Multiple Sclerosis Informative Outline Essay

Multiple sclerosis, also known as MS, is one of humankind’s most mysterious diseases. No one knows the exact cause and there is no exact treatment. Still multiple sclerosis has the ability to affect nearly 3 million people worldwide and at least 500,000 people in the United States (Boroch). This disease tends to be more common in individuals of northern European descent and women are more than twice as likely to develop multiple sclerosis as men. Of those 3 million people, most of them are between the ages of 20 and 50 years old (Dangond). Even though multiple sclerosis is a mystery disease, scientists are working to determine the exact cause and treatment.

This can wreak havoc on a person’s emotional state, which Mairs comments, “I am immobilized by acute attacks of depression, which may or may not be physiologically related to MS but are certainly its logical concomitant” (Mairs 67). In addition to the unpredictable physical losses that one can sustain from MS - including vision, coordination, and bladder control - one can also lose their will to live a normal life. Mairs discusses the lives of two women who share the same disease, one of which, “...stays at home and insists that her husband, a small quiet man, a retired civil servant, stay there with her except for a quick weekly foray to the supermarket” (71). The other woman has an active life and tries to participate in as many activities as she would without the disease. Mairs aspires to live like the second woman as her life progresses, but the first woman has obviously lost her mental battle with the disease. Since there is no known cure for MS, the only thing that one who is diagnosed can do is accept that their life will always be changing and it will never be easy. Towards the beginning of her disease, she thought about MS constantly and wondered when the time would come that she would no longer be physically capable of killing herself. Once she learned that she would never finish adjusting, she was able to come to an uneasy peace with her condition. Besides the

Tests that help diagnose multiple sclerosis are blood tests, lumbar puncture, evoked potential tests, and a MRI. There is no cure for this disease, but there are some treatments. Treatments that help are

MS is characterized by the destruction of myelin, inflammation in the CNS and the formation of lesions in the CNS.

Multiple Sclerosis known as MS is a disease that affects the brain and spinal cord this disease, unfortunately has no cure, and would cause a person’s life to progress to become more and more difficult each day. They begin to lose the ability to control their body movements and make it seem almost impossible to carry out simple, everyday function (Nordqvist, 2012). Patient’s that battle diseases such as this will no longer have the will to live because they know that there health will not get any better and they will soon die a

Most MS patients start with the development of transient sensory loss due to the demyelination of the dorsal column, which may progress to motor symptoms including limb muscles weakness or muscle spasticity due the demyelinationg of the upper motor fibres such as corticospinal and corticobulbar tracts. Leg

No single test detects MS, which makes it difficult to diagnose. Symptoms can mimic those of a number of other conditions and they can change depending on the area of the central nervous system that

Multiple sclerosis, or MS, is a disease of the central nervous system. The central nervous system is made up of the brain and spinal cord. Both have nerve fibers that are wrapped in a myelin sheath. In MS, the myelin sheath becomes inflamed and gradually is destroyed. With the destruction of the myelin sheath comes an array of symptoms that may include numbness or tingling, balance problems, weakness, muscle spasms, and blurred vision.

Other symptoms include spasms. One spasm is known as the “drop foot.” A person could be casually walking and suddenly, his or her foot can basically shut down and drop. Spasms usually result in muscle stiffness and uncontrollable jerk-movements, according to Healthline Editorial Team, George Krucik, MD, MBA , Early Signs of Multiple Sclerosis, January 25, 2013. Another common symptom would be fatigue. This fatigue remains constant due to the deterioration of the central nervous system. With fatigue also comes muscle weakness, loss of motion and touch, which mostly occurs in the hands and legs. A few other symptoms include short-term memory loss, slurred speech,

Crippled With the Pain and Degeneration of Multiple Sclerosis Nancy Mairs, the author of “On Being a Cripple”, choses to name herself a cripple instead of handicapped or disabled. In the essay, she shares her struggles with everyday life with multiple sclerosis. She was first mistakenly diagnosed with a brain tumor, but after several tests were run, the physicians confirmed that she had multiple sclerosis. Multiple sclerosis, or MS, is a challenging degenerative disease of the central nervous system. Multiple sclerosis has many symptoms that slowly progresses over time.

The difference between having MS and not having it is that your body will not have scars or hardened tissues which effects the CNS. Affecting the CNS is massive as it is your brain and your spinal cord which makes all the decisions for your nervous system and without a fully functioning CNS, the person will have all the effects that was said in the previous paragraph (the effects of MS) which were things like not able to walk properly, numbness and the persons eyesight becoming

Multiple Sclerosis, commonly known as MS is an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system. Scientists have been studying MS since the 19th century. In MS, the body’s immune system produces cells and antibodies that attack myelin in your brain which is essential for the nerves in your brain and spinal cord to conduct electricity to perform its function. The attack on myelin results in vison loss, paralysis, numbness, muscle weakness, difficulty walking, stiffness, spasms, and bladder and bowel problems. MS has varying degrees of severity and affects people between the ages of 20-50, mostly women. Although there are treatments, there is no cause and cure yet.

Even though MS effects every individual differently and can run its course in a strikingly different manner than that of another, four basic disease courses have been

MS can cause debilitating pain that may leave with temporary symptoms or may be permanent (National Multiple Sclerosis Society, 2017). One third of all patients with MS will suffer from transient symptoms, rather than enduring (NIH, 2013). After 15 years on onset MS, 20 percent of patients are bedridden or institutionalized, and another 20 percent require assistance walking with a wheelchair or other aide (NIH, 2013).

MS is traditionally described as clinical symptoms or signs of two CNS lesions separated in time and space that are not caused by other CNS disease. Due to the absence of a specific immune-based assay, the diagnosis of MS continues to be predicated on the clinical history and neurological examination; that is, finding multiple lesions in time and space in the CNS. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) remains the most important diagnostic tool for allowing the early and more precise diagnosis of the disease. Revised diagnostic criteria classify individuals in the categories of MS into either not multiple sclerosis or possible MS based on evidence from MRI (McDonald, 2001).