Pediatric MS cases rise in the Northwest
By Carol Smith
November 26, 2012
The Pacific Northwest has one of the highest rates of multiple sclerosis in the world, yet the reasons why remain elusive. It?s an old mystery, but one that now has a new face. Today, doctors are seeing a growing number of cases in kids. They hope these young patients will yield more clues to what causes the disease.
MS is an autoimmune disease that causes nerve damage over time. It?s more common at higher latitudes, and tends to affect more women than men. Eventually, it can impair someone?s mobility, their vision ? even their thinking and memory. It?s always been known as a ?prime-of-life? disease, one that typically strikes in young adulthood.
For Allexis, now a senior at Central Kitsap High School in Silverdale, that wasn?t the case. She was diagnosed when she was 14 years old.
It started one Friday during the summer two years ago.
?I couldn?t sleep because I had the worst headache,? she said. ?Out of a scale of one to 10, it was a 15.? She tried to go for her regular morning run the next day, and things got worse.
?I didn?t even go my entire route, because there was something off ? I was tipping over,? she said. ?I was, like, falling.?
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Doctors aren?t sure what?s driving the apparent increase. It?s likely partly from improved diagnostic techniques and increasing awareness among pediatricians that MS can occur early in life. But some also think that the growing onslaught of chemical exposures in the environment may be making immune systems more vulnerable to whatever triggers the illness.
?I think adolescents may be at higher risk,? said Dr. Sylvia Lucas, a neurologist at the University of Washington Medical Center, and co-founder of the pediatric clinic at Children?s. Younger patients have immune systems that are still immature, and ?as such may be more susceptible to the effects of food additives, toxins in the air, lack of vitamins,? she said...
