WHAT IS MS?
- No one really knows...
- MS is thought to be a 'modern' disease, but this cannot be the case. It was not even described and named by Jean-Martin Charcot until 1868. Prior to that, it was unrecognisable and record keeping was scant, but it could only be guessed at today by a description of the symptoms of those who were socially significant enough to have them recorded.
- It's a disease of many severe physical and psychological symptoms, which are related to damage in the central nervous system (CNS) - the brain and spinal cord.
- It is defined by patches of demyelinated nerves (lesions) in the CNS. Multiple Sclerosis means 'many scars'
- There is no known cause for what creates the damage in the CNS. Does it arise inside the CNS or outside? Theories abound.
- There is no cure as yet.
- It runs in families but is not directly inherited. It is most prevalent in people of Northern European descent.
- Genetics are necessary to predispose a person to the disease, but a number of environmental triggers appear to play a larger role than genes.
- In relapsing forms, it appears to present mainly as an inflammatory process which produces demyelinating lesions, but it is thought that these lesions are actually the 'tip of the iceberg'.
- A correlation between lesion load and disability has not reliably been made. Nevertheless, present therapies are essentially aimed at suppressing lesion development.
- It is a chronic condition, and usually progressive. It would be unusual for people with MS not to have worsening disability as the years go by.
- In progressive forms of the disease, roughly equal numbers of men and women develop it. People tend to be older when it develops (over 40), there is less inflammation, fewer lesions with more lesions in the spinal cord than the brain, and with no relapses. The extent of spinal cord lesions is more closely related to disability than brain lesions.
- The key message is: There is no known cause or cure. Essentially, no one knows what it really is...