Multiple Sclerosis :: essays research papers

Multiple SclerosisJason Garoutte November 18, 1996 English / Mr. BluntMultiple sclerosis is one of the well-nigh misunderstood indispositions of thiscentury. Since its discovery, there is still no known causes, no proventreatments, and no known cure, yet it affects possibly five hundred thousandpeople in the United States alone. People need to learn more about this disorderso it can be brought to the attention of the nation.Multiple Sclerosis is a disease of the central nervous system. It destroysthe fatty myelin sheath that insulates your nerve cells. Without thisinsulation, nerve communication is disrupted. The body then makes this worse byrepairing it, and clogging the area with scribble tissue. Signals going from yourbrain and brain stem, such as muscle coordination signals or visual sensationsignals, are slowed greatly, or just blocked off. Thus, a mortal afflicted withMultiple Sclerosis can suffer any number of symptoms.Researchers are not sure yet as to the cause of Mul tiple Sclerosis. at that placeis a kind of deadlock among scientists and doctors whether its hereditary,viral, or a combination of the two, with the disease being hereditary, but witha viral trigger, or just a sincere chemical imbalance in the immune system. Onething is certain, though. Some sort of defect in the immune system causes whiteblood cells to fervency and destroy the myelin sheath.There are five main types of Multiple Sclerosis. The first type is BenignMultiple Sclerosis. It is the least severe, has little progression, and takes uptwenty dollar bill percent of all cases. The second type is Benign Relapsing-RemittingMultiple Sclerosis. It carries symptoms that fluctuate in severity, milddisability, and it makes up thirty percent of the total. The third type is chronic Relapsing Multiple Sclerosis. It is characterized by disability thatincreases with each attack, and it is the most common with forty percent of allcases. Chronic Progressive Multiple Sclerosis is the quart ern type. It hascontinuous disability that worsens as time goes by, and ten percent of all casesare this. The last type is a very rare class called exquisite Progressive MultipleSclerosis. This kind can kill in weeks or months, in contrast with the usualyears or decades.Due to the type of disease and the areas it affects, there are a greatnumber of possible symptoms. These symptoms can fool the most experiencedphysician into thinking that it is a psychological disease. The most commonsymptoms are bouts of overwhelming fatigue, loss of coordination, muscleweakness, numbness, slurred speech, and visual difficulties. These symptoms mayoccur for a number of years before one is rattling diagnosed, and these symptoms