If you or a loved one is suffering from MS (multiple sclerosis) then you probably know how horrible this disease is. However, it is possible that you don’t know all there is to know. Those suffering from it, or watching loved ones suffer only see the aftermath. What they don’t see is what is actually happening to the person’s body. This article is going to try to shed some light on that in layman’s terms.
In many ways, MS is not unlike AIDS as it is an autoimmune disease where the body itself attacks its own cells and tissues. What most people don’t understand is why this happens. The cause of MS is still not known. What IS known is that the immune system of the body does not respond as it’s supposed to and instead of just attacking whatever invading virus or bacteria enters it, it attacks the sheath that surrounds the nerve fibers. These attacks occur in the brain, spinal cord and optic nerves.
Early symptoms of this attack are relatively mild and include tingling, numbness, loss of balance, weakness in the limbs and blurred or double vision. As the disease progresses, the symptoms become more severe. Each case of MS is different but common symptoms in the later stages include partial or complete paralysis, loss of awareness of body parts, blindness, incontinence, memory problems, respiratory problems and epileptic seizures.
The disease itself usually strikes people between the ages of 20 and 40, but at no age are you completely immune from the disease. Women are more prone to MS than men.
Treatments for MS vary and depend mainly on the stage of MS. There are several stages including relapsing-remitting and secondary progressive. And then there are various treatments depending upon the actual symptoms. Obviously, with so many parts of the body that can be affected, the number of treatments available are numerous as well. Also, many of the symptoms of MS are also common to other diseases, which makes diagnosing this disease all that more difficult.
In my signature you’ll find more information on this very serious disease.
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Frank Smalley
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