Summary. Most people with MS can expect to live as long as people without MS, but the condition can affect their daily life. For some people, the changes will be minor. For others, they can mean a loss of mobility and other functions.
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.
Effect of MS on Life Span
In the population studied, people with MS had a median life span of 75.9 years, while for people without MS, it was 83.4 years.
On average, the lifespan for people with MS is about five to 10 years shorter than for the general population, but this gap is getting shorter as treatments and care continue to improve.
Research shows that a healthy diet, exercise, not smoking, ongoing preventive care and management of other medical conditions not only contribute to overall health but can also impact a person's MS progression and lifespan. MS management is an essential component of optimal physical wellness.
Contents. 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.
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.
Many people with MS may live for 25 to 35 years or longer after their diagnosis. Survival is improving in MS patients, but chronic medical conditions such as heart disease, lung disease, depression, or diabetes may lower life expectancy in MS.
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.
Most people start to get MS symptoms between 20 and 40 years old. But sometimes, you won't have any MS symptoms until you're 50 or older. When this happens, doctors call it later-onset multiple sclerosis (LOMS).
By finding treatments that prevent nerve loss, we could slow or stop the progression of MS.
There is no cure for MS, but there are drugs that can alter the course of the condition. Research in recent years has determined a few things about risk factors. For example, low levels of vitamin D, smoking, having overweight, and living farther from the Equator can increase the risk.
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. Resolution is often complete.
MS can appear at any age but most commonly manifests between the ages of 20 and 40. It affects women two to three times as often as men.
There is no evidence that MS causes infertility. Studies have shown that pregnancy, delivery, and rate of birth defects are not significantly different in women with MS compared with those without MS. During pregnancy, you will need close monitoring to keep track of the disease and the health of the fetus.
We know early treatment improves long-term health and wellbeing by slowing down the build up of irreversible damage and reducing the number of relapses people experience. Starting MS treatment early is best but if you start later it can also have some benefits.
Secondary progressive MS (SPMS) is considered the long-term outcome of RMS, but more than 30% of people with MS continue to have RMS at an advanced age. Only 3.4% of people with MS are diagnosed with RMS after age 50, considered late-onset MS, and only 1% are diagnosed after the age 60, considered very late-onset MS.
There is no cure for multiple sclerosis. Treatment typically focuses on speeding recovery from attacks, reducing new radiographic and clinical relapses, slowing the progression of the disease, and managing MS symptoms. Some people have such mild symptoms that no treatment is necessary.
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. MS and its complications are the cause of death for about half the people diagnosed with the disease.
MS can occur at any age, but onset usually occurs around 20 and 40 years of age. However, younger and older people can be affected.
Can I have multiple sclerosis for years and not know it? Yes. MS can go undetected for years. Research has suggested that many patients experience MS-related symptoms and signs several years before receiving a definite diagnosis of the disease.
Most people are diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 50, although MS can occur in young children and older adults.
It can cause symptoms like problems with vision, arm or leg movement, sensation or balance. It's a lifelong condition that can sometimes cause serious disability. In many cases, it's possible to treat symptoms. Average life expectancy is slightly reduced for people with MS.
Some people with MS feel that they developed MS as a direct result of some stressful event or trauma. The evidence on this connection is mixed. Some studies do see an effect whilst others don't.