Madison Area Lyme Support Group

Large numbers of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients appear to be clustered in southeastern Wisconsin, and researchers are trying to find out why.

Healthcare records showed densities of MS patients as high as 1,000 cases per 100,000 persons in some Wisconsin zip codes, about three times the norm of 353 per 100,000 population in the Midwest, reported Ahmed Obeidat, MD, PhD, of the Medical College of Wisconsin and Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee, in a platform session at the 2022 annual meeting of the Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers.

“The numbers were eye-opening,” Obeidat told MedPage Today.

Some clusters of MS patients lived in areas near aluminum manufacturers, he observed.

“I noticed a large number of patients who came to see me in the clinic from areas that are at a distance from my practice location,” Obeidat said. “Frequently I saw people coming from the same town or the same zip code, so I asked the question: is there a clustering of MS cases in Wisconsin?”

“When I looked at the areas where these patients came from, I noticed aluminum manufacturing plants,” he continued. “I reviewed the literature and found previous reports of large amounts of aluminum in brain tissue of people living with MS and other neurodegenerative disorders.”

“If anything, we are underestimating the overall numbers, because we have access only to the cases we follow at our health system,” Obeidat noted.

(See link for article)

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SUMMARY:

• People in Wisconsin are also affected by vitamin D deficiency due to lack of sunlight.
• Smoking, obesity, and Epstein-Barr virus also have been linked with MS.
• The link between MS & aluminum shows the need for an investigation of local environmental factors.

What the author is omitting; however, is the connection between MS and undiagnosed tickborne illness like Lyme disease.

For more:

• https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/have-you-been-told-ms-might-lyme-its-treatable-jenna-luche-thayer
• https://www.lymedisease.org/lymepolicywonk-lyme-neurologic-misdiagnosis/
• https://www.saltwire.com/atlantic-canada/news/ms-or-lyme-woman-questions-ns-treatment-options-after-double-diagnosis
• https://multiplesclerosis.net/clinical/differences-ms-lyme-disease  This article highlights that testing for Lyme will reveal the answer; however, testing for Lyme is abysmal and everyone and their dog knows this. Since Lyme is a bacterial infection and MS is not it would seem prudent to try antimicrobials on patients to observe their response. Also, educated Lyme literate doctors sometimes use an antimicrobial “challenge” test before Lyme testing as many patients do not make enough antibodies to test positive until the pathogen is disabled/killed and floating around in the blood stream to be detected.  Unfortunately both of these ideas are shunned by mainstream medicine, to the peril of thousands of patients.  
• https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2022/01/18/longitudinal-analysis-reveals-high-prevalence-of-ebv-associated-with-ms/
• https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2022/04/15/multiple-sclerosis-the-infection-connection-parts-1-2/
• https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/06/04/minocycline-for-ms-and-much-more/
• https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2022/04/27/ms-drug-targeting-ebv-shows-promise/
• https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/12/03/multiple-sclerosis-linked-to-variant-of-common-herpes-virus/
• https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/08/21/aluminum-in-the-brain-in-multiple-sclerosis-regulatory-and-funding-agencies-silent-complicit/