Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a disease of the central nervous system (CNS). The CNS consists of two parts: the brain and spinal cord. Nervous stimuli are transmitted through nerve cells called neurons. Wrapping these CNS neurons is a material composed of proteins, fats called myelin that facilitates driving into electrical impulses between these nerve fibers. Where myelin is destroyed, the plates become hardened tissue (sclerosis). As a result, nerve impulses are interrupted periodically, or in severe cases, permanently.

Multiple sclerosis is a disease related to the loss of the myelin of the brain and spinal nerves. Where myelin is destroyed, the plates become hardened tissue (sclerosis). This teething transmission of nerve stimulation and makes it more expensive or, in severe cases, are interrupted periodically.

Luckily the injury of myelin is often reversible.

People with increased risk of MS are people between 20 and 45 years, and fatigue is a very common symptom. MS is neither contagious, inherited, nor fatal.

Causes of MS disease

Currently, no one knows the exact cause of multiple sclerosis, but it is believed that the destruction of myelin is the result of an abnormal immune response to the organism itself. Usually, the immune system defends the body from viruses and bacteria. In autoimmune diseases, in which the body destroys its own foreign bodies, the body attacks its own cells. In multiple sclerosis, myelin is an attacked substance. Scientists do not know what prompts the immune system to attack myelin. Most agree that several factors are involved (genetic and environmental factors).

Symptoms of MS disease vary greatly depending on the person affected by the CNS areas that are affected. The most prominent symptoms are:

- Weakness.

- Tingling.

- Lack of coordination.

- Fatigue.

- Balance problems.

- Visual disturbances.

- Trembling.

- Muscle stiffness.

- Speech disorders.

- Bowel or urinary problems.

- Ataxia (unsteady gait).

- Problems with sexual function.

- Sensitivity to heat.

- Problems with memory and cognitive disorders among others.

Diagnosis

To diagnose this disease is carried primarily by the patient’s medical history and neurological examination. The most important test is magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and cerebrospinal fluid study. The number and location of lesions on MRI may vary over time, but the appearance of lesions on MRI is difficult to diagnose because, sometimes it is difficult to distinguish with certainty demyelinating lesions (which are those that give certainty of disease) from other lesions of different origin.

Today it is difficult to predict the onset of symptoms attributable to multiple sclerosis. There are benign forms of multiple sclerosis, in which the disease causes very few disruptions throughout life. Furthermore, after a worsening or relapse often improvement occurs. The complete remission of symptoms usually is important to follow the evolution of the disease through regular visits to the neurologist who is best placed to suggest and warn of the treatments applied at each stage of the pattern of symptoms or complications, if there are any.