Multiple Sclerosis

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a chronic autoimmune disease. It is a demyelinating disorder that affects the white matter which covers the axons. The causes of Multiple Sclerosis are still unknown, although it is believed to be caused by a virus or an antigen that triggers immunological abnormalities that cause the body to attack its own myelin, however there are also environmental factors that are involved in the development of the disease.

Patients are diagnosed with MS when they have been shown to have had two separate attacks of symptoms involving at least 2 different areas of the Central Nervous System (CNS).

Multiple Sclerosis usually appears in early adulthood, commonly between ages of 29 and 33, although inclusion age at onset is between 10 and 59 years. As for gender, MS is found to be more prevalent in women than men.

For a long time, it was considered that clinical manifestations of this disease were exclusively neurological (motor weakness, visual disturbances, diplopia, dysarthria, ataxia, etc.). However, over the past decades, an increasing number of studies have shown that MS can also be associated with cognitive deficits that typically affect attention, concentration, information processing speed, memory, and executive function.

Going into detail about the neurological symptoms that usually manifest, apart from those previously mentioned, patients with Multiple Sclerosis may present the following:

• Muscular problems: loss of balance, muscle spams, difficulty moving arms and legs, problems of coordination, tremors or muscle weakness in extremities.
• Bladder and bowel problems: constipation and incontinence, in addition to others.
• Vision problems: double or blurred vision, involuntary eye movements or vision loss.
• Numbness, tingling or pain.
• Sexual problems.
• Speech and swallowing problems: poorly articulated speech and difficulty swallowing.