Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a condition that can affect the brain and spinal cord, causing a wide range of potential symptoms, including problems with vision, arm or leg movement, sensation or balance. It's a lifelong condition that can sometimes cause serious disability, although it can occasionally be mild.
Benign MS is a mild course where an individual will have mild disease after having MS for about 15 years. This occurs in about 5-10% of patients.
There's no cure for multiple sclerosis, but benign MS is the mildest form of the condition.
A remission can last for weeks, months, or, in some cases, years. But remission doesn't mean you no longer have MS. MS medications can help reduce the chances of developing new symptoms, but you still have MS. Symptoms will likely return at some point.
Benign multiple sclerosis (MS) describes a form of MS that a person may have for several years without experiencing any of the severe symptoms that the condition generally causes.
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.
MS is considered a progressive condition. This means that symptoms change over time, and it may progress to another type of MS. More advanced types of MS can become more difficult to manage. Getting started on treatments soon after diagnosis can lengthen the time between relapses.
MS changes with age. Early on it's often the relapsing-remitting form. You alternate between relapses and symptom-free periods. As you get older, MS becomes more of a progressive disease.
Relapsing-remitting MS
Relapses can last for varying periods – from a few days up to months – and then the disease may then be inactive for months or years. About 85 per cent of people with MS are initially diagnosed with RRMS.
Some people with MS live symptom-free for long periods of time. Others with severe MS symptoms may need special accommodations just to go out to a restaurant, especially if they have physical limitations.
As a comparison, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) says that benign MS occurs in 10 percent to 20 percent of MS patients.
MS varies from patient to patient so that each individual has their own set of symptoms, problems, and their own course. There are people who have MS so mildly that they never even know that they have it.
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.
If you have multiple sclerosis (MS), your symptoms may get worse for periods lasting at least 24 hours. Between these flare-ups, you have phases of recovery, called remissions. They might last a few weeks, several months, or longer. This type of MS is known as relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS).
Most people with relapsing-remitting MS -- about 80% -- eventually get secondary progressive MS. The relapses and remissions that used to come and go change into symptoms that steadily get worse. The shift typically begins 15 to 20 years after you're first diagnosed with MS.
Exercise strengthens the muscles that help you walk. It also eases fatigue, boosts mood, and improves quality of life in people with MS. There's even some evidence that strength training might help slow MS damage in the brain. An exercise program for MS includes 150 minutes of "aerobics" each week.
Relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS)
During remissions, all symptoms may disappear, or some symptoms may continue and become permanent. However, there is no apparent progression of the disease during the periods of remission.
Although MS isn't fatal, there's currently no cure — MS is a chronic condition. But many people who have MS also have to contend with other issues that can decrease their quality of life. Even though most will never become severely disabled, many experience symptoms that cause pain, discomfort, and inconvenience.
There are also multiple infectious entities that mimic MS including; progressive multi-focal leukoencephalopathy (PML), Toxoplasmosis, Tuberculosis, Herpes Simplex Virus, Cytomegalovirus, Varicella zoster virus, Epstein Barr virus, Cryptococcus and Human immunodeficiency virus.
A wide range of conditions can be mistaken for MS, including: migraine, cerebral small vessel disease, fibromyalgia, functional neurological disorders, and neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders, along with uncommon inflammatory, infectious and metabolic conditions (1, 3).
Numbness of the face, body, or extremities (arms and legs) is often the first symptom experienced by those eventually diagnosed as having MS.
MRI scans are an important way to help health care providers figure out if a person has MS or not, but MRI scans cannot diagnose MS by themselves. While it is true that almost all people with MS will have lesions on MRI, not all people with MRI lesions have MS.