When I was in my 40s I had a detatched retina. The doctor asked me if I had had any head trauma. (this conditionis not uncommon in people who have been bashed) I have never had a head trauma.

The detatchment turned out to be a rare genetic condition which later occurred in my other eye as well.

My point is.... that you can hold anything up as a cause for something , if you try hard enough.

What you are asking seems a tad far fetched to me.

I've wondered about that same connection (spine included)-- I know it has been debated in the medical community for awhile. My sister and I both have been in car accidents--whiplash etc..and we both have MS now. My hunch is I doubt our accidents were the actual causes of our MS...but they may have contributed though. As women of Scottish descent, we are supposedly in a higher risk group for MS anyway, so who knows? It is an interesting thought.

Hi KatMV
The reason I was wondering, is my father played rugby, and did get injured, he also spent time in Europe, the theory when he was diagnosed is that people from South Africa who visited Europe would sometimes get MS. They say there is a genetic component, I am also from Irish decent, so yes, also in a higher risk group. My sister though has no sign of MS, but then I have very fair skin and did not spend a lot of the time in the sun, burning lobster red, she however has olive skin, spent a lot of time in the sun, got huge doses of Vitamin D from that, it might have reduced her risk significantly. Who knows?

There are a bunch of theories floating around. But after all I've read, I think the only thing that can be said about MS with 100% certainty is that it is a #%?@ mystery.

The most interesting one though was the genetic link I'd learned of from my sister's MS dr. My mother -who is from Scotland- went with my sister on one of her 1st appts with this specialist (very highly specialized MS guy-really knows his stuff). As they were talking, I guess he noticed my Mom's accent, & asked her where she was from. She told him Scotland - and he immediately shook his head in recognition, looked at my sis and said, "That's where you got it."
He seemed very assured about that as a causal factor - really blew us away. I don't know all the details, but supposedly it came from when the Vikings invaded that area. Is that bizarre?

I still have tons of family in Scotland, and from what I've heard, MS is very prevalent there. Anyway, my feeling is, perhaps it is the combination of factors -the heritage + the northern latitudes thing (lack of sun/Vit D).

Don't mean to ramble on - I just find the whole genetic thing fascinating.

KatMV, that is absolutely wild. I've never heard anything like that. I'm totally going to look into that.

Rincewind, I was totally dropped on my head as an infant. Fractured skull and all. My husband thinks it just turned me into a smart-ass, but what an interesting question.

Here's an article from 2012 about it http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2245978/Vikings-blame-Scots-highest-levels-multiple-sclerosis.html
(I'm not familiar with this publication, but I've read this info elsewhere)

Hi Kat, thank you for the article, have actually forwarded it to my neuro, would like to get his take on it, I am lucky to have a "nutty professor", he loves information.

KatMV, Just because it's so absolutely fascinating, here is another article from the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry:

http://jnnp.bmj.com/content/64/6/730.full

It's an old article, but still a very interesting read.

Very cool.

I'd be curious to hear if anyone has some additional thoughts on the original post about the possibility of there being any connection between head/spine trauma and MS.

I was in a automobile accident in 1986 and suffered a head injury. In 2002 I had my first attack with MS but I wasn't I diagnosed until 2012. I do think there is some connection.

My best friend, who has MS, was told it was an autoimmune thing that was possibly caused by radiation from atomic testing in the mid-1940's. She was born in 1946 in the southeastern New Mexico area, and there has been legal and political wrangling going on for years about whether people who were born within the testing area and develop any kind of an autoimmune disorder should get some sort of settlement benefits.