About MSMultiple sclerosis (MS) is a condition of the central nervous system. In MS, the coating around nerve fibres (called myelin) is damaged, causing a range of symptoms. More than 100,000 people in the UK have MS. Symptoms usually start in your 20s and 30s and it affects almost three times as many women as men. Once diagnosed, MS stays with you for life, but treatments and specialists can help you to manage the condition and its symptoms. We don't know the cause and we haven't yet found a cure, but research is progressing fast.
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What happens in MS? |
To understand what happens in MS, it's useful to understand how the central nervous system works. A substance called myelin protects the nerve fibres in the central nervous system, which helps messages travel quickly and smoothly between the brain and the rest of the body. In MS, your immune system, which normally helps to fight off infections, mistakes myelin for a foreign body and attacks it. This damages the myelin and strips it off the nerve fibres, either partially or completely, leaving scars known as lesions or plaques. This damage disrupts messages travelling along nerve fibres – they can slow down, become distorted, or not get through at all. As well as myelin loss, there can also sometimes be damage to the actual nerve fibres. It is this nerve damage that causes the increase in disability that can occur over time.
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Types of MS |
Relapsing remitting - In relapsing remitting MS, people have distinct attacks of symptoms which then fade away either partially or completely. Around 85 per cent of people with MS are diagnosed with this type.
Secondary progressive - Many people with relapsing remitting MS go on to have secondary progressive MS. It means they have a sustained build-up of disability, completely independent of any relapses. Primary Progressive - Primary progressive MS affects about 10 to 15 per cent of people diagnosed with MS. Symptoms gradually get worse over time, rather than appearing as sudden attacks (relapses). MS in children - MS in children is rare. Around five to ten per cent of young people with MS will experience MS symptoms before the age of 16 Benign MS - If you have a small number of relapses followed by a complete recovery, you may be described as having benign MS. Benign MS can only be diagnosed retrospectively, after a period of at least 10 to 15 years. |