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.
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