The majority of people become infected with EBV as infants or young children. The virus spreads primarily by oral route via saliva. To enter the body, it infects mucous membranes lining the mouth, throat, and stomach.Cognitive psychology learning and memory from there, the virus infects B cells, the type of white blood cell that produces antibodies. It also infects T cells and natural killer cells, but to a lesser extent.Cognitive psychology learning and memory infected white blood cells transport EBV throughout the body.

The virus, however, is not eradicated. It persists inside memory B cells, a type of white blood cell that retains “memory” of an infection for future reference — except in this case, the cells are sabotaged into storing the actual virus.Cognitive psychology learning and memory memory B cells infected with EBV accumulate in lymphoid tissue and nerve tissue, and stay there for a lifetime.

This dormant state is referred to as the latent phase. 9, 6, 12, 23 traditionally, people in the latent phase weren’t considered infectious.Cognitive psychology learning and memory but with all the daycare workers, teachers, grandmas, and college students actively shedding the virus without knowing it, it’s become clear that someone can be very infectious without being ill.Cognitive psychology learning and memory in fact, recent evidence supports that people often actively shed virus from tonsillar tissues without having significant symptoms. 23

Scientists are just beginning to explore the link between chronic EBV and other chronic illnesses, but one of the most well-researched is EBV’s relationship with multiple sclerosis (MS).Cognitive psychology learning and memory many studies have defined a variety of different mechanisms by which the virus could initiate and perpetuate MS — not enough to define EBV as the sole cause of MS, but highly suggestive that it does play a role in the illness. 10

cognitive psychology learning and memory

My experience taught me that the microbes are always there — I had likely harbored mine since childhood. It’s not until a perfect storm of factors comes together to disrupt immune functions that a person becomes ill.Cognitive psychology learning and memory for me, that perfect storm was caused primarily by years of chronic sleep deprivation associated with every-other-night obstetrics on-call-duty and eating a poor diet on the run, but there were other minor stress factors as well.Cognitive psychology learning and memory

As I shifted my practice toward caring for individuals with chronic illness, I began to see similar patterns in my patients — not necessarily the same stress factors that I had experienced, but stress factors that disrupt immune functions just the same.Cognitive psychology learning and memory I began cataloging them and, interestingly, I reached a limit of just five categories of stress factors that are associated with chronic illness.Cognitive psychology learning and memory

To help identify chronic EBV, start by trying to rule out infectious mononucleosis. By definition, IM is an acute infection with EBV alone, and there are antiviral agents (such as acyclovir, ganciclovir, and vidarabine) that work extremely well for IM and other acute infections of herpes-type viruses, so it’s worth doing testing to define IM over reactivated EBV.Cognitive psychology learning and memory

Testing for IM looks for antibodies to the virus; the presence of different types of antibodies can distinguish between IM and reactivated EBV.Cognitive psychology learning and memory but testing for IM isn’t always straight-forward — mononucleosis-like syndromes can also occur with other herpesviruses (CMV, HHV-6), other viruses (typically adenoviruses), and a protozoan called toxoplasma gondii. 26 in other words, many different viruses can cause viral syndromes similar to EBV.Cognitive psychology learning and memory

Scientists have sorted out the technical reason for this. Antiviral agents work by blocking DNA polymerase, an enzyme the virus uses to replicate inside cells.Cognitive psychology learning and memory latent or chronic EBV infection, however, does not require DNA polymerase for the virus to replicate — therefore, current antiviral agents are ineffective against chronic EBV infection. 1