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Multiple Sclerosis Analysis

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Multiple Sclerosis, or MS, is a degenerative disease of the central nervous system. It causes the destruction of the myelin sheath of nerve fibres. The myelin sheath is made up of protein and fatty substances. It insulates our nerve fibers both in the central and peripheral nervous systems, and has many other duties. The myelin around the nerve fibers prevents the conduction of electrical impulses. Between myelin cells, there are nodes which allows the conduction of pulses. These are called the
Nodes of Ranvier. Instead of all the Sodium/Potassium channels opening one after another along the nerve, only the ones that located at the node will open. This is called saltatory conduction because the propagation of the action potential travels through …show more content…

Just a sample of that long list of symptoms includes fatigue, walking difficulties, difficulty swallowing, numbness, feeling weak, vision problems, muscle spasms, and dizziness/vertigo (Kister et al,
2013). It makes sense that most of these issues are because of a lack of having control over your body. MS is a reiteration of the fact that having the brain be connected to the body is essential for our survival and essential for a good quality of life. The way doctors and neuropsychologists diagnose MS requires careful consideration of patient history as well as many neurological examinations and tests. These may include MRI, spinal fluid analysis, and blood tests. Since the exact cause of MS is still unknown, there is no known prevention.

Multiple Sclerosis affects women more than men, and the disorder is most commonly found in those between ages 20 - 40, but it can be seen at any age. There are more than 400,000 cases in the United States alone, and more than 2.5 million worldwide (Polman et al, 2010). Interestingly, there has been a pattern that …show more content…

When learning about any disease or malfunction in human pathology, a common first question is what is the cause of this condition? In the case of Multiple Sclerosis, this is a tough question to answer. Simply put, the cause of multiple sclerosis is unknown.
It's considered an autoimmune disease in which the body's immune system attacks its own tissues (Brassington et al, 1998). Researchers work every day to continue to get closer to finding the cause of Multiple Sclerosis, so that we can then find a way to treat it and help those who suffer from it. From the research outcomes we have seen so far, it seems that MS has genetic, environmental, and immunologic variables (Brassington et al, 1998). There have also been many interesting proposals in what the underlying cause of MS was. These possible explanations include a slow-acting virus, a delayed reaction to a common virus, or an autoimmune reaction to something which causes the body to attack its own tissues (Brassington et al, 1998). None of those possibilities have

been confirmed undeniably yet, so in the research community, the race to find a cause, and then a cure, is still very much

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