It is a chronic disease that affects your brain or nervous system. It creates a blockage between the brain and the spinal cord which ultimately causes many other symptoms.

It is unpredictable that how much it will progress throughout the body. Some people show mild symptoms like vision blur, numbness in the whole body, limb tingling, etc. When it gets severe, a person may face loss of vision, problems in movement. It is a lifelong disease that sometimes gets severe and causes disability for a long time. In some cases, it is treatable, but on average, the life expectancy rate decreases with this condition.

Types of MS:

It is divided into four types according to the symptoms including:

  • Clinically isolated syndrome (CIS): It is the pre–Multiple Sclerosis stage. At this stage minor symptoms of MS are experienced. It is also called first episode of Multiple Sclerosis. At this stage it is difficult analyze whether someone has it or not.
  • Relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS): When the symptoms of first episode worsen, there is 85% chance you will have RRMS1. It is sometimes, also calling the second episode of MS. It is the most common form of Multiple Sclerosis.
  • Primary progressive MS (PPMS): In this, symptoms get worsen gradually without early remissions or relapses. However, you can experience short term recovery, but it has a slim chance. About 15% people are diagnosed with it at first.
  • Secondary progressive MS (SPMS): When RRMS gets progressively worse, it occurs that you may have Secondary progressive Multiple Sclerosis. You may experience noticeable number of relapses. Disability and gradual decrease in your mobility can be experienced.

Symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis:

You can experience multiple symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis. By the nature of disease, its symptoms vary from person to person. With the passage of time, it can get worst. Below are the most common symptoms of MS:

  • Fatigue: If you feel tired or getting fatigued for a very long time, you should consult your medical advisor. Around 75 to 80 percent of people complain about fatigue. In this situation you will be unable to do everyday tasks.
  • Difficulty in walk: It happens in MS due to numbness in your feet or legs, difficulty in balancing yourself during walk, weakness of your muscles or vision issues. Difficulty in walking may lead you to other injuries as well.
  • Vision Problems: At the very beginning, you may experience vision problems like blurriness, short-sightedness, or loss of vision. You may suffer with neuritis, that is pain in one eye or blurred vision of one eye. Double vision or diplopia is common in MS patients. Rapid movement of one or two eyes can be a symptom of MS. At some stage people go totally blind.
  • Issues in speech: MS causes certain conditions in your brain, may experience speech issues in it. It is also known as dysarthria2 which can be mild or severe depending on the stage of MS. Other issues can be slurred speech, useless pauses in your speech, and volume issues when you speak constantly.
  • Urination Problems: You may have difficulty in urination like you may experience frequent urge to empty your bladder. You may loss the control of your bladder. It is the early sign you may suffering from MS.
  • Sexual Dysfunction: You may suffer from sexual dysfunction regardless you are male or female.

The less common symptoms can be headache, loss of hearing, body itching, respiratory issues, frequent seizure or swallowing problems.

Risk Factors:

At this moment, scientists don’t know the causes of Multiple Sclerosis but, they can tell the risk factors, which are given below:

  • Multiple sclerosis might be diagnosed at any age, but it usually occurs at the age gape of 20 to 40 years. It does not matter whether you are young or old.
  • There are high chances that it can occur in women more than men. Many women have diagnosed with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis.
  • It can pass through genes. If one of your close family members had MS or was diagnosed with it recently, then there are high chances that in the future you might diagnose with MS. Many scientists believe that there should be environmental triggers has to happen before one is diagnosed with MS.
  • People who smoke frequently are more likely to have multiple sclerosis. Initially, they may face the first episode of MS, which can be avoidable but can develop over the period.
  • Exposure of certain viruses may cause symptoms of multiple sclerosis. But there is no definite evidence of such occurrences. Herpes can play a role in development of multiple sclerosis but it is not defined.
  • Vitamin D deficiency may lead you to multiple sclerosis. If you are away from sunlight for a longer period of time, you may suffer from Vitamin D deficiency. Ultimately you may develop the symptoms of multiple sclerosis. Scientist believed that deficiency of Vitamin D affects the working of your immune system.
  • The climate of a country matters the most for many diseases. People living in countries with certain climate temperate, can be at the risk of developing multiple sclerosis.

Diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis:

In order to diagnose multiple sclerosis, a doctor will examine your physical conditions as well as neurological conditions. They will ask about symptoms in multiple sessions and may examine you throughout medical history. Doctors can use multiple strategies in order to diagnose the disease because there is not a single test that can confirm the disease. Some of the strategies in order to diagnose MS are as below:

  • Doctors will test you blood samples in order to check the presence of any symptoms.
  • Doctors will check your body balance and vision when you walk.
  • A thorough analysis of nerves may be observed.
  • MRI Scans could be taken if needed.
  • Analysis of cerebrospinal fluid could be conducted for thorough study of brain conditions. People with MS symptoms may suffer excess of proteins in their fluid.
  • Optical Coherence Tomography conducted in order to check your retina so that any brain condition can be diagnosed.

1 https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/315457

2 https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/17653-dysarthria