The Myth of Normal 70

emotional triggers of suppressed fear and anger instilled in her in childhood were activated around her family, and that, in turn, would inflame her nervous system. Multiple sclerosis is another autoimmune condition for which personal histories, childhood adversity, and the decisive influence of stress have been extensively studied. The first to describe this illness, the French physician Jean-Martin Charcot, sometimes called the father of modern neurology, proposed in 1872 that MS resulted from “long-continued grief and vexation.” As with his younger contemporary and fellow medical giant William Osler’s insights about rheumatoid arthritis, much information has since accrued to support Charcot’s pioneering formulation. “A majority of the MS patients had grown up against an unhappy family background,” found a 1958 study at two Montreal hospitals. “Marital discord, broken homes, alcoholism, and lack of parental love and affection were given as reasons for unhappiness.” The vast majority had suffered prolonged emotional stress prior to the onset of their disease. Also salient in triggering relapses were such stresses as “worry over financial matters, unhappy home life, increased responsibility, either alone or in combination with such other factors as fatigue, overexertion, overwork, accidents, injuries, and childbirth.”[19] A decade later, another study (in which Dr. George Engel, of the “biopsychosocial” coinage, participated) also concluded that “the majority of patients . . . reported psychologically stressful experiences to have preceded the onset of the symptoms that ultimately led to the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, findings corroborated by family members when available.”[20] The evidence just keeps coming. MS patients experiencing significant life stresses were seen to have a nearly quadrupled incidence of disease flare-ups. [21] Finally, a major review of the literature presented at an international conference in Portugal in 2013 found a host of patterns among MS patients, including more unwanted stress or traumatic events occurring between six months to two years before onset;