Multiple Sclerosis - Causes

Multiple sclerosis is a disease related to neurology and occurs in a chronic form of flow. Doctors refer it to autoimmune diseases, that is, in which the human immunity begins for various reasons to produce antibodies and lymphocytes against healthy tissues and body cells.

With multiple sclerosis, the aggression of the immune system is directed to nerve fibers. Namely, on their shell, called myelin. This membrane protects the processes of nerve cells, allowing them to work effectively. Destruction of this shell leads to the breakdown of brain connections and damage to nerve cells.

The disease is completely unrelated to bad memory, as it may seem to the average person. The diagnosis of multiple sclerosis is often not at all in the elderly, but rather in young people and middle-aged people (up to 40 years) and even in children. And the word "absent-minded" does not speak about the concentration of attention, but about absent-mindedness, that is, the prevalence of foci of destruction of the myelin sheath throughout the central nervous system from the brain to the spinal cord.

Causes of Multiple Sclerosis

Like most autoimmune diseases, multiple sclerosis is still a mystery to scientists. The exact cause of the disease has not yet been determined. And the conventional version says that the disease occurs when a combination of certain risk factors, which can be both external and internal:

  1. Genetic factor . Heredity plays an indirect role in the onset of the disease, but it is still established that the relatives of the sick, especially brothers, sisters and parents are at greater risk. The risk of disease in monozygotic twins rises to 30%, in case one of them falls ill.
  2. The epidemiological factor adds to the list of causes of multiple sclerosis. Residents of Scandinavian countries, Scotland and other countries of Northern Europe are more likely to suffer than those in Asia. It was found that the incidence in the United States is higher among people of the white race than in others. And also that the change in the region of residence affects the risk of developing the disease only to adolescence.
  3. Ecology . It is established that the prevalence increases in direct dependence of the remoteness of the region from the equator. Such an aggravation of multiple sclerosis is associated with various environmental factors, for example, the amount of sunlight (and, correspondingly, the amount of vitamin D consumed), which is less in northern countries where the risk of developing the disease is higher.
  4. Infections . Scientists are actively developing a version of the relationship between the development of sclerosis and viruses. Particular attention is paid to the causative agents of mononucleosis, measles, influenza and herpes.
  5. Stress . There is no direct evidence of this theory, but the theory that there are psychological reasons for the occurrence of multiple sclerosis remains. A number of diseases associated with with psychosomatics recognized officially and, since there is no official cause of the disease, scientists working in this field are actively developing this theory.
  6. Paul . Women get sick several times more often than men, and it is linked to the hormonal background. It is believed that the male hormone testosterone suppresses the immune response, as well as female progesterone and estrogen, which, when deficient, causes the disease. This is proved by the fact that during pregnancy breastfeeding, when the level of hormones increases several times, all forms of multiple sclerosis become less frequent and less often the primary manifestation of the disease occurs. But immediately after childbirth, when there is a regular hormonal adjustment, exacerbations of the disease occur many times more often.