Multiple sclerosis has a number of names. It’s an autoimmune disease; it’s a neurological condition and a chronic disease. This can be quite confusing for most people.

When doctors say chronic disease, they mean a disease that is recurrent or long lasting. Multiple sclerosis has several types, relapsing remitting, primary progressive, secondary progressive and progressive relapsing. If relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis has symptoms that come and go, primary progressive multiple sclerosis and secondary progressive multiple sclerosis have a steady progression rate that leads to disability in the end. No matter what type of MS a person has, this condition is long lasting, which makes it a chronic condition.

The term chronic used in medicine describes the course, the rate of onset and the development of the disease.  When it comes to chronicity, the term is applied by doctors to a condition that lasts more than three months.

So, why is MS an autoimmune disease and a neurological condition? It’s an autoimmune disease because the body’s own immune system attacks healthy tissue ( the myelin) and it’s an neurological condition because the primary organ that’s affected is the brain.