Multiple Sclerosis (ms)

Nearly 200 people in the united states are diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) every week. There are 3500,000 to 500,000 Americans wuth MS, according to the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation. Multiple Sclerosis ic commonly called MS yet very little is known of the disease. MS is not contagious but affects the people around it. Chances are you can think of at least one person who is crippled by MS but do you know what it is that this person is facing. Ms is a degenerative autoimmune disease that has no definite cause or cure.

Multiple Sclerosis is a lifelong disease with varying symptoms and stages. Ms can be developed in three different forms. Relapsing-remitting MS, Primary-progessive MS, and Secondary-progessive MS. A person with relapsing-remitting has a Ms attack or relapse which is followed by a period of decreased or no symptoms. This stage of remission can last as long as a few months to as little as a few days. Some of these attacks leave the person with a permanent physical impairment and then others will only have restrictions that they can resolve themselves in a short time just a few weeks. This stage however is always short lived cause its always followed by another attack and the pain cycle continues. Now a person with primary-progessive Ms does nothave specific attacks. These people instead have a single attack or a specific symptom and from then on maintina a gradual decline in disability and normally are immobile or impaired within a few years of the diagnosis.

A person who has secondary-progressive is first diagnosed with relapsing-remitting MS but progesses to the point of no cycle in attacks and relapsees. In every form of Multiple Sclerosis the syptoms vary among patiients and throughout the course of there lives with the disease. Each symptom is caused by the patchy destruction of the myelin sheath that covers and insulates every nerve axon in a person's brain and spinal column. Once this fatty white tissue hardens the nerve and sclerosis occurs. This sclerosis slows or blocks the passage of messages along the nerves that control and direct the signals for the body movement, bladder functions, sensations of temperature, and the feeling of pain. It can even affect loss of vision, dizziness, fatigue, slurred speech, painful sensations, feeling of heat or burning and muscle spasms.

The cause of Multiple Sclerosis is unknown what is known about MS is that for an unknown reason the immune system of a person with MS attacks the axon nerve cells myelin sheath and continues doing so for their entire life. Multiple Sclerosis occurs more frequently in areas that are farther from the equator in the temperate zones specifically between forty and sixty degrees north and south. Epidemiologists who study these types of cases are looking at many different factors including variations in geography, demographics (Age, gender, and ethic background) genetics,infections, and migration patterns pretty much anything that could aid in the proof of any kind of MS producing virus or factors.

According to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society studies of migration patterns have shown that people born in an area of the world with a high risk of Ms who move before the age of 15 acuire the risk of the new area. This is suggestive to the idea of exposure to some enviromental agent that occurs before puberty may predispose a person to develop MS later on. Multiple Sclerosis is not strictly considered hereditary while having a first-degree relative such as a parent or sibling with MS will increase the risk for developing the disease. Studies have shown that there is a higher relativity of certain genes in populations with higher rates of MS. However it is also known that genetic factors have also been found in families where there is more than one person with MS. Some researchers think theorize that Ms develops because a person is born with a genetic gene that reacts to some enviromental agent that upon exposure triggers thats persons immune system to begin the attcks. This is just one of the many theories on why MS developes, however it is stil unkown why ones body would suddenly attack itself in a such a destructive way.

Since little is known of the cause of Ms ideas for finding a cure becomes even harder. Most people simply work on managing the disease itself. This can be done by any of these