Multiple Sclerosis (MS), which occurs when the immune system damages the nervous system, causes loss of sensation and strength.
The most common initial symptom: Sensory complaints
Multiple Sclerosis, damage to the nervous system (brain, spinal cord) of our immune system or our body's defense system. It is a disease that occurs when the animal is perceived as a foreign object and attacked. Normally, our nervous system is in a hidden environment, away from the immune system. However, for reasons we cannot fully understand, our immune system, which has gone out of control, attacks its own nervous system and causes damage.
Complaints and findings vary depending on the location of the damage. The most common initial symptom of the disease is sensory-related complaints. Usually, it is not like I can't feel my hands or feet, but rather numbness-tingling-felt feeling. Sensory symptoms occur as immediate symptoms in 50-70% of patients.
Pay attention to these symptoms!
-Numbness
-Tingling
-Needling
-Decreased sensation
-Tension
-Numbness feeling
-Sand feeling of walking on
-Itching
-Burning
-Electrification
-Sudden electric shock to the face
-It may occur in the form of a sudden electric shock from the neck to the back and feet.
Loss of strength is the second most common symptom
After sensory complaints. Noting that MS disease most often manifests itself with power (motor) losses, Prof. Dr. Sultan Tarlacı continued his words as follows:
Although symptoms related to strength or power problems are initially seen in 32-40% of the patients, over the years, 60% of the patients are exposed to strength losses of varying degrees. This may be a direct loss of strength in a limb, or it may be in the form of 'heaviness', 'hardening', 'resistance' or 'pain'. Such symptoms often begin in the legs.
Vision loss occurs
In the third place, vision loss or disorders (optic neuritis = inflammation of the optic nerve) occur. ) reveals itself. This is the initial symptom in 15-20% of patients.
Starting smoking before the age of 17 increases the risk
In many studies, The age of onset of MS is 29-32. In women, the age at which it occurs most frequently is 5 years earlier than in men. In the primary progressive type, the age of onset is slightly older, at 35-39 years. In 5% of patients, the age of onset is under 8 years old and over 70 years old. In general, all diseases caused by the immune system are more common in women. The same situation applies to MS. The female-male ratio is 1.77/1.00. It is observed approximately twice as high in women. While MS is rarer in rural women and men, it is more common in people with high socio-economic status. This is the same both locally in cities and when looking at world geography. According to the results of a study, starting smoking before the age of 17 increases the risk of developing MS.
It occurs with the interaction of genetic effects and environmental causes
In MS, due to environmental reasons combined with genetics, deterioration and damage occurs in the myelin=fat sheath that surrounds the nerve cell extensions in the brain or spinal cord, which is the central nervous system, like plastic around a cable wire. After this, complaints appear.
Can MS be treated?
The most effective treatment for a patient who is understood to be having an attack is cortisone. Cortisone treatment began to be used in MS attacks in the 1970s and is the sacred cure for attacks. Some of the attacks may respond very well to cortisone and return to the pre-attack state. The beneficial effect occurs in the first few days and weeks. These are treatments used to reduce the frequency and severity of attacks of patients diagnosed with a certain type of MS or the damage/sequelaes/scars left when attacks occur. In 1993, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved interferon beta-1b, the first drug that could change the course of MS. After this, the period of preventive medicine began. The feature of these drugs is that they are used not only when there is an attack, but also continuously, whether there is an attack or not. A significant part of these drugs affects the body's defense/immunity. It prevents the aggressiveness of the disease and attacks by having a regulatory effect on the immune system. We can also add a treatment that we can call complementary therapy to the three treatments we mentioned. This treatment can be specified as diet, herbal treatments, changes in daily life routine, exercises (yoga, relaxation exercises).
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