Things To Know About Multiple Sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis is a condition where the myelin sheath around nerves in the brain and spinal cord is damaged. This interferes with messages from the nerves to and from the brain and causes a wide range of symptoms.

A thorough medical history, physical exam and MRI tests can help diagnose MS. Other diseases are not likely to cause MS symptoms.

Symptoms

Multiple Sclerosis is a progressive, incurable disease that affects both the central nervous system (the spinal cord and brain) and causes irreversible damage. It causes damage to the myelin sheath, a fatty substance that surrounds and protects nerve fibers.

This damage can disrupt the normal communication between your body and brain. You may feel fatigue, pain, vision changes, and bladder problems as a result.

Fatigue is the most common symptom of MS, and is experienced by 80% of people with the disease. It can make it difficult to get up from your bed and function at work or home.

It also can lead to depression and other mental health issues. Some patients also experience a loss of balance and coordination, as well as difficulty in speaking or swallowing.

About half of MS sufferers experience muscle spasms. These spasms can cause pain and discomfort and can lead to your legs locking up and stopping working.

These spasms can become more severe and frequent over time. They can interfere with your ability to move and cause you to fall over or trip.

Other problems that can occur include numbness in your arms or legs, and especially your hands. This may be due to the involvement of the nerve pathways that control movement of your muscles.

MS symptoms usually begin with weakness or tremor in one leg or both. This may happen over several months or years or suddenly.

Your doctor at the MS ayurvedic treatment clinic will examine and ask questions about your symptoms. They may also perform tests to confirm or disprove the diagnosis of MS. This includes an MRI, which helps to detect patches of damaged tissue (lesions) in the central nervous system.

Relapse prevention and steroids are two options for MS treatment. These are used to reduce inflammation and the severity of MS attacks. Steroids also speed recovery and can help to end a relapse as quickly as possible.

Diagnosis

A doctor will examine your medical history, perform a physical exam, then test you for MS symptoms. To confirm the diagnosis, they may order lab tests. They may also conduct MRIs with or without contrast dye to help locate lesions that are associated with MS.

An MRI can show your doctor areas of damage to the central nerve system that are typical of MS. They can also detect changes in the volume of the brain and spinal cord.

Your doctor may also examine your blood to check for certain proteins that are associated with inflammation in CNS. They may also look for oligoclonal banding in your cerebrospinal liquid, which bathes both the brain and spinal chord.

To test your spinal fluid in the laboratory, you might need a spinal tap or lumbar perforation. This test can help to identify inflammatory proteins and proteins in your spinal fluid that could be linked to inflammation in MS patients.

Another test that is sometimes used is a cranial ultrasonography, which can help diagnose optic neuropathy and other eye-related conditions. An additional tool that can help diagnose MS patients is the retinal coherencetomography (OCT), which scans the retinal nerve.

Depending on your symptoms, your doctor might suggest rehabilitation therapies to help you adjust to changed mobility and function. This could include physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech and swallowing assistance, and cognitive therapy.

The progress of MS is unpredictable, varying from person to person and even in the same patient. About 20% of people with MS have no symptoms after an initial clinical event; the others have relapsing-remitting MS, which recurs with less severe symptoms after each attack. Another 20% are diagnosed with primary progressive MS, which causes neurological dysfunction to worsen from the first episode.

Treatment

Multiple sclerosis isn’t curable, but treatments can help manage symptoms, slow the progression of the disease and reduce the risk of relapses. There are many medications that can be used to treat the most common symptoms such as fatigue and pain.

Your doctor may also prescribe a medication called an immuno-suppressive to prevent relapses. These drugs deplete white blood cells and prevent your immune system from attacking the protective coating called myelin that surrounds your nerves. They are only used to treat relapsing MS patients. This means that the disease doesn’t usually go into remission.

If you have an episode of relapse, your neurologist can administer high doses of steroids intravenously or by mouth. These can be used to relieve symptoms such as muscle stiffness and numbness.

A lumbar puncture (or spinal tap) may be performed to collect cerebrospinal liquid to check for inflammation in your spinal cord. This test is possible while you are in the hospital.

The lumbar puncture can also detect abnormal oligoclonal bands in the fluid that can indicate an inflammatory process. Other tests, such as brain or spine MRIs and evoked potentials, can determine the location of plaques in your brain or spinal cord that are responsible for your symptoms.

Symptoms of MS can be erratic and unpredictable. They can be severe or mild, and can affect different parts of the body. The varying symptoms can be hard to deal with at times.

Your physician will collect your full medical history and perform a thorough neurological examination. They may also run diagnostic tests to rule out other diseases that could mimic MS. These include a brain and/or spinal MRI, evoked potentials and a lumbar puncture (spinal tap) to search for evidence of inflammation in the cerebral spinal fluid.

Your neurologist will then decide what type of MS you have. There are two main types, relapsing-remitting and progressive. The more common type of MS is relapsing–remitting MS. Relapses typically occur within the first few year after diagnosis and can lead slowly to disability. The progression of disability varies from person to person, but most people never get beyond a 7 on the Expanded Disability Status Scale.