What is multiple sclerosis?
Multiple sclerosis is a disease that causes vision problems, numbness and tingling, muscle weakness, and other problems. It happens when the body’s infection-fighting system attacks and damages nerve cells and their connections in the brain and spinal cord. When the body’s infection-fighting system, called the “immune system,” attacks the body’s own cells, it is called an “autoimmune response.”
Many people refer to multiple sclerosis as “MS.”
What are the symptoms of MS?
The condition can cause many symptoms, but not everyone with MS has all of them. Plus, the symptoms of MS can also be caused by problems other than MS. In general, MS symptoms can include:
- Vision problems, eye pain, and odd eye movements
- Numbness, tingling, and feeling “pins and needles”
- Feeling dizzy or off-balance, which can cause you to fall
- Muscle weakness or spasms, which can cause you to drop things or fall
- Trouble walking or speaking
- Problems controlling your bowels or bladder
- Sex problems
- Sensitivity to heat, which makes symptoms worse
- Trouble thinking clearly
Most people with MS have only 1 or a few of these symptoms. But people with severe MS can have most or all of them.