EDSS scores that are 3 or below mean there's been some change to how your body functions, but you can still walk. If you have an EDSS score of 3 or below and it's been at least 10 years since your first
Some people are told they have benign MS. 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'.
“MS may lead to a loss of sensation in whatever area of the body corresponds with the damaged area of the brain or spinal cord,” Dr. Scherz says. This can cause numbness or a tingling sensation—for instance, in the fingers or toes. The feeling usually comes and goes, and can be mild or severe.
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.
Parts Of Your Body Feel Numb Or "Strange"
This is especially true if it's been in the form of numbness or weakness in one or more limbs, women's health expert Dr. Donnica L. Moore tells me. You might also feel repetitive pain or tingling sensations in various parts of the body (like your face).
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.
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.
Disease Course of MS Is Unpredictable
A person with benign MS will have few symptoms or loss of ability after having MS for about 15 years, while most people with MS would be expected to have some degree of disability after that amount of time, particularly if their MS went untreated.
Although more people are being diagnosed with MS today than in the past, the reasons for this are not clear. Likely contributors include greater awareness of the disease, better access to medical care and improved diagnostic capabilities. There is no definitive evidence that the rate of MS is generally on the increase.
These include fibromyalgia and vitamin B12 deficiency, muscular dystrophy (MD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease), migraine, hypo-thyroidism, hypertension, Beçhets, Arnold-Chiari deformity, and mitochondrial disorders, although your neurologist can usually rule them out quite easily.
Here's where MS (typically) starts
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. Spinal cord inflammation, or what's called partial transverse myelitis, is the second most common symptom Shoemaker typically sees.
The early signs and symptoms of MS can be the same for women and men. One of the more obvious first signs of MS is a problem with vision, known as optic neuritis. This is often because it's a more concrete symptom as opposed to vaguer neurological symptoms like numbness and tingling.
Only a small percentage of people with MS receive their diagnosis after age 50. In some cases, these people have late-onset MS. But for some, the diagnosis represents a delayed identification of years — or even decades — of unrecognized symptoms.
Can I have multiple sclerosis for years and not know it? Yes. MS can go undetected for years.
Border forms of multiple sclerosis (MS) can be separated in two groups: either they are variants of MS or they are distinct from MS but they share several characteristics with MS thus representing for some of them a continuum with MS. All these entities are central nervous system demyelinating diseases.
The truth is that 15 years after the onset of MS, only about 20% of patients are bedridden or institutionalized. Another 20% may require a wheelchair, or use crutches, or a cane to ambulate, but fully 60% will be ambulatory without assistance and some will have little deficit at all.
Multiple sclerosis usually affects people between the ages of 20 and 50 years, and the average age of onset is approximately 34 years. Multiple sclerosis can affect children and teens (pediatric MS). It has been estimated that 2%-5% of people with MS develop symptoms prior to age 18.
MS is not directly inherited from parent to child. There's no single gene that causes it. Over 200 genes might affect your chances of getting MS. But genes are only part of the story.
Some of the factors that have been suggested as possible causes of MS include: your genes – MS isn't directly inherited, but people who are related to someone with the condition are more likely to develop it; the chance of a sibling or child of someone with MS also developing it is estimated to be around 2 to 3 in 100.
Depending on the type of MS you have, your symptoms may come and go in phases or get steadily worse over time (progress).
Abnormal sensations can be a common initial symptom of MS. This often takes the form of numbness or tingling in different parts of your body, such as the arms, legs or trunk, which typically spreads out over a few days.
While there are no definitive blood tests for diagnosing MS, they can rule out other conditions that may mimic MS symptoms, including Lyme disease, collagen-vascular diseases, rare hereditary disorders, and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS).
My brain goes fuzzy, I can't think clearly, my speech slurs and my eyesight goes. Swallowing becomes more difficult, my balance gets worse and my legs feel heavy and clumsy. Unlike the limits of normal, everyday tiredness, which may give a little when pushed against, MS fatigue can feel like a barrier.