What Is Multiple Sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis affects 2.5 million people worldwide; including 400,000 Americans. This is a serious and chronic illness that can render a person disabled if left untreated.

Multiple Sclerosis or MS as it is more commonly known is a brain and spinal cord disease. It is caused by progressive damage to the myelin, the outer covering of nerve cells.

This results in the loss of muscle control, vision, balance, sensation (feeling) and reasoning (thinking ability). Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease in which the nerve cells of the brain and spinal cord are attacked by the body’s own immune system. This disease has no cure.

What Happens In MS?

The central nervous system is made up of nerves which act as the body's messengers. These nerves are covered by a fatty substance called myelin, which protects the nerves and helps in the transmission of nerve impulses between the brain and other parts of the body.

In multiple sclerosis, scar tissue builds up and forms around the brain and spinal cord causing inflammation of the nerve tissues there. This happens when the body’s own immune system attacks the nervous system.

Scientists cannot explain why this happens. When the myelin is destroyed, nerve impulses are slowed down or blocked. And although the nerves can regain myelin, the process is not fast enough to outpace the deterioration that takes place in multiple sclerosis.

The symptoms, severity of the symptoms, and the course the symptoms take, vary with each individual. This is in part due to the location of the scar tissue and the extent of demyelination. Demyelination is the process in which the myelin covering of the nerves is destroyed.

According to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS) around 400,000 Americans have MS and it the most frequent cause of neurological disability in early adulthood. It affects approximately 1 out of 1,000 people.

Multiple sclerosis is more common in women than men and does not occur before adolescence. A person’s risk for developing this seriously debilitating diseases declines after the age of 35. This disease most commonly begins between the ages of 20 to 35.

Cause

The cause of MS is unknown. Research shows that geography and environmental factors may be involved. MS is more likely to occur in northern European countries, northern U.S.A., southern Australia, and New Zealand. Basically places away from the equator.

Areas and people living closer to the equator have much lower rates of this condition. Studies suggest that MS is more common in certain parts of the world than in others. It goes on to say that if you move from an area with a lower risk to one of a higher risk, you acquire the risk of your new home, if your move occurs before adolescence.

There is also a genetic link to MS with some families more likely to be affected than others. Certain genetic markers are more common in people with this disease.

Scientists are unable to understand why the body’s own immune system attacks the nerve cells. Some believe it is a combination of genetics and the environment, to which a person is exposed to early in their lives.

In the U.S., for example MS is more prevalent in Caucasians than in other racial groups. African and Japanese people rarely get this disease, but African Americans and Japanese Americans do.

The most frequent theories about the cause of MS include a virus-type organism or an abnormality of the genes responsible for control of the immune system. However, these theories have yet to be proved.

Research studies show growing evidence that hormones, including sex hormones, can affect and be affected by the immune system. For example, both estrogen and progesterone, two important female sex hormones, may suppress some immune system activity. Testosterone, the male sex hormone, may also act as an immune response suppressor.

Symptoms

The symptoms in MS vary from person to person and can change over time in the same person. The most common early symptoms include:

• Muscle weakness
• Decreased co-ordination skills
• Blurred vision accompanied by eye pain &
• Double vision

As this disease progresses, there is increased muscle stiffness, pain in movement, difficulty controlling urination and difficulty in thinking. There is usually a stepwise development of this disease, with episodes that last days, weeks, or months alternating with times of few or no symptoms.

Treatment

There is no cure for multiple sclerosis, but a variety of medications are available that can reduce the frequency and severity of the symptoms of this disease. Some drugs can also slow the progression of certain types of MS.