Altered sensations are fairly common in multiple sclerosis. You might feel pins and needles, burning or crawling sensations, numbness or tightness. These unusual sensations are a type of nerve (neuropathic) pain.
MS: Strangest Symptoms From Head to Toe
Extreme fatigue, clumsiness, weird prickly sensations, sluggish thinking, wonky vision -- these are classic and common first symptoms of multiple sclerosis, or MS. But the expected stops here.
Paresthesia is an abnormal skin sensation such as tingling, tickling, prickling, itching, numbness, or burning. In people with MS, nerve damage causes these sensations to occur randomly, most often in the hands, arms, legs, or feet – but occasionally in places such as the mouth or chest.
Sensory problems, or disturbances in feeling, are often one of the earliest symptoms of MS and occur in 20 to 50 percent of individuals with the disease. Known as paresthesias, these abnormal sensations include numbness, tingling, burning, and increased sensitivity.
Mental health conditions such as generalized anxiety disorder and PTSD can also trigger sensory overload. Anticipation, fatigue, and stress can all contribute to a sensory overload experience, making senses feel heightened during panic attacks and PTSD episodes. Fibromyalgia is related to abnormal sensory processing.
Many people with multiple sclerosis (MS) have symptoms that aren't talked about very much. One of these is sensory overload. When surrounded by too much noise, exposed to too many visual stimuli, or put in new or loud environments, many people with MS report experiencing confusion, fatigue, and pain.
Nearly 9 in 10 people with multiple sclerosis (MS) have the common relapsing-remitting form of the disease. In a relapse, an attack (episode) of symptoms occurs. During a relapse, symptoms develop (described below) and may last for days but usually last for 2-6 weeks. They sometimes last for several months.
In MS you can experience acute neuropathic pain and chronic neuropathic pain. Acute Neuropathic Pain is sometimes an initial symptom of MS or may be part of an MS relapse.
Numbness or Tingling
Numbness of the face, body, or extremities (arms and legs) is often the first symptom experienced by those eventually diagnosed as having MS.
Many people with MS experience dizziness, in which you feel light-headed or off-balance, notes the NMSS. A less-common MS symptom is vertigo. When you have vertigo, you feel as though your surroundings are spinning around you, Dr. Kalb says, or that you are spinning.
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.
Pressure on peripheral nerves from enlarged blood vessels, tumors, scar tissue, or infection. Shingles or herpes zoster infection. Other infections such as HIV/AIDS, leprosy, syphilis, or tuberculosis. Lack of blood supply to an area, such as from hardening of the arteries, frostbite, or vessel inflammation.
Numbness of the face, body or extremities (arms and legs) is one of the most common symptoms of MS. It may be the first MS symptom you experienced. The numbness may be mild or so severe that it interferes with your ability to use the affected body part.
Numbness and tingling is common in MS. It's often one of the earliest reported symptoms, but it can happen at any point over the course of condition. These sensations most often happen in the limbs, face, or torso. They can range in intensity from mild to severe.
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.
Most symptoms develop abruptly, within hours or days. These attacks or relapses of MS typically reach their peak within a few days at most and then resolve slowly over the next several days or weeks so that a typical relapse will be symptomatic for about eight weeks from onset to recovery.
About 5 percent of people who are confirmed to have MS do not initially have brain lesions evidenced by MRI. However, the longer a person goes without brain or spinal cord lesions on MRI, the more important it becomes to look for other possible diagnoses.
How long can MS go undiagnosed? MS is usually diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 50, but it can go undetected for years. In fact, a 2021 study suggested that many people with MS experience disease symptoms several years before being officially diagnosed with the disease.
I have MS, that's multiple sclerosis to those of you whose lives haven't been touched by it. More specifically, and hey let's be specific, I have primary progressive multiple sclerosis. This means I have symptoms every day, and every night, without any intervals.
The study found that people with MS lived to be 75.9 years old, on average, compared to 83.4 years old for those without. That 7.5-year difference is similar to what other researchers have found recently.
Fatigue is also among the most common symptoms, reported by at least 75% of MS patients at some point in the disease course. For many, fatigue is considered to be the single most debilitating symptom, surpassing pain and even physical disability.
If you have MS, you may sometimes experience sensory symptoms such as numbness, tightness, tingling, or burning. There's also a common MS motor symptom known as spasticity. It involves feelings of stiffness, as well as muscle spasms that you can't control.
Among the most common symptoms of MS are motor impairments such as deficits in gait and balance, as well as cognitive dysfunction such as reductions in cognitive processing speed. Approximately 85% of individuals with MS report walking dysfunction to be a major impairment in their daily lives [5].
Some experts believe that up to 10 percent of children experience some type of sensory processing challenge. On top of that, people with ADHD, autism spectrum disorders, and fragile X syndrome are much more likely to develop SPD.