Paralysis Resource Guide - (Page 22) CONDITIONS the severity and the course of the disease. A relapsing-remitting course, the most common form of MS, is characterized by partial or total recovery after attacks; 70 to 75 percent of people with MS begin with a relapsing-remitting course. Relapsing-remitting MS may become steadily progressive. Attacks and partial recoveries may continue to occur. This is called secondary-progressive MS. Of those who start with relapsing-remitting, more than half will develop secondary progressive MS within 10 years; 90 percent within 25 years. A progressive course from onset of the disease is called primaryprogressive MS. In this case, symptoms generally do not remit. The exact cause of MS is unknown. Studies indicate an environmental factor may be involved. There is a higher incidence in northern Europe, northern United States, southern Australia, and New Zealand than in other areas of the world. There may also be a familial tendency toward the disorder. Multiple sclerosis is believed to be an abnormal immune response directed against the central nervous system (CNS). The cells and proteins of the body’s immune system, which normally defend the body against infections, leave the blood vessels serving the CNS and pour into the brain and spinal cord where they destroy myelin. The specific triggering mechanism that causes the immune system to attack its own myelin remains unknown, although a viral infection combined with an inherited genetic susceptibility is a leading suspect. Although many different viruses have been thought to cause MS, there has been no definitive evidence linking any one virus to the autoimmune reaction responsible for demyelination. According to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, MS was among the first diseases to be described scientifically. The 19thcentury doctors did not fully understand what they saw and recorded, but drawings from autopsies done as early as 1838 clearly show what is known today as MS. In 1868, Jean-Martin Charcot, 22 © Courtesy Muscular Dystrophy Association
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