Have you heard of the condition, multiple sclerosis before? Well, this is a condition that may affect the central nervous system. That being said, it is capable of bringing harm to the brain, as well as the spinal cord. Actually, this may cause numbness, weakness, tingling, and some other symptoms. This particular condition may be very sudden and may actually impose a great effect on the overall health condition. Therefore, it is right to have proper knowledge about the condition. Also, can multiple sclerosis and gout be connected? Read on to this article to know!
What is Multiple Sclerosis?
The multiple sclerosis or MS is an autoimmune condition, which may affect the central nervous system. Furthermore, it mainly affects the brain and the spinal cord. As a matter of fact, about 20,000 cases are being reported to be the casualty of this particular condition each year. Also, the condition may affect the myelin sheath or what they call, the protective layer of the nerves. Furthermore, the spinal cord may also start to decline.
This may cause difficulties in the motor skills, together with the wide-range damage into the nerves. Not just that, it may also come with various psychological, cognitive, and physical impairment.
When the nervous system is not able to communicate with the body, there is a tendency that it become a painful and long condition for the caretakers. This is because there is actually no known treatment for it yet. Additionally, the condition is also thought to be an autoimmune condition, which isn’t really adept of scattering from person to person. For some indefinite reasons, the immune system may identify the myelin sheath as one foreign entity and may attack it suddenly.
Types of Multiple Sclerosis
Here are the four types of multiple sclerosis:
- Primary progressive multiple sclerosis: this affects about 10% of people with multiple sclerosis.
- Progressive-relapsing multiple sclerosis: this is related to the deteriorating of the disease that’s steady. This comes along with various occasional flare-ups.
- Relapse-remitting multiple sclerosis: this is the most common of all the forms of multiple sclerosis. In actual fact, it affects approximately 85% of those who have the condition.
- Secondary progressivemultiple sclerosis: this is usually associated with the initial deteriorating-remitting illness that is trailed by a steady deteriorating as well as minor reductions.
Causes of Multiple Sclerosis
The chief cause of multiple sclerosis is not known yet. Nevertheless, it is supposed to be a kind of an autoimmune disease. Henceforth, the immune system attacks the myelin sheath as if it’s a foreign entity.
The factors contributing to the increase of the risk of MS may include:
- Age
- Ethnicity
- Genetic factors
- Sex
Moreover, some other possible factors of MS may include:
- Salt
- Exposure to various toxic matters
- Various infections
Symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis, as what we said earlier, mainly affects the central nervous system, which controls all the tasks of the body. When the nerve fibers get damaged, the symptoms of the condition may also take place in various body parts
In some cases, the symptoms may be mild that they aren’t noticeable at all. But this is not until it appears well ahead. Here are some of the overall symptoms of MS:
- Troubles in the balance as well as in the co-coordination
- Problems with memory and thinking
- Prickling and numbness
- Visual turbulences
- Muscle Weakness
Multiple Sclerosis and Gout: Their connection
There has actually been various gossip regarding multiple sclerosis and gout. First, the MS is an autoimmune condition, which may attack the central nervous system. As what we often say, this may affect the brain, thus impairing the connection of it into some other parts of the body. This may cause various body parts to go numb. The symptoms of the condition may progress slowly as the time passes by and may get worse eventually. Unluckily, there’s still a lot of things that we don’t know about the condition.
What both of the condition have in common is actually the uric acid. The uric acid, as we know, is a powerful antioxidant that protects the neurons. Furthermore, since the levels of uric acid are present in those who suffer from gout, a research is conducted to test whether they are less prone to MS.
What they conclude is that those who suffer from gout are not really at a reduced risk in the development of MS. Conversely, those who have multiple sclerosis were less possible to develop gout afterward. Furthermore, the researchers also noted about the limitations in the study.
