Worldwide the number of people that have been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis is somewhere between 2.3 million and 2.5 million. In the United States there are roughly 450,000 to 600,000 individuals that have been diagnosed with MS which mathematically works out to 1 in 4 or 25% of all patients world wide. And that number is quite simply staggering when you consider that there are 7.5 billion, give or take a few million, people now living in this world. Which if my math is correct means that about 3 out of every ten thousand people will be diagnosed with MS worldwide. In the US that number works out to roughly about 2 out of every thousand. I admit these are very rough numbers but there close enough to show that the incidence of MS in the United States is much more prevalent then anywhere else on the planet.
Let’s look at this in a different and even more startling way. If we take the number of US diagnosis’ and divide that into the total number of people afflicted with MS worldwide we find that 1 in 4 or 25% of all people with Multiple Sclerosis live in the United States which definitely begs the question, why? Especially when you consider that we have roughly 5%, or one 20th, of the total world population, again I ask, why?
When I worked through these numbers I did only the Multiple Sclerosis numbers that are easily found on the internet and I didn’t look into all other autoimmune disorders as a whole but I wonder if I did would they show a similar distribution of autoimmune disease in the US as compared to the combined world population?
If my math is even close to being correct it strongly suggests that there is some kind of environmental trigger that is far more prevalent here in the United States then anywhere else in the world that’s the only thing that makes any sense. And in my opinion with this information it should not be all that difficult to determine what that environmental trigger really is which would answer a whole lot of questions about this, and perhaps other, disorders of these kinds and what kick starts these disease processes into over drive.
What do you think? Make some noise whenever and where ever you can. I strongly suspect that we, who have these autoimmune diseases, are the canaries in the mine and are just the first people to succumb to an ever, and increasingly more polluted, and sick planet!
Bill Walker
Multiple Sclerosis And Beyond 
So sad . I tried to have a cluster study done in the neighborhood I lived in till I was 9 yrs old. There are 5 people all on the same block within 2 houses of each other where people got MS. One has died since first one to get at 19 yrs old passed away at 59. Young man across street from her got in 20s . I already moved yrs ago( 2 houses from him) got at 56 yrs old though drs think may have had for years. Lady across street from where i did live got in her 40s then another at ophanage 1 mile down got in 50s. Wayne county. Michigan will not do study too long ago they say and county is broke. Dxs from 1960’s-2009. How many more I wonder. Homes all built with aspestos sising. Who knows how much powder from in ground air and water. Dont know whatvhouses were built on. New neighhboorhood. Same type homes built in 1950s.?????
It’s very sad when governments and companies are far more interested in their bottom line profits then they are fro the well being of the people who have no other choice but to use their products!
msandbeyond, look at how our government and pharmaceutical companies get along……It’s always about the $$$$
I agree totally Richie, greed is an terrible motivator for the human race!
First of all, it is a hard disease to diagnose. It took doctors 20 years to diagnose me. Other country’s are not as advanced as we are here in the US, so people are just not getting diagnosed. It is way more prevalent than we think. Everywhere.
Sandi I do agree with what you said, but still feel that it is more than likely a disease with a huge environmental trigger!
Bill, you always write factual information, I appreciate your time writing.
Well, I appreciate that you feel that this is a factual based article/blog, but believe me, I have read several other comments around facebook that do not share that belief. However, my blogs are mainly to encourage a discussion, and this one certainly did that! LOL
I am from England but diagnosed in North Carolina 1987 when I was enduring extreme humidity and high temperatures. I often wonder if this climate change was a contributory factor.
Anything is possible, but I just wonder if research facilities are being instructed to search for expensive treatments instead of the real cause. Greed is a powerful motivator when you have the patient completely over the barrel! Thank for the comment!
Anybody else think there could be a possible connection with “Rh disease” ? I recently learned that my great grandmother lost 7 babies due to this (back then they had no knowledge of blood type compatibility. She had Rh negative blood and Great grandfather had Rh positive. The first two babies survived, but the rest did not. Basically the Rh negative blood sees the Rh+ blood as foreign, therefore launches attack. (Auto immune) factor. So my theory is, since the Rh(+ and – ) are still present to some extent, though hidden within some cells / tissues, there could be a hidden battle going on there, maybe from past Rh incompatibility somewhere down line. OR, virus etc. that is hiding out “INSIDE” the nerve cells involved in the MS attack. Just some thoughts.
And very good thoughts at that, as I had not heard of this until you brought this to my attention. It does sound plausible, thank you for the input!
There have been 9 relatives diagnosed on my mom’s side. My mom, myself, my son, an uncle, 2 cousins, 2 second cousins, and a great aunt . For years, it was only 4 of the older ones that had been diagnosed. Just within the last 10 years, the rest of us have been, myself in 09, my son inn2012. But our doctors keep saying”We don’t think it’s hereditary.” Jusr wish like everyone else, we had some answers . Thank you for your time.
Shontel, I think that either it is hereditary, or that all of you live in approximately the same location and are being subject to the environmental trigger, or both! Do you live in an area where there is a high rate of Multiple Sclerosis? My vote is that it is both factors that your family is experiencing.
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