3 ms·

Stress has never been proven to be a link, though it is often repeated. Being male does sometimes make things worse and males are more likely to have a more pro

Stress has never been proven to be a link, though it is often repeated. Being male does sometimes make things worse and males are more likely to have a more progressive form of the disease than females. (The vast majority of patients are females: I know they suspect an interplay of hormones creating different outcomes, but I don't know if they've proven it). As far as progression, that is something that happens to some people. Some folks never have the relaspses and time in between and others, the disease turns into progressive form. If scientists haven't figured out why some are more progressive or why some folks' MS turns progressive, I highly doubt looking at one's own life is going to find a key to progression. I'm not the parent here, but I can't see the point in such a thing.

neltnerb 6y ago
Oh, I thought the statistics were that half as many men as women have it. I don't know if I'd call that vast, though admittedly most people who have mentioned that they have it have been women. I probably just saw bad stats. Like, yes, my life has been very stressful for years at a time. Those times weren't when it became progressive though, and good luck finding a control that has never had periods of stress and then doing statistics on them somehow...
- Broken_Hippo 6y ago
  You are correct! Not as many males get it. I was more pointing out that males, when they get it, are more likely to have a hard time and more likely to get primary forms and the relapsing forms are more likely to turn progressive early on (women wind up catching up after menopause sometimes). And yeah, everyone has stress. They thought that stress caused relapses at one time, though, but further research has ruled it out. They can look at folks that have had undue stress and look at timing of relapses vs times of major stress to see if the link is correct. The 'stress-free life' advice still gets passed around though.

neltnerb 6y ago

Oh, I thought the statistics were that half as many men as women have it. I don't know if I'd call that vast, though admittedly most people who have mentioned that they have it have been women. I probably just saw bad stats. Like, yes, my life has been very stressful for years at a time. Those times weren't when it became progressive though, and good luck finding a control that has never had periods of stress and then doing statistics on them somehow...

Broken_Hippo 6y ago
You are correct! Not as many males get it. I was more pointing out that males, when they get it, are more likely to have a hard time and more likely to get primary forms and the relapsing forms are more likely to turn progressive early on (women wind up catching up after menopause sometimes). And yeah, everyone has stress. They thought that stress caused relapses at one time, though, but further research has ruled it out. They can look at folks that have had undue stress and look at timing of relapses vs times of major stress to see if the link is correct. The 'stress-free life' advice still gets passed around though.