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What is Multiple Sclerosis?
Multiple sclerosis is a serious chronic and progressive illness affecting your body's nerves that can render a person disabled. It affects the brain and spinal cord resulting …in loss of muscle control, vision, balance, numbness or thinking ability. Answer It effects the central nervous system -- the brain and spinal cord. It attacks the myelin covering of the central nervous system, causing inflammation and often destroying the myelin in patches. MS has defined attacks followed by complete or partial recovery. It is difficult to diagnosis the future progression of this disease or specific symptoms to the patient. MS can occur at any age and is usually diagnosed through the ages of 15 - 40. It is 3 times more likely to occur in women than men and is more common in people of Northern European background. Symptoms of MS vision disturbances, extreme fatigue, loss of balance, problems with coordination, stiffness of muscles, speech problems, bladder and bowel problems, short-term memory and partial or complete paralysis. Not all people with MS will experience all these symptoms and the symptoms will improve during periods of remission. Scientists do not know what causes MS, but many doctors believe it's an autoimmune disease. The body's immune system malfunctions and starts attacking the myelin which protects the central nervous system. There is also evidence that MS may be triggered by a common virus and some individuals are more susceptible to developing MS re genetic factors. There is absolutely no evidence that MS is a directly inherited disease. MS is diagnosed in most people with the relapsing-remitting form of MS. Over time some people in this category develop secondary-progressive MS while others may have mild attacks but do not worsen and are considered to have benign MS. There are successful medications for both relapsing-remitting MS and secondary-progressive MS. The treatments have been shown in clinical studies to actually modify the course of the disease and it can decrease the frequency and severity of MS attacks, reduce the number of MS lesions in the brain and slow down the progression of disability. It's important that therapies which are available are taken for the MS symptoms of spasticity, bladder problems, pain and fatigue. MS is not contagious nor directly inherited although research studies are suggesting that genetic factors make certain people more susceptible to developing MS. It is said that there is a cure such as: Repairing damaged myelin and nerve fibers to find a way to stop the damage and stimulate myelin regrowth. The other important research is the repair inured nerve fibers. Virus research is making great progress. Significant progress is being made in understanding how genes may contribute to the development of MS and that research is the largest in the world and in Canada. Since the 1980s magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is used to see into the living brain and to detect MS lesions. MRI allows for faster diagnosis of MS and faster evaluation of potentially useful MS therapies. (MORE)