Hi, I’ve recently been diagnosed with MS, telephone consultation tomorrow with consultant to tell me what type of MS I have. So far not too many problems. I’ve become used to pin’s and needles, electric shock feelings and tightness of calf muscles! And the foot drop! I’m ex RAF Medic. What are your thoughts on whether MS is hereditary? I’ve had 2 paternal aunties who both had MS.
Well, “they” always say it’s not, but I think “they” generally don’t know what they’re talking about and just make educated guesses. My grandfather had something neurologically wrong with him that was never diagnosed, because he’d broken his back during the war, and both of my kids have neurological issues that haven’t been diagnosed because one is a juvenile diabetic and the other is extremely overweight. Maybe they don’t have MS, but there’s obviously something hinky in our genetics, and I think that there aren’t enough doctors and scientists interested in looking into our family backgrounds.
hi let us know how you get on.
I think the jury is out on hereditary more a link with auto immune. for example my dad had lupus, also my grandad had parkinsons. My sisters have auto immune thyroiditis.
there is research out there. Being attached to RAF myself via my dad, I actually wondered if it was more down to all the crazy vaccinations i had to have going places. xxx
good luck with your appointment, and welcome. x
Welcome Nicki1. You have come to the eight place for help and opinions. It is up to you whether to accept them or not, and do your own research; that is important. The more you know to better equipped you are to converse with the medical personnel you will deal with.
One theory that is being studied is that people may develop MS if they have had some kind of tragedy in your life. If that is so, your military background may have triggered something that set off the triggers for MS.
I hope people will agree or disagree with this post.
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I think Veen and CC both have good points. I tend to lump “hereditary” with “anything related to family”, so I think CC said it better by linking auto immune disorders rather than a definite inherited gene.
I have long believed that someone needs to delve into our backgrounds more: What natural environment were we exposed to? What did our grandparents do for a living? How many vaccines and childhood illnesses did we have? Or unexplained health issues in early childhood? May as well toss in tragedies, too.
I lost 2 cousins to the same supposedly-rare childhood cancer. They were both born in distant states, but their mothers grew up near each other in coal country and their grandfathers and shared great-grandfather worked in the mines. Given the variety of other auto-immune disorders we’ve had in the more recent generations from this same great-grandfather, I can’t help but wonder if there’s some kind of connection. Possibly not with the coal itself, but maybe the digging knocked loose underground organisms or gases that had an as-yet-unknown effect.
Should that have been “affect”? I get confused with those.
Before my father died i was pretty fit working a job i loved. when dad died in october of 1997, i greived really hard he was my best friend as well as dad. when i had issues in my first marriage in germany he came twice to make sure i was safe.
it took about a month to come out of shock i was quite ill with grief.
then 1999 things started to go weird and 2000 when i got my first MS symptom going blind.
I think the death of my father triggered the MS or auto immune response which took me on the track to MS. xxx
Thank you for your kind words and thoughts. I’ve got RRMS. There is still a lot of research that can be done so we can all get the answers about MS. I’m sure one day the answers will come! I like to do research and see what I find. I’m lucky, the NHS trust that I’m under have been wonderful, the consultant and the MS nurse listen to what I say and treat me as a person. I’m sure like you all when diagnosed had so many questions that you needed answered! Things like what is a relapse, what will MS stop me doing etc but thankfully my consultant has been great.
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Crazy Chick is right about events causing some kind of trigger that sets off the autoimmune system.