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Multiple sclerosis - Symptoms - Causes - Diagnosis - Treatment

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Multiple sclerosis is a life-long debilitating auto -immune disease that affects the nerves . Treatment is aimed at controlling the symptoms.

Multiple Sclerosis or MS affects more than a million people worldwide. In India there are 40,000 - 50,000 people estimated to be affected by the disease. It frequently attacks young people usually in the age group of 20-40 years and is more common among females than males.

MS is a crippling disease that starts in the prime of youth. It can cause financial, physical and emotional drain on the family of the patient for many years. It is not a killer disease and the patient has more or less a normal life span but gradually as the condition worsens, the patient is totally disabled and requires managed care.



It was first described in 1835 by French neurologist Jean Charcot. In the initial years the disease has remissions and relapses and typically has a long drawn or chronic course with the person completely recovering from the early symptoms of multiple sclerosis. Relapses or recurrence of the symptoms can occur after initial recovery with each attack consisting of the earlier symptoms or new ones. The symptom pattern, course and severity of the disease vary from person to person.

It has an auto immune origin i.e. the body begins attacking its own nerve fibers, when the fibers become scarred, they give rise to the picture of ‘sclerosis’.

The affected nerve fibers cannot convey signals to and from the brain resulting in loss of sensation, weakness, inability to walk, see or balance oneself, depending on the particular nerve affected by sclerosis.

The diagnosis is made with the help of a typical history, neurological examination and an MRI scan which will show the extent and area of sclerosis.

Treatment for multiple sclerosis consists of medicines to modify the course of the disease, drugs to relieve symptoms, and physical therapy to cope with disability caused by the disease.


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Posted by:  Nandinin(Guest)  Posted on: 02/26/2012
Will the person suffering from this disease has to take the medicines whole life.


Posted by:  Adriana  Posted on: 02/26/2012
Depends on the medication. Some are having so many side effects that it is not possible to take more than 2 years. But you can be out of it, especially if you are young and in the initial stage, and this without any unwanted side effects.

It is a disease for the whole life, but the treatments are not available, until you search in the right direction for it. It can be cured, as I know a few from them.




Posted by:  limboland  Posted on: 09/03/2011
I am currently in limbo being tested for MS. I had a brain MRI in April that showed multiple [non-specific]white matter lesions in the sub cortical areas. I have a spinal MRI booked in October. A bit of history: In 2001, I woke up in the middle of the night tried to roll over and couldn't because my right side was numb. By morning I had some feeling and movement back but the side was still week and tingly. Dr ordered a CT scan and said there were no signs of stroke but definitly something neurological. It was left at that. In 2006, I started getting a burning/ tingling feeling in the back of my legs. I had moved so I had a different dr he figured it was sciatica. This would come and go lasting anywhere from a few hours to a week at a time. In 2009, I started having numbness in my toes. It went downhill from there. While camping one day I had a reaction to heat from the sun. My hands and feet started to feel like they were burning. We were at a lake and I had to go sit in the shade. Over the course of the day it got more intense and I started getting weird sensations in my arms electic type pains and even the feeling as if someone was flicking water on my arms. The pain continued to intensify and by the end of the day I could hardly bend my fingers. This lasted 3 days it hurt so bad I even slept on the floor with my hands over the air conditioner. For the next four months I felt aweful. Weak, tired, could hardly walk up the stairs. Pain in my legs especially at night. Pain in my jaw/throaght, headaches, ears ringing,dizzy spells, numbness and tingling. the dr tested me for lupus twice, diabetes twice, porphiria and did like a hundred blood tests all came up negative. I moved back to the town I lived in before a short while later. I felt great for about a year and a half then all of a sudden I started getting the leg pain again. I also started getting tingling and numbness and twitching in my face and eye. My feet and wrists started hurting and going numb, blurry vision in my eye never lasting more then a minute, chest pains, weakness, bladder issues and the scariest was when my legs went numb from the knees to my toes (lasted about 5 hours). It is to the point I had to stop working until they figure out whats going on and treat it. My doc is unsure as to what further testing should be done. Any suggestions or advice is welcomed.



Posted by:  Adriana  Posted on: 10/08/2010
Hi Fisher,

that is right, the warm or hot weather is affecting and worsening the disease. You have to protect yourself agains it. There are many other things what you ca do.
My friend is a doctor, so if you want I can give you in details the informations you need.



Posted by:  Dale_Hormuth  Posted on: 08/19/2010
hi my name is dale hormuth i am 22 years old and was diegnosed with MS on may 29 of 2010 i have no clue how to deal with this so plz e mail me at acecoolcat@yahoo.com plz i would like to talk to someone about it


Posted by:  Adriana  Posted on: 02/26/2012
Hi Dale, I tried to contact you on your email but I could nor reach you. You can write to me one email on: helpforms@gmail.com You can do may things, since you are you young and in the initial stage. Just write me back... Take care




Posted by:  vg712  Posted on: 11/21/2009
I have had MS for the past 10 yrs & the attacks have repeated for 6 times. Everytime I was given steroids (methyleprednisolone)which helped me to recover. Two weeks back I started Betaseron, so its too early to say how it will effect me !



Posted by:  fisher(Guest)  Posted on: 06/01/2009
i am a suffer of m.s. when i am in the sun i start to dizzy and feel lighthead, i wat to know if the sun could make the disease worse or is it in my imagination.could anybody give me some advice thanks


Posted by:  guest  Posted on: 11/11/2009
My mom has ms and is very affected when she overheats. When outside she trys to stay cool by staying out of the sun. My understanding of ms is that the central nervous system is compromised, when we overheat and become dehydrated our central nervous system is affected. She exercises by swimming in a pool so she can stay cool. Hope this helps



Posted by:  wheelchairgranny  Posted on: 07/01/2010
HELLO, THERE ARE COOLING VESTS THAT WILL HELP BUT YOU NEED D3 - RIGHT NOW I AM ON 50,000 UNIT EACH WEEK. GET YOUR LWEVEL CHECKED AND STAY COOL ALSO ENTER RECIPES IN MY COOKBOOK I AM DOING WWW.TYPENSAVE.COM I CAN SEND YOU MORE INFO, SEND ME ADDY I HAVE PROGRESSIVE RELAPSING MS.




Posted by:  jo612  Posted on: 04/08/2009
Is there 29 different meds that are taken all at once every morning for MS plus an injection,plus still having the pain 24/7 and stll be able able to run walk and funktion normaly?And be at level 10




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