Recently, I had a reader tell me that I should check into the Interstitial Cystitis (IC) and Epstein-Bar connection. I had never heard of IC and the “kissing” disease possibly being related in anyway.
What my reader didn’t know is that I had the Epstein-Bar virus shortly before I was diagnosed with IC.
When I was diagnosed with Epstein-Bar, my doctor told me to remain home for 4 weeks and just rest. There was no medicine or anything to do but rest. He said the “kissing disease” was contagious so I could not go to work. He said my immune system would take care of this virus, but it would take time. I remember a liver panel and blood test being done to check some sort of levels. If the levels were still high, I would have to stay home another 2 weeks; however, I was cleared to go back to work after a month. Actually, the month off was nice. I got to rest and enjoy the break.
I found a study abstract published in the Journal of Urology in September of 2018 exploring if a viral infection (in this study, Epstein-Bar Virus) could be a potential etiological cause for IC. Generally, IC is characterized by bladder inflammation without bacterial infection. The study concluded that the “Bladder Epstein-Barr infection in T cells may be linked to the pathogenesis of persistent inflammation in patients with interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome.” [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed]. The complete abstract can be found at this link – Epstein-Bar and IC study.
TREATING INTERSTITIAL CYSTITIS 