Multiple Sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis (MS), occasionally called disseminated sclerosis or encephalomyelitis disseminate, is a chronic, inflammatory disease that affects a person's central nervous system and can cause a variety of symptoms including visual problems, muscle weakness, depression, and difficulties with coordination and speech, sometimes with severe fatigue and generally resulting in problems with balance and pain.

The people most affected by MS are adults, with it being more common in women than men. They tend to be aged 20 to 40, and the condition may last for many years. In terms of epidemiology, about 1 in every 1,000 people in northern Europe, continental North America, Australia, and New Zealand suffer from MS, with the frequency much lower in the Arabian peninsula, Asia, and continental South America. It is also rare in sub-Saharan Africa, with overall statistics showing that it is five times more common in temperate regions than in the tropics, and also that it occurs more often in Caucasians. In fact, in Canada, the Inuit have a 20-times lower likelihood of suffering from MS than other Canadians living in the same area; MS is also extremely rare in Native Americans in North America, Australian Aboriginals, and Maoris from New Zealand.

The onset of MS tends to be gradual, with alternating periods of exacerbation when the condition becomes worse, and remission. The initial symptoms often include occasional numbness and/or the feeling of tingling on the side of the face. As it progresses, there tends to be muscle weakness, dizziness, unsteadiness, and gradually either blurred or double vision, or partial blindness. The intensity of all these symptoms increases and declines over many years, but gradually, the periods in remission become shorter and the old symptoms become far more severe. This later leads to bad coordination, an inability to control movement, and bladder dysfunction. By this time, there is usually a heavy degree of depression, often accompanied by memory loss and some emotional instability. As the ability of the person to move becomes worse, he or she often has to use a wheelchair, and many people develop partial or complete paralysis. There are about 30 percent of cases where the disease progresses without any remission, but many people suffering from MS have a normal life expectancy.

There has been much medical research undertaken into the causes of MS with evidence tending to suggest that it comes from an autoimmune reaction during which the body's malfunctioning immune system produces far too many white blood cells called T lymphocytes. These then react with, and subsequently damage, the body's own cells, in particular the myelin sheath around the nerve fibers in the body. How [Page 1147]or why the autoimmune reaction is triggered is not known, but many researchers believe that it may be caused by exposure to a virus. Until the virus—if this is the case—is isolated and methods of dealing with it are discovered, there remains no cure for MS, although there are many medications, such as corticosteroids, that can be used to alleviate the symptoms. To gain more time in remission, immunotherapy with different forms of beta interferon are used. Beta interferon is a protein the body normally produces to modulate the immune response, and use of it has been shown to significantly reduce the severity and frequency of the exacerbation periods of the disease and increase the periods in remission.

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