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Symptoms And Progression Of Multiple Sclerosis

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Introduction Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a neurological disease that affects roughly 400,000 people in the United States (Hunter, 2016) but isn’t very well understood on a cellular level quite yet. There is somewhat of a stigma surrounding the disease as well, as if it is a ticket to life in a wheelchair or an early grave. On the contrary, symptoms and progression vary greatly among individuals and even at different stages for each patient. This paper aims to provide a brief overview of MS, what about it is currently understood, and methods of treatment. Disease MS is a neurological disease that affects the central nervous system (CNS), consisting of the brain and spinal cord. Symptoms present differently in each individual and may be temporary or constant. Often they begin as temporary but evolve to be constant. Experienced symptoms may include numbness, tingling, trouble with cognitive memory, mood swings, fatigue, pain, blindness, and even paralysis in some cases (National MS Society). MS affects about 2.5 million individuals worldwide, although cases vary greatly by geographic region and there are both genetic and environmental factors that influence expression (Hunter, 2016). Most cases are observed north and south of the equator with northern European Caucasian phenotypes most affected. However, the epidemiology has changed within the last two decades with higher incidences overall, probably due to longer life expectancy worldwide (Hunter, 2016). The disease

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