10 Things You Should Know About MS

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If you or someone you love has multiple sclerosis, you might think that you know an awful lot about the subject. You have probably read everything you can get your hands on and talked to friends and doctors, and chances are very good that you even belong to a support group of some kind, where people share all kinds of information.

When it comes to any type of disease, it’s best to gather as much information as possible, and we have compiled some information that it appears very few people know. As of today, there are more than 2.3 million people living with MS with no cure in sight and only a handful of treatments. Some work for some people, but a great many do not work for many people.

Here are 10 things that you should know about MS but probably don’t.

1. There Are 4 Types Of MS; However….

There are four types of disease courses in MS but most people only exhibit symptoms individual to them. The four types are:

PPMS – primary-progressive MS
SPMS – secondary-progressive MS
RRMS – relapsing-remitting MS
PRMS – progressive-relapsing MS

With each type of MS there are wide degrees of severity. One person can be highly functioning with minimal symptoms while another person with the same type can be severely disabled. In fact, one person can go to work most days and have few symptoms while someone else is disabled enough to need a caretaker, even though both suffer from the same course, or type, of MS. There is no “typical” MS sufferer.

2. Pain And Sleeplessness

Insomnia and pain are common symptoms of MS. Many people think that they are unrelated to their disease. This is so common that more than 50 percent of those afflicted with MS say that they suffer from insomnia and pain, which only make their other symptoms worse. Pain and insomnia increase the severity of symptoms, and as is the case with headaches, only become more severe and more frequent. The management of MS symptoms is endless. Try chamomile tea for insomnia and ginger or Devil’s Claw for pain management.

3. MS Symptoms Can Come And Go

You might think you are an expert on your own MS, but just when you think you have it down, it changes on you. And it will continue to change over your lifetime. You might have a loss of bladder control for months when suddenly your control is restored, but you lose short term memory so badly that you can’t remember who you just had over for coffee. You can walk unassisted for months but one morning, you discover that you suddenly need your walker. Unfortunately, many people see something as no longer needing their walker as a sign that they are “getting better.” In reality, the truth of the matter is that their bodies are simply changing. These changing symptoms and their severity makes MS very hard to diagnose and even harder to predict the future and what will be needed.

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