What is Multiple Sclerosis?
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, progressive illness that affects the nerves in the brain, spinal cord, and other parts of the central nervous system. MS is an autoimmune disease, which means the body’s immune system targets itself, attacking cells, tissues and organs. If you have multiple sclerosis, you’re not alone. MS affects over 400,000 people in the United States and may affect 2.5 million people worldwide. Multiple sclerosis affects 2-3 times as many women as men.
Types of Multiple Sclerosis
While the multiple sclerosis symptoms and course of illness can vary from person to person, there are three forms of the disease—relapsing-remitting MS, secondary progressive MS, and primary progressive MS.
Relapsing-remitting MS: This type shows clearly defined relapses with some amount of recovery in between. It affects about 80% of all people with MS.
Secondary progressive MS: While technically a form of progressive MS, this type acts more like a relapsing form of MS in its early-to-mid stage, with relapses and remissions being quite common. But then a more continuous loss of physical and cognitive functions starts to take over, and relapses become less common. Fifty percent of people with relapsing-remitting MS will develop secondary progressive MS within 10 years of their initial diagnosis.
Primary progressive MS: In this type of multiple sclerosis, there are no relapses, but over a period of years, there is gradual loss of physical and cognitive functions. This form of MS affects about 10% of all people with MS.
Have you or someone you know been recently diagnosed with MS?
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