I am guessing that i am not the only one to have read the below, linked to article, or similar?
I find it interesting that although no definitive ‘cause’ of MS has yet been identified, it is alleged that such ‘clusters’ form due to simple ‘coincidence’.
I suppose it is reasonable that, with most MS sufferers being diagnosed whilst not forming part of such clusters (that are known of), these coincidences form the minority of cases and are thus not ‘statistically significant’, but i do worry that the obvious answers can sometimes be staring us right in the face.
Anyway… i offer this to merely provoke chin scratching:
This article is absolute rubbish. You know how many people have to be in a room before 2 of them are statistically likely to share the same birthday? 365? 366? 99.9% probability is reached with just 70 people, and 50% probability with 23 people - see Birthday problem - Wikipedia - stats are loaded with clusters, they are rarely significant
We tend to think that ‘random’ in nature means the same as ‘broadly evenly distributed, all else being equal’. But it doesn’t. Things often look to our explanation-seeky minds like clusters that must have an extra hidden cause, when in fact it’s only randomness doing its thing - just in a more lumpy way than our tidy minds expect.
A couple of people in my (small) circle of acquaintance, who have been in my life for many years, but who were born and raised and live far away and are not related either to each other or to me, have been dx with MS since my dx. That is a hefty chunk of my Xmas card list. Coincidence? Well, actually, yes.
I do tend to take ‘Coincidence? I think not!’ stories with a hefty pinch of salt. For sure, apparent clusters can be indicative of some mystery factor at work that is worthy of investigation. But not nearly as often as we think.
Coincidence or not,it is strange how some area have a higher incidence of people with ms.My area has less than 2000 people but quite a few people with ms here and more getting dx.Iv spoken about to others onthis and lots of theories thrown around like mountains,grass pollens,water etc.It is mysterious but no conclusive explanation.It does make you think. Jimmy