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Natural Health News Articles
Page: 1
| Posted: 7th August 2004 |
| Multiple Sclerosis |
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Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a non-contagious chronic autoimmune disorder of the central nervous system which can present with a variety of neurological symptoms occurring in attacks or slowly progressing over time.
Signs and symptoms
Affected individuals may experience a wide variety of symptoms, such as vision loss, double vision, nystagmus, difficulty with speech, various kinds of tremor, clumsiness of the hands, unsteady gait, weakness, spasticity, numbness, and bladder, bowel, as well as sexual dysfunction. Various cognitive impairments are also common, such as difficulty performing multiple tasks at once, difficulty following detailed instructions, loss of short term memory, depression, and fatigue.
Disease course and clinical subtypes
In most cases MS starts with an acute flare-up of symptoms within hours to days, called a relapse, exacerbation, bout, episode, or attack. Inflammation of an optic nerve (optic neuritis), causing painfulness of eye movement and visual deterioration frequently is the first symptom. However, not all patients with optic neuritis develop MS. Sensory disturbances such as numbness or tingling sensations are other frequent initial symptoms. In principle, MS can start with any of the symptoms mentioned in the section above.
Especially in early phases of the disease, symptoms frequently decrease or resolve spontaneously within days to months. Therefore, this disease course is called relapsing remitting. New relapses can occur within weeks to many years and can include formerly experienced and/or new symptoms. However, MRI studies have shown that nerve damage can continue in relapsing remitting patients even if symptoms subside. It has long been known that "MS never sleeps". This highlights the importance of preventive treatment if and when it is available.
In many cases, the disease course changes after several years and symptoms start to deteriorate slowly with or without superimposed relapses. |
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