What Is Multiple Sclerosis ?

MS is a term you’ve probably heard often. But what is Multiple Sclerosis and how does it affect you?

Multiple Sclerosis often called MS is the result of inflammation of the central nervous system which includes the brain and spinal cord. It is mostly a disease that affect the white matter which is made up of nerve fibers that are the body’s communicators.

In people who have MS lesions are found randomly along the white matter of the central nervous system. Where the lesion forms the myelin is lost. MS is one of those diseases that is very unpredictable and very difficult to characterize and it hits each victim very differently depending on where the damage to the central nervous system is.

MS does not strike any two people the same way. Severity, location, and timing all differ but the underlying cause is the same in each case. The severity in which MS strikes is dependant on where the damage occurs and how much function is lost as a result.

Although symptoms vary there are symptoms to watch for. Visual symptoms include loss of color vision, eye pain, and blurred vision, double vision or jerky eye movements, lack of coordination between the eyes, flashing lights with eye movement.

Motor symptoms can include muscle weakness which may include some paralysis. Loss of muscle tone causing stiffness, pain and restriction of limb movement as well as muscle wasting and involuntary muscle contraction may occur.

Sensory symptoms include tingling, buzzing, vibration sensations, numbness, as well as burning or itching sensations. There may be facial pain and buzzing with head movements.

Coordination and balance symptoms include shaking with fine motor skills, abnormal balance, nausea, travel sickness, loss of coordination, stuttering, speech problems,

There may be urinary urgency or incontinence as well as impotence in both men and women. Bowel movements may be irregular or there may be incontinence or urgency. Acid reflux, impaired senses, and swallowing problems may occur. Memory problems, forgetfulness, and speech problems can occur.

MS can be a very serious disease but there are few cases where a patient actually looses function to all areas. Numbness, pins and needles, tingling, muscle weakness and spasm, cramps, blurred vision, pain, incontinence, constipation, loss of balance, slurred speech, extreme fatigue, depression, cognitive dysfunction, short term memory loss and breathing problems are all problems an MS patient can experience.

It may sound more devastating than it is for the majority. 75% of MS suffers will not require a wheelchair. Many may require a cane after suffering for several years. Others will experience symptoms so mild that unless diagnosed by a doctor will never know that they infact have MS. Only a small percentage of people die from MS in its late stages of development.

There are different varieties of multiple sclerosis. Benign MS describes people who have suffered from MS for more than 15 years. Malignant MS also called acute multiple sclerosis describes a rapidly progressing disease with sever disability over a short time.

There is no cure for MS but there are various treatments that are used to help control the disease, manage symptoms, and improve function and quality of life. Because MS varies so greatly each person’s treatment plan is unique to them. For example Interferon therapy is one treatment that has shown to be effective in controlling the frequency and severity of many of the symptoms of MS. There are several different MS treatments, including the interferons, Rebif, Avonex, Betaseron and Copaxone.

People with multiple sclerosis have a tough road. One reason is that their disease may still be progressing even when symptoms are quiet. It’s important to understand the disease so that you can learn how to make informed decisions about treating MS.

Deon Melchior is the Editor and Publisher of Article Click. For more FREE articles for your ezine and websites visit ArticleClick.com. Article Click is a free content article directory. This means that as a publisher you may reprint the articles that are included in our site, as long as the article is unedited and the author box is included with it's live hyperlinks.