Multiple Sclerosis
What is multiple sclerosis?
Multiple sclerosis is a disease of the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord), which is a destruction of the substance that coats nerve fibers (myelin), without which neural transmission is severely affected.
This destruction is due to inflammatory events that leave areas of the nerve without the myelin sheath. They are called “plaques”, hence also called sclerosis.
The affected areas can recover remielinizarse and therefore nerve transmission or stay permanently affected, producing an operating deficit of the affected nerve tissue. The progression of the disease can sometimes lead to a state of severe physical disability and limit the patient’s life. Life expectancy is 82.5% of the normal pattern.It is more common in women than in men and age of onset is usually between 20 and 45 years. It is more common in temperate than in tropical and subtropical areas. In Spain there is an incidence rate of about 3 cases per 100,000 inhabitants per year.
What causes multiple sclerosis?
The cause of the disease is unknown, although the most accepted hypothesis is the result of a genetic predisposition and environmental external factor or unknown (may be a virus) that causes an alteration in the immune system, so that our own defense system attacks the myelin sheath, causing inflammation and destruction.
credit to: Dr. Jimmy Alfonso Schiemann Delgado, Dr. Per Rochat, Dr. Claus Madsen, Dr. Dan Rutherford