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The slow progressive disease As it is well known already, multiple sclerosis is a disease with a slow or fast progression, a so called gradual disease that affects people between the ages of 20 and 40, and the occurrence rate is higher in females. Because of the disease’s nature, it is sometimes hard to get a proper diagnosis right from the start. This happens because of the symptoms which appear when the disease starts to develop. These are so-called minor symptoms, which come and go, and usually people don’t notice them or think it’s just a period of their lives and they don’t feel that good because they are tired and stressed. However, knowing MS’s minor symptoms and seeking medical help if one suspects that he or she might have this disease is the best approach in getting the right treatment and, hopefully, being cured ( today, in relapsing-remitting MS the cure seems to be stem cell therapy ).
The overlooked minor symptoms The minor symptoms are fatigue, dizziness, strange sensations, balance difficulties, and vision impairment. Fatigue is the first the most common and the most un-noticed symptoms. Everybody is fatigued from time to time, due to stress, lack of sleep and other personal problems. However, when dealing with MS there are over five different fatigues present; this is why, knowing how to differentiate normal fatigue from MS fatigue is essential. People with MS feel tired all the time, like they never get enough sleep. Another type of fatigue they experience is neuromuscular, which means that they feel that their muscles are tired, as the name suggests. The MS specific fatigue, lassitude, presents itself as a sensation of constant sleepiness no matter how much sleep the person actually gets.
Dizziness is another minor symptom which is sometimes overlooked. However, feeling dizzy and lightheaded for long periods of time, and feeling like the surrounding seems to spin, should be an alarm that something is wrong and a healthcare specialist should be consulted. Another commonly overlooked minor symptom of MS are the various sensations throughout the body that are caused by the demyelinating process caused by MS. These include numbness, burning, itching, tingles and such. It is also not uncommon for MS patients to experience a sensation that they describe as “pins and needles”. As already known, MS is a central nervous system ( CNS) disease, which makes the nervous signals sent by the brain to have a hard time reaching the extremities. This leads to balance difficulties, numbness in the feet or weakness in one limb. Vision problems occur due to the fact that the optic nerve has highly concentrated myelin amounts in it, and this causes the disease to affect one’s vision, resulting in blurred vision, seeing spots or losing the ability to see colors.
Conclusion Everybody might feel dizzy, tired or have blurred vision from time to time. However, these can be symptoms of MS, and if one person has several of the above symptoms for a period longer than a year without any apparent medical reason, a health care specialists who is knowledgeable about MS should be consulted.
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