What is going on with Multiple Sclerosis?(M.S.) In reading about this debilitating malady; people living between the 30th and 40th parallels(approximately), are more at risk than anywhere else. Also, the per capita rate of M.S. diagnosis in Utah, is one of the largest in the world. No rhyme or reason as to why. It is not uncommon to meet or know someone with M.S. Can anyone shed some light on this?
In addition to the facts you cited, the disease also tends to strike women far more often than men, usually women between the ages of 25 and 35. As far as I know, the reasons why has not been satisfactorily explained.
Interestingly, although there seems to be at least some kind of genetic link (due to the high percentage of victims who are nothern-European descended females), here is a doctor here at Vanderbilt University Hospital who suspects (contrary to most of his peers) that the common bacteia Chlamydia pneumoniae is a contributing factor. Here is an excellent article about Dr. Sriram’s work.
One of the patients mentioned in the article is my wife’s sister, so we have a special interest in his work.
After posting the above, I found an even more thorough discussion of the study going on at Vanderbilt.
http://home.earthlink.net/~robert016/ms.htm
I think that you are somewhat mistaken, pbob57. Generally, MS increases in frequency the farther you get from the equator. Here is a map showing MS distribution in the USA and you’ll see that the MS rate increases as you go north (I won’t comment on the article in which the map is embedded). Here is a World map of MS and you’ll see the same trend. (I couldn’t find a map showing geographic variation of type I diabetes rates butfigure 3.4 in this article comes close. Note the strong increase in rates as you go furthe from the equator).
In addition to genetics, one thing that may explain this type of geopgraphic variation (and for type I diabetes also) has to do with hygiene (typically, people living in temperate latitudes enjoy better sanitation and less exposure to infectious organsims). One theory would hold that if your environment is “too clean” and your immune system isn’t forced to keep busy dealing with viruses and the like, it may get ino mischief and start fighting with itself. The result is so-called autoimmunity. MS, and type I diabetes, are examples of autoimmune diseases.
Some other evidence for this idea is found in the fact that animals raised in germ-free environments develop a lot of autoimmune disease.
Thanks Skammer for the insightful articles and data. I will pass this on to others. I like you have a special interest as well.