But on many occasions, when we pronounce it, we don’t really know what we are referring to.
He Doctor Miguel Ángel Llaneza, Coordinator , explains that there are many sclerosis that cannot affect the body:
“ This medical term means a hardening of any tissue in the body . And therefore there are different types such as:
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tuberous sclerosis
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scleroderma
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skin sclerosis
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Systemic sclerosis…”
In Spain, more than 50,000 people suffer from multiple sclerosis and each year some 2,000 new cases are diagnosed.
Why is the disease with a thousand faces?
The multiple sclerosis chronic and degenerative, characterized by the immune system abnormally attacking myelin is a (the layer that recovers the nerve fibers) causing lesions in the central nervous system.
The cause What causes the onset of this disease? is still unknown.
The experts Do you think there may be some environmental factor? like a viral infection, lack of exposure to sunlight, some toxin that can trigger it in individuals with a genetic predisposition to it.
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“At a given moment – explains doctor Llaneza – and for unknown reasons, the immune system, in charge of defending usof viral and bacterial infections, and to ensure that tumors do not develop spontaneously, goes crazy and begins to attack the body’s own structures by recognizing them as strangers.
In the case of multiple sclerosis, the target of the immune system is myelin that recovers the nerve fibers located in the brain or spinal cord.
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This type of sclerosis is also known as the disease of 1,000 faces .
And it is that, Depending on the area of the brain or spinal cord system affected, the symptoms will be completely different.
symptoms of multiple sclerosis
It is a disease that can occur in many different ways.
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with the loss of vision of one eye, if it affects an optic nerve
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like a picture of dizziness when the affectation occurs in the cerebellum, the part that controls balance.
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It can also affect the sensitivity of the arm and leg on one side of the body or both legs, depending on which part of the spinal cord is affected.
but there are others very non-specific symptoms such as:
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Fatigue
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Fatigue
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cognitive problems
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memory disorders
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Loss of ability to concentrate
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Decreased ability to process information.
And the reality is that not infrequently these symptoms are attributed, at first, to other pathologies such as depression, anxiety, or chronic fatigue syndrome.
Too many consultations before reaching the specialist
This variety of non-specific symptoms means that on many occasions patients have to make a journey through different specialists such as traumatologists, rheumatologists, oculists… before reaching the neurologist and being diagnosed with what they really ‘hide’, which is multiple sclerosis.
The added problem is that, as in many other diseases, time is vital in the development of multiple sclerosis .
Dr. Miguel Ángel Llaneza affirms that:
- “The delay in diagnosis represents a delay in treatment will translate into a worse evolution of the disease with more sequels in the short, medium and long term”.
types of multiple sclerosis
There are several types of multiple sclerosis that can be divided into two groups .
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On the one hand, the forms of sclerosis that occurs in relapses called multiple sclerosis recurring-sender and that they represent approximately 75% of the cases.
“They are those patients who have a outbreak, an attack, an acute crisis, and then they recover either partially or totally. Then they spend time without symptoms until another crisis breaks out again, after a while, and so on.
The other group are the progressive forms among which there are two
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The primary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis, that in which from the beginning of the disease there are no outbreaks, but the patient progressively worsens.
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The other way is progressive secondaries which are the evolution of the forms in outbreaks, that is, over time the number of outbreaks tends to decrease until they disappear, but there begins to be a progressive worsening.
A disease that especially affects young women
Multiple sclerosis is a disease that causes physical and cognitive disability and whose The first symptoms usually begin to manifest when patients are young, between 20 and 30 years of age. and especially affects women.
3 out of 4 patients with relapsing-remitting sclerosis are women .
As the neurologist explains:
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with the sclerosis The same thing happens with other autoimmune diseases, and it is that it happens in a special way to women . It is believed that the cause could have some hormonal influence.
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“In childhood, the prevalence of this disease It is similar in boys and girls.
- But after puberty differences between the sexes in the incidence of multiple sclerosis skyrocket.
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And they even out again after the age of menopause.”
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