Multiple Sclerosis

Multiple Sclerosis

Posted by icare4MS

About MS

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a condition of the central nervous system.

In MS, the coating around nerve fibres (called myelin) is damaged, causing a range of symptoms.

More than 100,000 people in the UK have MS. Symptoms usually start in your 20s and 30s and it affects almost three times as many women as men.

Once diagnosed, MS stays with you for life, but treatments and specialists can help you to manage the condition and its symptoms.

We don't know the cause and we haven't yet found a cure, but research is progressing fast.

What happens in MS?

To understand what happens in MS, it's useful to understand how the central nervous system works.

A substance called myelin protects the nerve fibres in the central nervous system, which helps messages travel quickly and smoothly between the brain and the rest of the body.

In MS, your immune system, which normally helps to fight off infections, mistakes myelin for a foreign body and attacks it. This damages the myelin and strips it off the nerve fibres, either partially or completely, leaving scars known as lesions or plaques.

This damage disrupts messages travelling along nerve fibres – they can slow down, become distorted, or not get through at all.

As well as myelin loss, there can also sometimes be damage to the actual nerve fibres. It is this nerve damage that causes the increase in disability that can occur over time.

MS symptoms

As the central nervous system links everything your body does, many different types of symptoms can appear in MS.

The specific symptoms that appear depend upon which part of your central nervous system is affected and the job of the damaged nerve.

Physical symptoms

Physical symptoms of MS  might commonly include vision problems,balance problems and dizziness, fatigue, bladder problems and stiffness and/or spasms.

Other symptoms might include problems with:

·         Bowel

·         Speech

·         Swallowing

·         Tremor

Memory, thinking and emotions

MS can affect memory and thinking, and also have an impact on emotions. Like all MS symptoms, you might experience this in varying degrees, or not at all.

Sexual problems

MS can affect sexual function for both men and women. There are ways to manage these symptoms, and the more you and your partner understand what's causing them, the better you can tackle them.