Education

What is multiple sclerosis?

Multiple Sclerosis is a disease which affects the brain and the spinal cord. It mostly affects myelin or white matter. Myelin is the insulation on the nerve cells. If you remove or damage myelin, the nerve cells can't send signals to each other. This causes symptoms such as weakness, vision problems, numbness, or poor coordination. The usual course of MS is relapsing-remitting. During a relapse, MS symptoms get worse fairly rapidly over a few days and stay bad for a few weeks. This is typically followed by a remission with partial or complete improvement of the symptoms. Usually there is a long stable period of months or years between relapses. MS can also be progressive, with symptoms getting slowly and steadily worse without sudden changes.

Dr. J. William Lindsey

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