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What is Multiple Sclerosis?
What is Multiple Sclerosis?
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 th 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).
Other possible Multiple
Sclerosis symptoms can also 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 ms 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 things up,
holding things, writing, difficulty feeding 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 handsIf any or
most of these MS symptoms are present, this can become more than just
annoying. Multiple Sclerosis symptoms
can cause out bodies to function less, sometimes to a more extreme degree,
where we have a much more difficult time function or we function so much less
that we have some things that we can no longer do that we could do before MS
entered our lives. 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 and ms nutrient imbalances through out the body
* Reducing MS stress
* Exercising to help strengthen ms muscles and help redevelop nerve pathways to help our bodies start to function again
* Detoxifying our bodies
* Restoring balance to our bodies in several different ways.
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 oftened 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 healthcare nuse,
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 MS.
Finding ways to reduce our over reaction to MS stress has makes a very big difference in how severe or how
frequent our symptoms of MScan
become. Our over reactions to ms stress (both internal and external),
definitely causes our MS symptoms to become much worse than before we
had the over reaction to stress. An over reaction to stress
(both internal and external stress) have been found to trigger
relapses,
attacks and exacerbations in MS.
To find out more information about Multiple Sclerosis and more about what helps with reducing the symptoms of MS, complete the form below to subscribe to our FREE Multiple Sclerosis Report.
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