Medical mysteries part three
Posted: Thursday, May 15, 2008 12:47 PM by Barbara Raab
By Robert Bazell, NBC News Chief science correspondent
With the third part of our series, “Medical Mysteries,” about auto- immune diseases, we turn to what many see as the biggest mystery of all: why do these disease strike women in far greater proportions than men?
As many have you have commented in response to earlier reports and blog postings, all these diseases do indeed affect men as well and we certainly do not mean to ignore that fact. But still, it is overwhelmingly a problem for women. The numbers vary for different diseases, but they can range from three to 10 times as common in women as compared to men.
So what is the answer? The fact is that scientists do not know--even though they have been searching for years. Clearly, a woman has to have a difference in her immune system so she can tolerate a fetus in her body. Clearly, hormones are involved, because often auto-immune diseases get getter or worse before, during, and after pregnancy and menopause. Many scientists think that if they could understand why women suffer disproportionately, they would find better treatments.
Tonight’s report focuses on multiple sclerosis, the auto-immune condition that leads to destruction of the covering of nerve cells, including those in the brain. It can be horribly crippling in many ways
The woman we feature, Cathy Dennes Akay, is involved with a fantastic MS charity called Cure MS Now. Other excellent sources of information are the National MS Society and the National Institutes of Health website on the subject.
In tonight’s reports, we do not deal with the exciting research toward finding better treatments and many other important aspects of MS. Each of the reports in this series is only about two minutes long. We try to highlight important issues in a compelling way. With the limited time we can only mention so many things, but we hope the links to websites like those above can be helpful for those seeking more information
