What is Multiple Sclerosis
Multiple Sclerosis is an incurable, disabling disease of the central nervous system. It renders its victims unable to perform normal daily tasks like walking, talking, sitting up straight, and controlling one’s urinating and bowel functions. It may cause complete paralysis. It may cause total blindness and extreme hearing loss along with an inability to think in a cognitive fashion. It may cause extreme depression…needless to say, there is nothing nice about this disease.
It is thought to be an autoimmune disease, whereby the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks the outer coating of the central nervous system. This is a relatively well researched theory. However, no one knows just what the disease really is or just what causes it.
The closest analogy to describe the effects of MS is that of an electrical cord which has been damaged by being cut. If the rubber coating on an electrical cord is damaged, the circuit of electricity is shorted out or disabled. The rubber coating of the central nervous system is not rubber, but it serves the same purpose…protecting and insulating the nerves. This coating is called myelin.
When MS attacks this coating, it not only destroys it, but it causes build ups of plaque. It is as if someone not only cut the electrical cord, but also plugged the cut with a piece of chewing gum. It, quite simply, shuts everything down.
The more ubiquitous the disease becomes, the worse are its symptoms.
Attack intensities may vary a lot over time, the bad thing being that they vary for the worse. At the beginnings episodes may last a couple of days, but as time goes by and the disease worsens, they tend to last longer and longer sometimes reaching the order of month. The time between episodes may also tend to get smaller and smaller with the passing of time and the agravation of the disorder.
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Scientist have also come up with what is believed to be a second trigger in the disease. Studies made on patients with have revealed that these people have a larger number of immune cells than normal healthy people do. Genetic defects or the actions of viruses are thought to cause symptoms to appear. The genetic factor has revealed that the most likely to develop this disorder are the Caucasians. Also geographical studies made on different populations of people around the globe have determined that an environmental factor may also be involved in triggering the disease.
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