Disc herniations in the cervical or lumbosacral spine can mimic the clinical symptoms of MS and worsen patients' quality of life. In other words, your health condition could be MS, it could be a herniated disc, or it could be BOTH.
It is also common for people and doctors to misattribute the initial symptoms of MS to something more benign, such as a pinched nerve or muscle strain. Sometimes a person may have the symptoms of MS for many years before he or she seeks medical attention and receives a correct diagnosis.
DDD and MS are sometimes mistaken for one another, even by health care providers, as they share some symptoms and they both develop at a similar age (30s). “They were looking for lesions and found I had DDD as well,” reported one member of MyMSteam.
Herniated discs are often misdiagnosed as piriformis syndrome, a muscular disorder in the buttocks, mild sciatica, degenerative disc disease, and osteoarthritis.
People should consider the diagnosis of MS if they have one or more of these symptoms: vision loss in one or both eyes. acute paralysis in the legs or along one side of the body. acute numbness and tingling in a limb.
Numbness of the face, body, or extremities (arms and legs) is often the first symptom experienced by those eventually diagnosed as having MS.
MRI scan is the best non-invasive test available to find herniated and bulging discs and annular tears. Because the spatial resolution of spinal anatomy can be defined to 0.5mm with an MRI scan, doctors can identify with over 95% accuracy the herniated discs in the spine.
MRI. Radio waves and a strong magnetic field are used to create images of the body's internal structures. This test can be used to confirm the location of the herniated disk and to see which nerves are affected.
MS lesions are present throughout the spinal cord, and spinal cord MRI may play an important role in the diagnosis and follow-up of MS patients.
Conventional spinal cord MRI provides information on focal lesions, which is necessary for the diagnosis and prognosis of MS, and is commonly used in the clinical setting.
Paralysis and loss of sensation of part of the body are common. This can include total paralysis or numbness and varying degrees of movement or sensation loss. Spinal cord lesions due to MS in the upper spine or neck (cervical region) can cause cape like sensation loss in both shoulders and in the upper arms.
It's easy to mistake sciatica as a symptom or related condition of MS, which often causes neuropathic pain. But while the two do coexist, sciatica isn't caused by MS. It's caused by strain on the sciatic nerve.
The tingling and other sensory problems of MS tend to affect one side of the body, while both sides generally are affected in peripheral neuropathy in what is described as a "stocking-glove" pattern. MS is more likely than PN to cause muscle weakness, but some types of peripheral neuropathy can make you weak as well.
Nerve pain
MS can damage the nerves that affect your muscles. This can cause acute or paroxysmal pain in the form of spasms. Your arms and legs might shoot out uncontrollably and might have pain like cramping or pulling.
Herniated disk pain can sometimes be intermittent. People can have minor pain that's always there or stronger pain that comes and goes depending on the activity they're doing. Varying pain typically has to do with movement and the position of the body.
The pain from a herniated disc usually is worse when you are active and gets better when you are resting. Coughing, sneezing, sitting, driving, and bending forward may make the pain worse. The pain gets worse when you make these movements because there is more pressure on the nerve.
Nerve Damage
When a herniated disc puts significant pressure on a nerve, it can lead to significant damage by cutting off nerve impulses. Compressed nerves can lead to significant conditions, including loss of sensation in lower extremities or even loss of bowel control.
According to research cited by Harvard Health, about 10 percent of patients with herniated disc issues require surgery after six weeks. Similar research suggests that 90 percent of the time, surgery is not necessary for a herniated disc.
Herniated discs can occur in any part of the spine. Herniated discs are more common in the lower back (lumbar spine), but also occur in the neck (cervical spine). The area in which pain is experienced depends on what part of the spine is affected.
Here's where MS (typically) starts
Optic neuritis, or inflammation of the optic nerve, is usually the most common, Shoemaker says. You may experience eye pain, blurred vision and headache. It often occurs on one side and can eventually lead to partial or total vision loss.
Muscle spasms: They usually affect your leg muscles. They're an early symptom for almost half the people with MS. They also affect people with progressive MS. You might feel mild stiffness or strong, painful spasms.