Multiple sclerosis increases with age, environment – Experts

A Senior Consultant, Vascular Surgeon, Apollo Hospital, India, Dr V. Balaji, said it was initially thought that MS was rare in India, and some other countries like Nigeria, as more cases are being diagnosed with the help of modern  diagnostic methods like MRI.He said, “According to neurologists, there are around 40,000 to 50,000 estimated cases […]

A Senior Consultant, Vascular Surgeon, Apollo Hospital, India, Dr V. Balaji, said it was initially thought that MS was rare in India, and some other countries like Nigeria, as more cases are being diagnosed with the help of modern  diagnostic methods like MRI.
He said, “According to neurologists, there are around 40,000 to 50,000 estimated cases of MS all over India.”
The consultant vascular surgeon explained that in MS, the body hits against its nerve cells, and the myelin sheath is destroyed and conduction is affected.
“It is a chronic, progressive disease of the central nervous system, where the simplest of everyday tasks cannot be taken for granted. The effects can range from benign to devastating. It is often disabling. The patient will now have sensation and morbidity problems or if the eye nerves are affected, the patient will have vision problems.”
According to him, the symptoms could appear and disappear mysteriously in the relapsing-remitting type or MS could progressively worsen in the progressive type while in the worst cases, a person with MS may be unable to write, speak or walk.
Balaji  added, “It is also believed to be an auto-immune disorder in which the body fails to recognise its own cells and attacks them as foreign ones. Since this crippling disease starts in young adulthood and is not a killer, the patient lives a normal span of life but slowly becomes more and more disabled and may ultimately become bedridden. In some cases, the disease could remain very benign too.”