What exactly is multiple sclerosis? How does disease development happen and what actually causes it? You have the brain, and the spinal cord and the cranial nerves that make up the central nervous system, and that governs, thinking, a lot of mood. It covers sensation, motor control.

We've begun, first describing multiple sclerosis. I believe in the 1800s there were these white scars that could occur in the brain and the spinal cord, and was involved in, developing, problems with sensation and problems with, motor movement, and control. We would eventually realize that it was an immune attack that is your immune cells. White blood cells are attacking parts of your brain and your spinal cord or your cranial nerves. In that it's attacking the myelin, which is the insulation or the coating on the nerves that let the nerves conduct information really very quickly.

There are genetics that make you perhaps a little bit more. We have maybe 200 to 300 different genes that increase the risk just a tiny little bit for each individual gene. There are a handful of genes that increase the risk more substantially. Perhaps 10 to 15%. So that's step one. You have to have the wrong genes.

Step two is an infection of some type that occurred sometime earlier. Probably as an adolescent, perhaps as a preschooler that you don't properly clear. And then step three is we don't really understand. There's this complicated interaction with unknown environmental factors. If you're overweight, if you smoke, that certainly increases your chances.

But then there are other environmental factors, probably what you're eating, your physical activity, your toxin exposures, your adverse childhood events. And that's why people will say, we don't really know what causes MS. It's a complicated thing. Some genetic components, some infectious components in these environmental components.

My brilliance is like, so we don't know, but we could address all the environmental components and shift all of those environmental factors towards the most health promoting, context that I could create. So fix your diet, add stress reducing practice, increase your movement, physical. Talk about your adverse childhood experiences.

In this episode, you'll discover:

• Multiple sclerosis is a disease that affects the central nervous system through an immune attack on the myelin that causes issues with sensation and motor control.
• The risk of developing multiple sclerosis is increased by genetics, with around 200 to 300 genes slightly increasing the risk and a few increasing it by 10-15%, as well as by an infection that is not properly cleared and unknown environmental factors.
• While the exact cause of multiple sclerosis is not fully understood, addressing environmental factors such as diet, stress reduction, physical activity, and adverse childhood experiences can help shift towards a more health-promoting context.

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