Hello all Steemers, today I'd like to write little bit about health condition I have and many others (around 2.3 million people) around the world has.
It's soon World MS Day 2017 (31 May 2017), a day dedicated to Multiple Sclerosis patients, it's also a day to celebrate global solidarity and hope for the future.
Multiple sclerosis is the most common autoimmune disorder affecting the central nervous system and causes of disability. Disease usually begins between the ages of 20 and 50 and is twice as common in women as in men. Name multiple sclerosis refers to the scars that develop on the brain and on the spinal cord. Symptoms can include double vision, blindness in one eye, trouble with sensation, muscle weakness, or trouble with coordination and much more, no MS patient is the same, everyone has their own symptoms. MS can also make you unavailable to walk anymore without help. I'm happy that it isn't been the case for me at least yet. About 25 percent of people with MS use a wheelchair or stay in bed because they are unable to walk.
Cause of it isn't known. However it is believed to occur as a result of some combination of genetic and environmental factors such as infectious agents. Theories try to combine the data into likely explanations, but none has proved definitive.
Few of these are
MS is more common in people who live farther from the equator, although exceptions exist. These exceptions include ethnic groups that are at low risk even though they are far from the equator such as the Samis, Amerindians, Canadian Hutterites, New Zealand Māori, and Canada's Inuit, as well as groups that have a relatively high risk close to the equator such as Sardinians, inland Sicilians, Palestinians and Parsis. The cause of this geographical pattern is not clear. MS is more common in regions with northern European populations.
MS is not considered as a hereditary disease. However, a number of genetic variations have been shown to increase the risk. In identical twins both are affected about 30% of the time, while around 5% for non-identical twins and 2.5% of siblings are affected with a lower percentage of half-siblings. If both parents are affected the risk in their children is 10 times that of the general population.
[No one in my extended family has it but me.]
Many microbes have been proposed as triggers of MS, but none of those have been confirmed. Moving at an early age from one location in the world to another alters a person's subsequent risk of MS. An explanation for this could be that some kind of infection, produced by a widespread microbe rather than a rare one, is related to the disease. Human herpes viruses are a candidate group of viruses. Individuals having never been infected by the Epstein–Barr virus are at a reduced risk of getting MS, whereas those infected as young adults are at a greater risk than those having had it at a younger age. Other diseases that may be related include measles, mumps and rubella.
[I've had only Epstein-Barr virus of these and I think it's the real reason why some people develop MS disease while others don't. As American research has find out that MS patients still has that virus in their system. Study compared blood samples of 222 U.S. military personnel who developed MS with samples with 444 disease-free but age- and sex-matched controls, and found a 36-fold higher risk of MS onset in those with high levels of Epstein-Barr Virus antibodies in their blood. Australians are trying to harness Epstein-Barr virus to fight back and fix problems it has caused, but I haven't heard anything of it for few years.]
The Myth: MS is a death sentence
The facts: Life expectancy is normal or close to normal for most people with MS. "We think of it as a chronic disease that can be managed," says Nancy L. Sicotte, MD, director of the Multiple Sclerosis Program at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. "Many people live full and active lives."
The Myth: You'll need a wheelchair
The facts: Many people with MS will never end up in a wheelchair or need any other assistive device to get around. "When patients come in after their diagnosis, they are usually devastated because they think it means that they will be in a wheelchair in five years, but this is simply not true," Dr. Sicotte says. In fact, thanks to earlier detection and better treatments, you can't assume that you'd know for sure if someone has MS.
The Myth: Everyone's MS follows the same path
The facts: This is not your neighbor's MS or your mother's or that celebrity you follow on Twitter's. The truth is, no two cases of MS are alike. Some people have mild numbness in the limbs; others may develop severe paralysis or loss of vision. "You can't even look at family members who have MS to say, ‘This is how my MS will behave,'" says Carrie Lyn Sammarco, DrNP, a nurse practitioner at the Multiple Sclerosis Comprehensive Care Center at the NYU Langone Medical Center.
The Myth: Only old people get MS
The facts: MS is not a disease of aging. Most people get it in their 20s, 30s or 40s. That said, young children, teens and even seniors can develop MS. The National Multiple Sclerosis Society reports that 200 people in the United States are diagnosed every week.
The Myth: Women with MS can't get pregnant
The facts: Pregnancy may actually be a good thing for women with MS. The majority will go into remission during their third trimester, although many relapse after delivery. There is even a growing body of evidence that pregnancy can lower a woman's risk of developing MS in the first place. One Australian study showed that women with at least one child were about 50 percent less likely to develop MS than those without kids. The reduction of risk becomes even greater with each subsequent pregnancy. Researchers don't know why that's the case, but they suspect that hormones are a factor.
The Myth: MS risk is all in your genes
The facts: Genes do play a role, but they are not the be-all and end-all. "If you have multiple sclerosis, there will most likely be other cases of MS or autoimmunity in your family, but this is just part of the equation," Dr. Sicotte explains. Your risk of MS is about 20 times higher if you have an immediate family member with the disease, but environmental factors and possibly infectious agents may also determine who develops the disease and who doesn't.
The Myth: MS is curable
The facts: Unfortunately, there is no cure yet. That said, long-term remission is possible for many people. Some may never experience any further symptoms after being diagnosed, but evidence of progression can still pop up on new magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of the brain. "MRI changes occur 7 to 10 times as frequently as clinical activity," Dr. Sicotte says. The good news is that there are more treatments available today than ever before—and advances in stem cell transplants, as well as other cutting-edge technology, may one day lead to a true cure.
So this was my compact info attack about Multiple Sclerosis. I'm happy that it haven't effected me that much, I can still walk after 6 years of diagnosis without help. Most of the symptoms I have is fatigue, muscle weakness and some neuralgia. Of course prescriptions to handle those and keeping the MS disease in remission does cost a lot (Aubagio which I use does cost around 3800 euros per 3 months), but I'm more than happy to pay for those than be in pain and sleepy all the time even though then again, I'm poor as h*ll but at least I have roof on top my head and I'm not in pain / other stuff.
There's so much more to tell about this disease, but I will save those to the next time. Let me know in the comments if you have MS disease or know someone who has it?
Me
Wikipedia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_sclerosis]
Health.com [http://www.health.com/health/article/0,,20863053,00.html]
World MS Day [https://worldmsday.org/]
