derek Lenz, now of the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif. He described the work he carried out as part of Robert Swanborg’s team at Wayne State University School of Medicine. He said studies in rats show that an antigen found in the bacteria Chlamydia pneumoniae mimics part of a myelin protein in the animal’s central nervous system. When injected into the animal, it provokes the immune response that causes the rodent version of MS, experimental allergic encephalitis.
http://tinyurl.com/8ckw6
However, C. pneumoniae may seem an unlikely cause of MS – it is a ubiquitous pathogen and, by the age of 70, nearly everybody will show a positive blood test. It causes silent epidemics of bronchitis and low-grade respiratory infections. (This would be the illness that I had in 1974, the one and only time that I had a “chest infection” and I didn’t see a doctor nor have time off work.) When not infecting the cells of the lungs, it survives as a spore that is metabolically inert and almost impossible to destroy. ( The cryptic stage!)
The research paper carries on to say that cpn may not be the determining factor for the development of MS and that genetics may also come into the equation. But as far as I am concerned, cpn is the first thing that I can tackle – the only thing in fact because in the traditional neuro view there is nothing for me but to crawl away and die.
It’s a good job that my current GP is a brave star, if my GP was still Holley I would have been told that I’d have to learn to live with it or, die with it in this case. She was always a waste of space!
