Multiple Sclerosis: Description, Symptoms, Diagnosis, and Treatment

Multiple sclerosis, sometimes known as MS and disseminated sclerosis, is an ailment of the body's central nervous system. It is a chronic disease capable of causing a variety of different symptoms, among them muscle weakness, depression, problems with vision, difficulty speaking, severe fatigue, and pain. In more extreme cases, multiple sclerosis can impair a person's mobility or cause disability.

Multiple sclerosis is categorized as an autoimmune disease that affects the neurons (brain and spinal cord cells that transmit information to and from parts of the body). These neurons carry electrical impulses from the brain, allowing it to control the body. A substance known as the myelin sheath, which facilitates the neurons carrying the information from the brain, surrounds most of those neurons. Multiple sclerosis slowly destroys myelin and transects neuron patches throughout the brain and spinal cord, impairing the messages being sent from the brain to the body parts. The term "multiple sclerosis" is in reference to the many scars (or scleroses) that form on the myelin sheath after being cut the way that it is. Some doctors and scientists have postulated that the disease is caused by the body attacking itself, its own immune system attacking its nervous system.

Common first symptoms a person with multiple sclerosis may experience include double vision, partial or complete loss of sight, change in sensation in the face or limbs, and difficulty balancing. These symptoms often last only for a short while at first, and many people dismiss them as insignificant and do not seek medical attention until further "MS attacks." It is not unusual for a person to be experiencing multiple symptoms at the time he or she does seek medical attention. Other symptoms of the disease include unusual and unintentional clumsiness, tremors, unusual muscle spasms, and bladder or bowel irregularities. Loss of attention and emotional instability can also occur as the disease progresses.