Most people with relapsing-remitting MSMost people with multiple sclerosis (MS) have a type called relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS). It usually starts in your 20s or 30s. If you have RRMS, you may have attacks when your symptoms flare up. These are called relapses. An attack is followed by a time of recovery when you have few or no symptoms, called remission.https://www.webmd.com › relapsing-remitting-multiple-sclerosis
Between 1 and 2 in every 10 people with the condition start their MS with a gradual worsening of symptoms. In primary progressive MS, symptoms gradually worsen and accumulate over several years, and there are no periods of remission, though people often have periods where their condition appears to stabilise.
Protect nerves from damage
These include clearing up debris left over from myelin attacks, making sure nerves have the energy they need, and improving transport of important molecules in the nerves. By finding treatments that prevent nerve loss, we could slow or stop the progression of MS.
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.
Over time, symptoms stop coming and going and begin getting steadily worse. The change may happen shortly after MS symptoms appear, or it may take years or decades. Primary-progressive MS: In this type, symptoms gradually get worse without any obvious relapses or remissions.
But when you develop the condition later in life, it may progress faster. Older adults with MS have a greater risk of the primary progressive form of the condition as well. This means that your body will likely gradually decline over time without any breaks from MS activity, so remission is unlikely.
The term benign MS is sometimes used to describe a version of relapsing remitting MS with very mild or no attacks separated by long periods with no symptoms. 'Benign' means 'something doesn't cause any harm'.
About 15% of patients will never necessitate assistance with ambulation, while 5-10% will do so within 5 years, and another 10% will do so in 15 years. Average patient will take about 28 years from the point of diagnosis to necessitate assistance while walking, and will be about 60 years of age.
It's felt that most people experience the severest disabilities of MS within five years of diagnosis. After that point, their disabilities don't continue to worsen significantly. Therefore, if no additional disabilities appear within the first five years, then they are unlikely to occur in the future.
Will MS brain lesions go away? It might be possible to one day heal lesions in addition to slowing the growth of them. Scientists are working to develop myelin repair strategies, or remyelination therapies, that might help regrow myelin.
Mild symptoms such as slight numbness, a pins-and-needles feeling, or periods of fatigue may not need treatment. If your relapse doesn't drastically affect your daily life, the flare-up will usually get better on its own.
Cognition tests showed only mild impairment in three patients. Researchers said the study suggests that “it is not uncommon for people with relapsing MS “to have only mild or no physical or cognitive dysfunction approximately three decades after clinical onset.” MS may have a bimodal progression, the team said.
You may have to adapt your daily life if you're diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS), but with the right care and support many people can lead long, active and healthy lives.
From day to day, those with multiple sclerosis (MS) will have their good days and then have some bad days. This type of fluxuation is common and it's always a bit random because you never really know what the next day is going to be like.
Over 25,600 people in Australia are living with multiple sclerosis, including 3,700 Queenslanders, and it affects each person differently. On average more than 10 Australians are diagnosed with MS every week.
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.
An “average” number of lesions on the initial brain MRI is between 10 and 15. However, even a few lesions are considered significant because even this small number of spots allows us to predict a diagnosis of MS and start treatment.
That said, certain symptoms should prompt you to seek help. If you're experiencing blurred vision, numbness, weakness or dizziness at the same time and for more than a day, those symptoms could be potential early signs of MS. It's important not to let too much time slip by before seeing a doctor.
A remission can last for weeks, months, or, in some cases, years.
Numbness of the face, body, or extremities (arms and legs) is often the first symptom experienced by those eventually diagnosed as having MS.
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.
In many patients, over a span of 5 to 15 years, the attacks begin more indolently, persist more chronically and remit less completely, gradually transforming into a pattern of steady deterioration rather than episodic flares. This pattern is referred to as secondary progressive MS.
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.