What is MS Disease?
Multiple Sclerosis or MS Disease is a serious chronic inflammatory disorder of the central nervous system in which the nerve impulse is not conveyed properly from the muscle to the brain creating various severe physiological symptoms which could be recurring and may even lead to a lifelong disability.
The disease is confirmed with signs of the scarring of the nerve cells or through demyelination. The disease is called Multiple Sclerosis due to that very fact, because it is characterized by the scars on the white matter of the brain and the spinal cord, which makes up the myelin layer.
The disease came into the knowledge of medical science in 1868 when Jean-Martin Charcot, a French neurologist made its description. Between 2 to 150 people out of 100,000 have a rare risk of contracting this disease. Yet, no less than 400,000 people in America and around 2.5 million people suffer from the disease around the world. It is important to note that the disease is more common in women than in men. The disease mostly strikes the victims between the age of 20 and 40.
It is important to note that Multiple Sclerosis is an unpredictable disease. Its symptoms can suddenly appear and disappear without any explanation and has been pretty much a mystery to the medical science. The disease varies from being present in a harmful state to severe disabilities. Usually the life expectancy of most victims of the disease is reduced by 5 to 10 years.
The main problem that this disease causes is that it disrupts the flow of information across the nervous system, which along with a number of physical irregularities and symptoms, often causes the victims to suffer a loss of sensation in a particular body part, very commonly, in the legs and arms.
The disease is categorized in the following types:
- Relapsing-Remitting MS (RRMS): This is the most common one and involves clear attacks of neurological symptoms followed by a period of recovery.
- Primary-Progressive MS (PPMS): This is the condition of the victim slowly worsens from the very onset of the disease.
- Secondary-Progressive MS (SPMS): This is the condition which occurs after the RRMS phase. During the transition, the condition of the patient gets worsened with a steadier rate, with or without any relapses.
- Progressive-Relapsing MS (PRMS): This is the rarest type of MS Disease. In this disease, the condition begins to get worse steadily from the very beginning of the disease, but also involves the occurrence of relapses. This type is characterized with the progress of the disease without remissions.
Causes of MS Disease
The MS disease actually involves the inflammation of the myelin sheath around the axons of the brain and the spinal cord, and other nerve cells, which can lead to the removal of the myelin layers altogether or scars on the nerve cells. The loss of myelin layer makes the nerve cell dysfunctional as far as conducting the nerve impulse is concerned and the message from the affected nerves to the brain is not sent, creating a numb feeling in that part of the body.
The actual cause of the occurrence of the disease is unknown to science and it has no known cure as well. Multiple sclerosis is also thought to be caused by genetic factors, which are also the basis making women more prone to the disease than men, as research has shown. However, it is thought that the disease is auto immune in nature. Severe stress, environmental factors and a microbial infection could also be the cause behind the MS Disease.
The immune system of a body usually attacks infections or malicious organisms inside the body for its defense. In the case of such a disease, the immune system, particularly the T-type white blood cells, attacks the tissues of the body itself, particularly by destroying the blood-brain barrier. This in turn causes the inflammation and destruction of the myelin sheath around the nerve cells, which is critical for the transfer of nerve impulse from various organs to the brain.
This causes a disruption in communication between brain and the spinal cord which causes all the disturbing symptoms. The disease actually affects the brain and spinal cord, as certain plaques appear on them, as the white matter of the myelin sheath exposes the grey neurons. The appearance of these plaques throughout the brain and spinal cord is why the disease is known as Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Disease.