What Is MS?
(Multiple Sclerosis)

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is the most common disease of the central nervous system (the brain and spinal cord) to affect young adults. It affects about 100,000 people in the UK.

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Multiple Sclerosis is a disease that impacts the brain, spinal cord and optic nerves, which make up the central nervous system (CNS) and controls everything we do. The exact cause of MS is unknown, but we do know that something triggers the immune system to attack the CNS. The resulting damage to myelin, the protective layer insulating wire-like nerve fibers, disrupts signals to and from the brain. This interruption of communication signals causes unpredictable symptoms such as numbness, tingling, mood changes, memory problems, pain, fatigue, blindness and/or paralysis. Everyone’s experience with MS is different and these losses may be temporary or long lasting.

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Multiple sclerosis can cause many different symptoms. Often, when they first start to happen, they come and go, and are quite mild. They often are not serious enough to need medical attention. Sometimes it is only after people have been diagnosed with MS that they realise they were having early symptoms before.

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