The question of "What is Multiple Sclerosis" is asked very often after the diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis is given.
Multiple Sclerosis
is defined by the medical community as an autoimmune
disorder or a disease where the body becomes confused in some
way and it
attacks itself as if it is a foreign invader that it needs to defend
itself
against to prevent the disease from causing harm to the body. The damage caused by Multiple
Sclerosis is most often seen
as scarring along the myelin sheath on the spinal cord or as scarring
throughout the brain.
Sclerosis
means scarring. The Multiple
Sclerosis disease is known for attacking the nerves through out the
body,
especially the myelin sheath, along the spinal cord and the Blood Brain
Barrier.
Myelin is a fatty material that
surrounds, covers and protects the
nerves in the spinal cord damage and aids in a smooth transfer of the
nerve signals
along the spinal cord. The myelin sheath, along the spinal
cord, helps
the nerve signals to travel from the brain to other parts of the body
through
the spinal cord, which is part of the central nervous system.
The Blood Brain
Barrier is a membrane that surrounds and protects
the brain from
toxins entering the brain that can cause damage to it.
In most cases of Multiple
Sclerosis myelin is damaged, leaving sections of myelin that are
missing (ms
demyelination) or it can result in scarring along the spinal cord,
which
can interfere with and block or confuse the nerve signals so that they
do not
reach their initial intended destinations.
Often the myelin sheath is damaged along the spinal cord in most cases
of
Multiple Sclerosis, but the myelin sheath in different places
throughout the
brain can also have scarring or some demyelination present.
Multiple Sclerosis is a term that covers a broad range of MS symptoms that
can vary from one case of MS to
the next case. Since
the
MS symptoms can appear in any combination, this makes it so
much more of
a challenge for doctors to diagnose
Multiple Sclerosis and find effective ways to help reduce the symptoms
of
their MS patients.
As far as the causes
of MS is concerned, it is uncertain as to what actually causes Multiple
Sclerosis, but as MS research progresses in many different directions
at the
same time, the hope is that more will be understood about the disease
process
of MS.
Since the process of MS disease is not
well understood by the medical
community, the most current researches that are being done to work
towards a cure
for MS includes going many different
directions at the same time, in the hopes that a cure will be found.
During
the research process the hope is also that more
will be
understood about how and what is affecting the body that can result in
the
scarring and possible ms
nerve damage that is so often associated with Multiple
Sclerosis.
One thing that is
seen in the majority of cases of MS
is that the nerves are attacked and damaged causing many
different Multiple
Sclerosis symptoms to appear.
Nerves
make up 90% of the brain
and at least 60% to 70% of the rest of the body.
The brain is the master controller for the body. Once MS
attacks the brain, this can affect almost any part of the body.
We
take for granted that we can see, hear, talk, speak, feel what we touch
or feel
what touches our skin, but any or all of these things that we can do,
plus a
whole lot more can be affected, so that we can no longer do what we
could before
MS entered our lives.
MS can affect whether we can stand, whether we can walk or balance,
affect our
memory or decrease our stamina.
MS can reduce so
many things or even
eliminate what we can do on a daily basis, to the point that what we
could do
before MS entered our lives is either reduced or taken away from us
totally.
If your symptoms
of Multiple Sclerosis are mild, then you may or may not even notice
any changes in how your body functions, that would alert you
that some
thing, like Multiple Sclerosis, could be wrong with your body.
Early symptoms of MS are typically very mild and can go on for a couple
of
years without becoming any worse.
The MS
symptoms can appear so randomly that a pattern of their appearance does
not
emerge or help you to recognize or see that something is wrong.
Some people that I know that have more mild cases of MS can still work
and
still function enough to be able to walk and do many things without
assistance.
That is a good thing if you can do it, but often it becomes
increasingly more
difficult to do much on a daily basis.
There are several things that would help you, even if your symptoms of
MS are
mild.
Reducing
the amount of saturated animal fats in your diet and
increasing the Omega 3 essential fatty acids in your diet over a longer
period
of time can help to speed healing with the myelin sheath.
Reducing
ms stress and learning to relax and sleep well at night helps your body
to
produce more stem cells, which also speeds healing.
causes
of Multiple Sclerosis
MS research is also finding that there may be a few different causes
for MS
including a MS virus theory
that something like the Epstein
Barr virus (that is linked to mononucleosis) or the chicken pox virus
can be a
way that the conditions are set up for Multiple Sclerosis to attack the
body to
occur.
Multiple
Sclerosis genetics may
also play a role in causing MS
symptoms or possibly some type of severe allergic reaction or
severe
immune response to an unknown substance that confuses the body into
misinterpreting its own cells may also be possible theories as other
possible
causes of MS.
Another idea, which is also being considered as one of the possible Multiple Sclerosis causes is that
the scarring is a result of
the effects of Environmental toxins attacking the body (like a nerve
agent or something
similar, which can cause direct nerve damage to the body).
But, at this point, there is no conclusive proof that gives the medical
community enough evidence as to which way to focus the MS research for
finding a cure
for Multiple Sclerosis or to
help focus the efforts for finding what can resolve the wide spread
physical
problems, resulting from the increase in the Multiple
Sclerosis incidence rate
of the
number of people diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis around the world.
Because there are such a wide variety of theories as to what actually
may be
the cause or causes
of Multiple
Sclerosis, this has resulted in many approaches being used by the
traditional
and complementary medical doctors in an attempt to bring some relief to
their
patients’ symptoms, which can often result from MS.
The traditional medical doctors are broadening there scope of treatment
options
to include what is called Complimentary Medicine. Complimentary
medicine includes using
a broad range of options in finding a way to bring relief to the Multiple Sclerosis symptoms,
that can include pharmaceutical drugs, which are often used to treat
Multiple Sclerosis many
times.
There are also Alternative and Natural ways that are used effectively
for
helping to reduce the broad range of MS
symptoms that
are seen in the
many cases of MS that are diagnosed each year throughout the many
countries
throughout the world. The traditional medical doctors are
finding that
there are some benefits of using alternative and natural ways for
helping to
reduce the symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis.
This is called Complimentary medicine when the traditional methods of
the
treatment of disease are combined with alternative methods.
When combined
the entire ways used for reducing the symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis
Alternative
medicine can
be
more effective for addressing and reducing the broad range of symptoms
that can
occur with each case of MS that is
seen.
The Multiple Sclerosis brain can
also be affected to some degree in
the majority of the cases of MS.
This
can result in scarring in the brain
or MS brain lesions within
the brain, which can be seen
on the films
of MRI test
results, that are used to
determine if Multiple Sclerosis is present
MS
Pain
A few different types of pain can result with many cases of MS, but not
every
case of Multiple Sclerosis includes some form of pain.
Multiple Sclerosis sets up conditions for the central nervous system to
short-circuit, causing a whole host of MS
symptoms.
This short-circuiting
of the nervous system is caused
because when MS attacks the nervous system, it causes damage
to the
nerves that can confuse, scramble or block the nerve signals as they
travel
from the brain, along the spinal cord and through out the rest of the
body.
Most kinds
of stimulation can activate this short-circuiting effect
including an over reaction to stress, especially more intense emotions
like
grief, anger, worry, anxiety, depression or anxiety about the future.
Many cases of Multiple Sclerosis include some form of pain, but many of
the
cases that do not include ms pain, typically have MS numbness included
instead
of the pain.
One of the main characteristics of ms pain is
that it is
typically an intense nerve pain that can be difficult to tolerate,
depending on
how long the pain stays before it leaves, for at least a period of
time. The
nerve pain can be continuous or intermittent, where it comes and goes.
MS
Nerve pain often includes one of the following:
Multiple
Sclerosis Eye pain, MS hug (girdle
pain), back, neck,
leg, arm, hand, or foot pain can result. The
nerve pain can be present any
place through out the body, depending on where the sclerosis (scarring)
has
occurred throughout the central nervous system.
The MS
nerve pain can be localized or travel along the nerves (an example
would be
ms
sciatica, where the pain travels along the nerves that run
up the back of
both legs from the Achilles tendon at the heal of the foot to up near
the area
at the based of the spine where the nerves all meet).
The question of what is Multiple Sclerosis,
has not been completely clarified at this point, but that doesn't
change the fact that there are a core group symptoms, which are often
associated with Multiple Sclerosis.
Depending
on which part of the nervous system has been attacked and damaged by
Multiple Sclerosis, this can vary, which type of MS symptoms appear to
become an often major problem for MS sufferers.
Other possible
Multiple Sclerosis symptoms can include:
* Arms – muscle strength, muscle and nerve function, arm
pain, arm
numbness, arm spasms, if severe enough, nerve damage can result in the
lack of
being able to use the one or both of the arms very much.
* Legs – lack of
ability or difficulty with standing, balancing,
walking, difficulty with moving your legs, legs spasms, leg pain,
sciatic pain,
numbness in one or both of legs (either partial numbness or total
numbness of
the entire leg), loss of the ability to pick up or reposition the leg
for being
able to control where you move your legs to, knees collapse and will
not
support your body weight
* Feet – loss of control of your feet (foot drop), foot pain,
difficulty
picking up your foot to take a step or loss of the ability to control
your feet
for being able to take a step for being able to walk, clonus (indicates
nerve
damage -- when you stand on this foot or try to take a step, your foot
automatically wants to turn sideways (it looks like the person with
this
problem is trying to walk or stand on the ankle instead of the bottom
of the
being on the floor, the foot is turned sideways and the ankle is on the
floor
instead).
* Eyes – vision problems (blurry vision, seeing double,
trouble focusing,
dimness of vision), eye pain, intermittent vision that come and goes,
partial
or total loss of vision in one or both eyes (if the damage to the
retinal nerve
is severe enough, optic neuritis can sometimes result).
* Hearing –
ringing in the ears (tinnitus), intermittent hearing
(that comes and goes), partial or total loss of hearing (if the nerve
damage is
severe enough)
* Speaking – speech problems can include stuttering, slurring
words when
speaking, difficulty finding the right words when trying to form a
sentence
(more of a cognitive problem), scrambling or confusing words
(dyslexia), or if
extreme enough, possible loss of the ability to form sentence may also
be a
possible result, although not as common.
* Swallowing – partial or total loss of the ability to
swallow with out
chocking on the food or liquids that you are trying to swallow (this is
a more
extreme brain function problem that is often seen in more cases of head
trauma
than in MS, but this is also a possible symptom of MS if the
demyelination of
certain parts of the brain are severe enough)
* Memory – this can be mild to severe or it can be constant
or intermittent
(comes and goes sort of randomly).
* Cognitive –
this includes a whole host of brain functions
including our abilities to connect with our surroundings and register
what is
going on around us, the ability to logically think through a situation
or a
problem, solving puzzles and problems, understanding what other people
are
saying to you, comprehending how what is going on around us relates to
us
* Bladder control
– loss of bladder control or
incontinence, bladder drains when it should not be draining, bladder
retains
when it should drain, frequent bladder infections can result
* Bowel control
– loss of bowel control, intestines empty
partially or totally without much warning, end up with diarrhea too
easily and
too often
* Detoxification problems
– the main parts of the body that
eliminate toxins from the body start to function improperly, including
frequent
constipation, problems with liver functioning less or not functioning
much at
all, intestinal pain or discomfort, frequent nauseousness after eating,
problems with the lymph system not draining as it should causing more
frequent
problems with allergies (both food, trees or pollens, dust, and/or
chemical
allergies)
* Weakened
Immune System – frequent infections can result, difficulty
fighting off
infections, have too many infections too close together, like the body
can
recover very easily from each infection before it contracts the next
infection
* MS
fatigue - this can be an overwhelming exhaustion that is
not relieved by
resting or sleeping more.
* Reduced stamina - this goes along with ms
fatigue, but this refers
more to where exerting yourself at all can result in making it where
you just
appear to run out of energy with doing much less with any task that you
set out
to do.
*
Hands
- difficulty picking thinks up, holding things, or writing, difficulty
holding a spoon or fork to feed yourself, hand pain, hand numbness,
hand spasms, if severe enough nerve damage results in the lack of being
able to use one or both of the hands.
If any or most of these MS
symptoms are present, this can become more than just annoying...it can
become very upsetting at times.
Often MS symptoms can cause
the body to function less to the point that there are things that you
could do before you were diagnosed with MS.
The
symptoms of Multiple
Sclerosis can often be severe or at least reduce how much we can
physically,
mentally and emotionally function, but the situation is not as hopeless
as it
may appear initially.
We have found that in our own case of Multiple Sclerosis that there are
alternative and natural ways that can help to reduce both how severe
and how
frequently the symptoms of MS can become.
These ways can include:
* MS diet
and dietary changes
* Restoring MS vitamin
deficiencies
-- this is accomplished through MS diet changes, juicing, grinding
whole foods, taking vitamins, herbs and other supplements.
* Reducing MS
stress
* Exercising to help
strengthen MS
muscles and help redevelop nerve pathways to help our bodies start to
function again
* Detoxifying the body
The more severe cases of Multiple Sclerosis can result in MS
disability, that can reduce function severely or not as
severely.
If MS
symptoms are severe enough then at times it may be necessary to find
help
to provide the additional Multiple Sclerosis care that is
needed to help
to take care of those with sever disabilities that can be a
direct result
of the damage and scarring that can result from Multiple
Sclerosis.
Family members are often turned to first for assistance for those
diagnosed
with Multiple Sclerosis, but at times, depending on how severe the ms
symptoms
and ms disability has become, a visiting home health care nurse, or other
medical
professional that is trained in assisting those with MS may have to be
located
and paid for to provide better assistance. This depends on each case of
Multiple Sclerosis.
Finding ways to reduce your
over reaction to MS stress makes a very big difference in how severe or
how frequent you symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis can become.
Both the internal and external reactions to stress have been found to
aggravate and make even worse the symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis, than
they were before the over reaction to stress occurred, for the majority
of people diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.
