Multiple Sclerosis Symptoms

The symptoms of multiple sclerosis can be different from person to person. There may be sensory, visual and motor signs and symptoms due to muscular sclerosis. The symptoms depend on the damage of the part of the spinal cord and brain. Central nervous system can get damage by the loss of Myelin and scaring, which happens due to muscular sclerosis.

The symptoms are not of permanent type. They may come and go or may be less severe. However, they may become severe as the body temperature decreases. There are some common and early symptoms due to muscle sclerosis such as pain, tremors, difficulty in thinking, stiffness etc. Also there are some less common symptoms including onset of paralysis, lack of co-ordination, slurred speech and cognitive difficulties.

However, these symptoms may be because of other diseases also, and that it not means that you have muscular sclerosis if you are experiencing these symptoms.

Symptoms may occur in one or three patterns. "relapsing-remitting" is the most common pattern, where there are symptomatic attacks that last for 24 hours or more than that. The period between attacks may be of year or more than year and mostly at the beginning of the diseases. There is great possibility of this pattern in younger people developing the multiple sclerosis.

The other pattern is "primary progressive" that progresses without reduction or with slight improvements. The pattern is more common in older people. The person with MS may experience weakness and remissions in "secondary progressive".

Below are some early symptoms of MS in brief:

Sensory symptoms: These include tingling, numbness, tightness around the legs or trunk, electrical sensation during the movement of legs, pins and needles sensation etc.
Heat sensitivity: There may worsening and appearance of symptoms if the person get exposed to heat or hot shower. It may occur in most of people with MS.
Fatigue: Fatigue is the most common symptom of muscular sclerosis. It mostly happens in the mid afternoon and increases the muscle weakness, sleepiness, drowsiness and mental fatigue.
Vision problems: These are very common in people with MS. However, 55% of people experience the vision problem known as optic neuritis. All vision problems are not responsible for causing blindness.
Dizziness: Most of people with MS complaints that they are feeling lightheaded or off balance. Damage in the complex nerve pathways is responsible for causing these symptoms. A nerve pathway plays an important role in coordinating vision and other inputs present in the brain, which are important to maintain balance.
Spasticity: Muscle spasms are the common and incapacitating symptom of muscular sclerosis. It usually affects the muscles of legs and arms. There may inability in moving the affected muscles freely.
Impaired thinking: Half of the people with MS may experience problem in thinking. They may have decrease in concentration, slowed thinking, decrease in concentration etc.
Abnormal sensation: People with MS may also experience abnormal sensation such as numbness, itching, stabbing, burning, tearing pains and pins and needles.
Problems in speech and walk: There may be swallowing difficulties in people with MS. Mostly; it may be connected with speech problems.
Tremors: This symptom is fairly common in people with muscular sclerosis. These are difficult to treat and incapacitating.

Except these symptoms there may be breathing problems and seizures also.

For more details on the related topics of multiple sclerosis follow the below given links: