For those not entirely sure of exactly what, medically speaking, MS is, let me tell you. MS is the breakdown of myelin, a sort of fatty tissue, that surrounds nerve fibres in the body like insulation around electrical wiring. This 'insulating' tissue is called 'myelin sheath'.Myelin sheath also makes the initials MS so hence another, unofficial, way of describing MS as 'myelin sheath disease'.
Basically the official line is that no one knows what causes MS — which is why there are almost as many theories as there are people with MS! I have done some research on this and the way I believe MS develops is that a combination of factors all have to come together in a certain way over a set period of time.
In sequence it looks something like this:
- A genetic weakness (or 'predisposition' as the doctors call it)
- A long-term nutritional deficiency or imbalance (possibly due to malabsorption)
- A long-term situation of emotional stress or strain (possibly coupled with a very specific emotional trauma)
- A severe infection, particularly of the throat (such as tonsillitis or glandular fever)
- A physical trauma or injury (this could be something dramatic such as whiplash but it could just as easily be something as simple and non-specific as falling off a chair: these sort of minor injuries often go undiagnosed and untreated because there is little or no pain and so the person injured this way doesn't think of it as an injury).