However, there are four key features which help to secure the diagnosis. There's currently no single test to make a diagnosis of MS. Other common symptoms associated with MS include spasms, fatigue, depression, incontinence issues, sexual dysfunction, and walking difficulties. Those symptoms include loss of vision in an eye, loss of power in an arm or leg or a rising sense of numbness in the legs. Symptoms of a relapse usually come on over 24 to 48 hours, last for a few days to a few weeks and then improve in the region of 80 to a 100 percent. A slightly increased risk is seen if a patient already has autoimmune thyroid disease, pernicious anemia, psoriasis, type 1 diabetes, or inflammatory bowel disease. People of Asian, African, and Native American ancestry have the lowest risk. White people, especially of northern European descent, are at the highest risk. Northern and southern latitudes have a higher prevalence, including Canada, the northern US, New Zealand, southeastern Australia, and Europe. A variety of viruses have been linked to MS, including Epstein-Barr virus, which causes mono. If a parent or sibling has MS, your risk is about twice that or about 1%. The risk for MS in the general population is about 0.5%. Women are up to three times as likely as men to have relapsing-remitting MS. People who have MS and who smoke tend to have more relapses, worse progressive disease, and worse cognitive symptoms. So people who are overweight are more likely to develop MS and people who have MS and are overweight tend to have more severe disease and a faster onset of progression. As people who have MS who have low vitamin D tend to have more severe disease. Low levels of vitamin D and low exposure to sunlight, which enables our body to make vitamin D, are associated with an increased risk of developing MS. So while MS can occur at any age, it mostly makes its first appearance in people between the ages of 20 and 40.
We don't know what causes MS, but there are certain factors that may increase the risk or trigger its onset. And this is characterized by attacks, or relapses. When you read about multiple sclerosis, you may hear about different types - the most frequent being relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis. This happens very slowly, usually over decades and typically shows up as gradual walking difficulty happening over several years. But if part of the brain or spinal cord has been damaged by MS, the nerve cells in that area will die off faster than the areas around it that are normal. Now everyone loses brain cells and spinal cord cells as they get older. The resulting damage leaves lesions or scars, and this is where the name comes from: multiple sclerosis, multiple scars. The body can repair damage to the myelin sheath, but it's not perfect. The nerve fibers themselves might also be damaged. When that covering is damaged, it exposes the actual nerve fiber, which can slow or block the signals being transmitted within it. And this sheath is often compared to the insulation on an electrical wire. Multiple sclerosis is a disorder in which the body's immune system attacks the protective covering of the nerve cells in the brain, optic nerve and spinal cord, called the myelin sheath. Whether you're looking for answers about your own health or that of someone you love, we're here to provide you with the best information available. What is it? Who gets it? The symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment. In this video, we'll be covering the basics of multiple sclerosis. Oliver Tobin, a neurologist specializing in multiple sclerosis at Mayo Clinic.
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