Sleeper Cell Virus? EBV Hides in Your Body for Years. Then It Can Attack #SecondOpinion

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-24

[00:00:00]Uh, sort of like, it's it's so I guess one other thing that I definitely want to share is that it's in the same family of viruses as chickenpox. And most of us know that chickenpox, if we've been exposed later, causes shingles later in age. So it's sort of EBV basically sort of kind of does the same thing in adulthood as we age.

[00:00:24]And so just like chickenpox lies dormant until there's um uh some type of reactivation happens within our immune system, the same thing happens with EBV. It um it hides from our immune system. And so um as as we age, as we live, as we are exposed to other diseases, the dormant EBV tricks our B cells, our host B cells, into making a viral protein called EBNA2.

[00:01:06]And so this protein flips a switch that makes the B cell highly inflammatory.

[00:01:12]And then the inflamed B cell then activates helper T cells, which mistakenly attack the body's own cell components and then recruit more immune cells to join the attack. And so for those who may be asking like, what what in the world is a T cell? So the helper T cells are the what I call the coordinators of our immune system. And so once they detect a threat, they send out signals throughout the immune system for help.

[00:01:41]And so when it comes to MS, EBV in our body is actually um sending out signals for our bodies to attack um its own um basically cells. And so that's what we see with MS. And do we know, you know, not not every 19 out of 20 people will develop multiple sclerosis or lupus or Alzheimer's disease related to EBV, correct?

[00:02:11]>> Mhm. Correct. So, is there any way for us to be tested to see if my EBV maybe leading me towards a path of having these autoimmune diseases or Alzheimer's at a later stage in life or is it kind of a random occurrence?

[00:02:27]It's random, um, and which is scary.

[00:02:30]However, um, well, once again, um, with any disease, if there if you have a number of family members that have lupus or have MS or are more prone to Alzheimer's disease, definitely should get tested and they can actually, um, it's not common, but they can actually test your, um, DNA, um, to see if there is any, um, lingering EBV viruses in your cells. Hm.

[00:02:59]And and let's say I get tested and and I'm now positive, right? And now I'm freaked out >> [laughter] >> I'm 40, right? And I have tested positive and and I'm thinking, okay, I have family history. Is there anything I can do to strengthen my immune system to potentially reduce the risk of EBV progressing and causing these kind of chronic related illnesses?

[00:03:23]Mhm. Yeah, so more, um, in maybe the past few years, companies are actually creating EBV vaccines.

[00:03:32]And so that will definitely, um, turn the tide, especially, um, in more African-American communities where we're seeing, um, higher, um, diagnosis of MS and lupus and even with Alzheimer's disease.