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Essays on autoimmune diseases
Multiple sclerosis and how it affects people
Essays on autoimmune diseases
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Multiple sclerosis, also known as MS, is one of the humankind’s most mysterious diseases. Multiple sclerosis has the ability to affect nearly 3 million people worldwide. This disease tends to be more common in individuals of northern European descent and women are more than twice as likely to develop multiple sclerosis as men are. Of those 3 million people, most of them are between the ages of 20 and 50 years old. Even though multiple sclerosis is a mystery disease, scientists are working to determine the exact cause and treatment.
Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease that involves the different areas of the central nervous system, the brain, and spinal cord. It damages the myelin sheath, the material that surrounds and protects the
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It is also estimated that approximately two and half million people are living with the disease... The name multiple sclerosis refers to the scars that are present in the brain and spinal cord is seen on an MRI. An autoimmune disorder is where a person’s immune system mistakes its own white blood cells as invaders and begins to attack itself damaging healthy body tissue. In these types of disorders, the immune system cannot tell the difference between healthy cells and antigens, which are foreign invaders like bacteria and viruses. Because of the damage, it does to the nerve cells; nerve signals can either slow down or stop completely. Inflammation, or the body’s reaction to infection, is what causes this nerve damage to happen. Multiple sclerosis is most commonly seen in the brain, optic nerve, and spinal cord and often leads to physical and cognitive …show more content…
Physical and occupational therapy may also help. Multiple sclerosis is not a fatal disease. Most people with MS have a normal or near-normal life span and usually die from the same conditions that affect general population (heart disease, cancer). Multiple Sclerosis symptoms can negatively affect the quality of life. Suicide rates among patients with multiple sclerosis are higher than average. The majority of patients with MS do not become severely disabled. Women tend to have a better outlook than men. MS has long been known, yet diagnosis remains difficult due to the complexity of the disease and its wide array of signs and symptoms. Treating MS still relies on symptomatic relief, but therapeutic advances in the form of DMDs have shown promising
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a disease affecting the myelination of the central nervous system, leading to numerous issues regarding muscle strength, coordination, balance, sensation, vision, and even some cognitive defects. Unfortunately, the etiology of MS is not known, however, it is generally thought of and accepted as being an autoimmune disorder inside of the central nervous system (Rietberg, et al. 2004). According to a study (Noonan, et al. 2010) on the prevalence of MS, the disease affects more than 1 million people across the world, and approximately 85% of those that are affected will suffer from unpredictably occurring sessions of exacerbations and remissions. The report (Noonan, et al. 2010) found that the prevalence of MS was much higher in women than in men, and that it was also higher in non-Hispanic whites than in other racial or ethnic groups throughout the 3 regions of the United States that were studied.
Spinal Muscular Atrophy, also known as “SMA” is a genetic and also a motor neuron disease that affects the area of the nervous system that controls your voluntary muscle movements such as walking, crawling, and swallowing. When someone acquires this condition their muscles start to shrink as a cause to the muscles not receiving signals from the nerve cells in the spine that control function. Spinal Muscular Atrophy is a rare but serious condition.
What is scoliosis? Scoliosis is a musculoskeletal disorder that causes the back to curve sideways like and “S” or a “C” and cause the body to lean to one side. Scoliosis can eventually if not looked into and not treated colid with your bodily organs like your heart, lungs, and kidneys. This can cause you to slump down into a hump and cause it hard to breath and do physical activity.
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is generally thought to be an autoimmune disease that attacks the myelin sheaths, or oligodendrocytes that cover nerve axons in the central nervous system (PubMed Health 2013). This immune response causes inflammation, which triggers immune cells to destroy axons “along any area of the brain, optic nerve, and spinal cord” (PubMed Health 2013). When the myelin sheath “is damaged, nerve signals slow down or stop” thus hindering the propagation of action potentials and limiting function (PubMed Health 2013).
Well what causes MS? When you have damaged nerve signals that is one way you can get it. Another way is you is it could be genetic or environmental. The other way you can cause it is by infections. Woman would be more common to get MS than a man. The ages
Multiple sclerosis - is an autoimmune disorder that affects the central nervous system including the spinal cord and brain.
According to National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is an unpredictable, often disabling disease of the central nervous system (CNS) that disrupts the flow of information within the brain, and between the brain and body. The central nervous system (CNS) comprises of the brain and the spinal cord. CNS is coated and protected by myelin sheath that is made of fatty tissues (Slomski, 2005). The inflammation and damage of the myelin sheath causing it to form a scar (sclerosis). This results in a number of physical and mental symptoms, including weakness, loss of coordination, and loss of speech and vision. The way the disease affect people is always different; some people experience only a single attack and recover quickly, while others condition degenerate over time (Wexler, 2013). Hence, the diagnosis of MS is mostly done by eliminating the symptoms of other diseases. Multiple sclerosis (MS) affects both men and women, but generally, it is more common in women more than men. The disease is most usually diagnosed between ages 20 and 40, however, it can occur at any age. Someone with a family history of the disease is more likely to suffer from it. Although MS is not
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a complicated chronic deteriorating disease that has an effect on the central nervous system (CNS). This disease causes destruction of the myelin around the nerve fibers. “The exact etiology of Multiple Sclerosis is unknown; however, it is thought to be an immune mediated disease. MS is characterized by CNS inflammation, demyelination, and axonal loss” (Compston & Coles, 2008). Typically, it is described by early relapses and remissions of neurological signs of the CNS. This is known as relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS). MS can be identified by a variety of known risk factors. Multiple Sclerosis can be brought on by a mixture of inherited and environmental risk factors such as smoking or an exposure to a virus like Epstein Barr. The inflammatory process has an interesting role on the central nervous system.
Primarily, the term MS refers to a chronic disorder that attacks the central nervous system (CNS). It is most common in temperate continents such as Europe and Australia with Asiatic and African continents having a lower risk of the disease (Wiley Online Library, 2013). A search organised by the Multiple Sclerosis Society (2013) has estimated that there are 127,000 people living with MS in the United Kingdom. Further research by Chipps, Clanin, and Campbell (1992, pp. 158-167) shows that MS disorder more likely affects women than men with its symptoms occurring between the ages of 20 and 40 in most cases and is quite uncommon in childhood and old age. The nerve cells known as neurons in the brain constantly transmit and receive signals. They invoke emotions, activities and cognition that constitute the day to day experiences of humans. Under normal circumstances, these signals travel on a protected insulation path known as the myelin sheath. This insulation is vital as it enables signals to reach their target. In Multiple Sclerosis, the myelin sheath gets disintegrated causing the nerve fibre to be damaged leading to a disruption in the abili...
The clinical picture of the disease is rich and variated. Usually it starts with motor symptoms together with visual disturbances. The later progression is depending on the part of the CNS affected. MS can present itself in several clinical courses with the relapsing remmitting beeing the most common in the begging. The secondary progressive course is a sequent and gives a much worse prognosis. The benign form, even though it’s not well defined, is usually a random find in MRI and no clinical symptoms. In the most severe cases MS can lead to death.
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a debilitating disease that affects approximately 400,000 Americans. It occurs two to three more times in women than in men and is most prevalent in women in their early thirties which makes researcher believe hormones play a significant role in developing MS. Patients can go through periods of relapse and remission with the possibility of the symptoms getting progressively worse with each occurrence. Statistics show that eighty percent who have MS will live twenty or plus years after its onset. Even with all the recent medical advances and research, MS is an overwhelming diagnosis to encounter.
Ankylosing spondylitis is an inflammatory disorder pertaining to the spine that primarily affects young males; symptoms include fatigue, a stiff neck, and pain in the hips and lower back which can be discerned using x-rays and MRI scans. The cause of this disease is unknown, though it is speculated that genetics play a factor; individuals who possess a particular gene called HLA-B27 have a higher risk of developing ankylosing spondylitis. Laboratories can test the blood to detect the HLA-B27 gene or signs of inflammation, though this is not a conclusive method for diagnosing ankylosing spondylitis. With this disorder, cartilage in the joints diminish within the spine causing spinal disks to calcify – this fuses the vertebrae
only ones at risk of this disease.Men,women and adolescents can be at risk as well. In
Multiple sclerosis can be defined as an inflammatory, autoimmune, and demyelinating complex disease of the central nervous system (Kidd, 2001). More common in women than men, the disease can strike at an early age, "especially when reproduction is a major consideration" (Sadovnick, Guimond, & Dwosh, 2001 p374). It is known to be the most common cause of "neurological disabilities in young adults" (Kidd, 2001 p540).
Scoliosis is a deformity that occurs when the spine becomes abnormally curved and sideways. The angle of the curve may vary, from small to large, but is considered scoliosis if the angle measures more than 10 degrees. In most cases, the cause of scoliosis is unknown. These cases of unknown scoliosis are considered to be idiopathic. If the scoliosis does have a clear cause doctors consider it to be structural or nonstructural. Structural scoliosis causes the spine to be curved and rigid. It cannot be reversed. In nonstructural scoliosis the spine is normal, but looks curved. Problems such as muscle spasms, and different lengths of one’s leg can cause this. This type of scoliosis will go away when the problem is corrected. Other causes are neuromuscular conditions, birth defects, and injures to the spine. Congenital scoliosis begins while the baby is developing in the womb, before birth. Degenerative scoliosis begins in adulthood as the disks and joints in the lower back begin to wear out. Signs and symptoms of scoliosis include uneven shoulders,