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What signs and Symptoms does MS display?
There is no single test for diagnosis of MS, so other possible explanations for the symptoms are eliminated first. For a patient to be told they have MS, neurologists consider they need to find evidence that there are at least two sites damaged in the nervous system (two is the minimum number to be 'multiple'). The signs and symptoms of MS depend upon which nerves are affected as different nerves control different functions and sensations in the body. This is why people can experience a variety of symptoms - some of which come on suddenly, others appearing gradually. These may include:
- blurred or double vision
- difficulty controlling and moving arms and legs
- weakness, fatigue and 'pins and needles'
- impaired balance
- bladder problems
- problems with speech or memory
There are numerous symptoms and anyone with MS may experience a few or many of them - no two people will be alike. Similarly, a variety of symptoms may present themselves at different times and to varying levels of severity.
Help and advice is always available at your regional
MS Therapy Centre.
The appearance of symptoms is, understandably, alarming. Almost as bad is the uncertainty of how they may develop or what may happen - and the feeling that the whole future of both patients and their dependants is suddenly under threat.
Symptoms in MS can appear or become more pronounced when the MS is active and may lessen or disappear when it is quiet. Often symptoms can feel - and may be - worse when a person is tired, stressed (upset, worried, anxious), or suffering from some common and totally unrelated condition such as a bad cold or influenza, infection or injury.
These fluctuations do not necessarily mean that the MS is getting worse, only that everyone has good days and bad days, and that the influence of other, unrelated, conditions is real and should not be ignored.
Recent studies of apparently healthy people using MRI have shown that areas of typical damage in the brain typical of MS are very common and affects over 40% of the population. Those who develop MS, that is who actively have the symptoms, are the ‘tip of the iceberg’ and it is usually damage to the spinal cord that results in obvious disability.
So any figures quoted about MS are at best rough estimates but there are probably at least 100,000 people with obvious symptoms of MS in Great Britain. In the population at large, the, prevalence is probably about 1 in 700. The disease is more likely to exhibit symptoms for the first time in those people between the ages of 35 and 50 - although signs have been detected in children as young as four, and many people can trace early episodes of the illness back to their teens or early twenties.
The prevalence amongst the children of those with MS is only very slightly higher and it is not clear whether the reason for this is hereditary or simply because people in families are generally raised in the same place. There is recent evidence that some people may have a genetic predisposition to develop MS, but that this is dependent on them being exposed to the right 'trigger'- and there is still a great deal of uncertainty and debate about just what sets off the disease process in individual cases.
The incidence of MS is said to be higher in the North of Britain than in the South. Also it is certainly true that MS occurs more frequently in temperate climates (and in the developed countries) than in hot, equatorial climates (or third world countries). However, life expectancy is very much lower in third-world countries and the provision of medical and special neurology much less developed.
Many authorities agree that people with MS have a fairly normal life expectancy and only about one in five may eventually need to use a wheelchair. Above all, people with MS can still expect to have a good experience of life, of love, marriage, children and a career.
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