Multiple Sclerosis
Plenty is known about the damage and destruction Multiple Sclerosis wreaks on the Central Nervous System. What isn’t as well known is the exact cause of Multiple Sclerosis, and when it comes to curing a progressive disease, the what without the why isn’t even half the battle.
The most recent working theory is that Multiple Sclerosis is an autoimmune disease. This means that a person’s immune system attacks his or her own central nervous system. Some argue that Multiple Sclerosis is not autoimmune, rather a metabolically dependent neurodegenative disease.
While the debate rages on about the cause and origin of Multiple Sclerosis, it seems that researchers, doctors, and patients of all kind can agree that the effects and damages of the disease are serious and widespread.
Multiple Sclerosis causes the degeneration of myelin, which is a fatty layer that protects neurons. Demyelination handicaps the affected nerves by lessening their ability to conduct signals. These problems in nerve transmission cause complications in movement, sensation, cognition, vision and other functions. Multiple Sclerosis is also known to cause muscle weakness, severe fatigue, loss of balance and coordination, and depression. Which symptoms affect which patients depends upon the particular nerve transmissions that are interrupted.
Multiple Sclerosis generally attacks in two ways. Patients may find their symptoms occurring in either sharp flare-ups, or in a slow build-up over time. Though Multiple Sclerosis symptoms may seem to disappear between flare-ups, there will be lingering and permanent neurological problems, especially in advanced stages of the disease.
While there is currently no cure for Multiple Sclerosis, there are a bevy of effective treatments and the life expectancy of many Multiple Sclerosis patients is on par with the life expectancy of those who are unafflicted.
Multiple Sclerosis