What is Multiple Sclerosis?
Multiple Sclerosis, or MS, is a disease that causes multiple scars on nerves in the brain and spinal cord. These scars keep the nerves from working properly.

What Causes Multiple Sclerosis?
Doctors don’t know what causes Multiple Sclerosis, but most doctors believe that your immune system attacks your body’s tissues as if they don’t belong to you. This is called an autoimmune reaction. In Multiple Sclerosis, the immune system attacks and damages nerves in your brain and spinal cord.

What Are the Symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis?
Because Multiple Sclerosis attacks different nerves, the symptoms can vary from person to person. Even the pattern of how symptoms come and go can differ between people. Usually, Multiple Sclerosis symptoms appear suddenly and then go away. As time goes on, whatever your symptom pattern is, Multiple Sclerosis tends to slowly get worse. Common early symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis include Tingling or numbness in parts of your arms, legs, chest, back, or face, weakness, clumsiness, or stiffness in your arms or legs, blind spots, blurry vision, or pain when moving one eye.

Other early symptoms include Double vision and Sudden burning or electric shock -like pains down your back, legs, or arm that may come on their own when something touches you or when you bend your neck.

Later symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis may include being unable to move a part or all of your body. Painful muscle cramps and muscle weakness, balance and walking difficulty, feeling tired and weak, slow slurred speech, depression or mood swings, difficulty; thinking, remembering things, paying attention or making decisions, dizziness, and problems controlling urination or bowel movements.

How can doctors tell if I have Multiple Sclerosis?
It can be hard to tell if you have Multiple Sclerosis. Doctors diagnose Multiple Sclerosis based on your symptoms and usually with MRI of the brain and spinal cord and sometimes a spinal tap.

How do doctors treat Multiple Sclerosis?
To help symptom flares, doctors may try a blood treatment called plasma exchange. They may use various medicines to help keep your immune system from attacking your nerves or may try to ease your specific symptoms such as muscle tightness, tingling sensations, tiredness or depression.