Wrongly Diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis? Take a Peek at the Early and Secondary Symptoms of MS
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is an auto immune disease that affects the brain and spinal cord and in which the body’s immune system, which normally attack bacteria and viruses, attacks a person’s central nervous system instead. MS also leads to inflammation of parts of the infected brain and spinal cord causing damage.
The inflammation stops the affected nerve fibres from functioning properly and symptoms develop, but this then clears and the never fibres heals and starts working again. But this inflammation may be repeated and leave small scars, called sclerosis, which permanently damage the nerve fibres. Someone with MS will have many (multiple) areas of small scarring that develop in the brain and spinal cord.
MS can begin at any age, with early signs occurring between the ages of 20 and 40 and more common in women.
Symptoms depend on which part of the brain or spinal cord is affected. There may be one symptom in one area of the body or several symptoms in several areas. Common symptoms include numbness or a tingling sensation on parts of the skin which is most common during a relapse, muscle paralyses that affects mobility, problems with balance and co-ordination, problems passing urine, tremors or muscle spasms, erectile dysfunction for men, partial loss of vision or difficulty speaking and mood swings.
MS goes through stages of development. There’s the relapse-remission form of the disease, in which a person suffers from a bout of symptoms that last days or weeks, then the symptoms disappear again for months leaving a person on remission. More relapses followed by remission then occur over time. The frequency of relapses varies, with one or two relapses a year been typical. The relapse-remission pattern can last for several years and symptoms may also change during each relapse.
As MS develops, some of these symptoms may become permanent due to accumulation of scar tissue in the brain and the gradual nerve damage that occurs. Symptoms also worsen over time and secondary symptoms like urine infections, contractures and osteoporosis may be present. People with relapse-remitting MS will usually develop secondary MS symptoms after 15 years.
In primary progressive MS, there is no relapse-remission pattern, and the symptoms become worse from the beginning and the patient never recovers. Benign MS indicates only a few relapses in a person’s lifetime with no permanent symptoms.
MS may be hereditary with higher chances of developing the disease in those with a family history. It can be difficult to diagnose as MS symptoms are present in other diseases and there are no definitive tests to prove the existence of the illness, but a firm diagnosis can be made after at least two relapses. There are also tests that can indicate the possibility of MS, these include MRI scans of the brain that can detect small areas of inflammation and scarring, or a Lumbar procedure in which a needle is inserted in the spinal cord to measure protein levels.
There is no cure for MS, but treatments are available to alleviate the symptoms and treat relapses. Immunomodulatory drugs are used to reduce the number of relapses, steroids reduce inflammation and anti-spasm, pain killers and anti-depressants may also be prescribed. Physiotherapy, speech therapy and psychological therapy are also being recommended.
August 17th, 2009 at 10:34 pm
Mood swings? This is the first I heard, must be the result of trying to get people to understand what is wrong with you. And that sounds like a reasonable reaction to some very ignorant behavior, not a symptom of a disease. May be inherited. Since no one knows what causes MS, it is foolhardy to say something like this. I was diagnosed 35 years ago.