Living with a Chronic Illness

Multiple Sclerosis better known as MS is a disease people live with for 30 to 40 years. This is a long time living with such a painful disease. Many people do not know about Multiple Sclerosis and its effects on the individuals with this debilitating disease. More insight will be given on the cause, prevalence, racial disparity treatments research funding and future studies. According to the Institute of Medicine Multiple Sclerosis is a chronic inflammatory demyelinating disorder of the central nervous system (Williams, 2007).

Multiple Sclerosis affects the body neurons the cell of the brain and spinal cord that carry information create though and perception and allows the brain to control the body. Surrounding many of these neurons is a fatty layer known as the myelin sheath; which helps neurons carries electrical signals. Multiple Sclerosis causes the myelin sheath to gradually deteriorate. When the myelin sheath is destroyed the neurons can no longer efficiently conduct their electrical signals.

Multiply Sclerosis can cause a variety of symptoms which range from visual sensation problems muscle weakness slurred speech pain severe fatigue cognitive impairment and depression.

It was established that Multiple Sclerosis is not a single gene disorder. (William 2007) It involves multiple genes interacting with an environmental trigger or triggers. Research points toward infections rather than something toxic in air water or food as a triggering agent though recent evidence hints that lack of sun exposure leading to lower vitamin D levels may play (King, 2007).

Much has been learned about the damage of Multiple Sclerosis but the exact cause remains a mystery.

Nicholas Larocca Project officer and director of Heath Care Delivery and Policy Research for the National MS society explains that it is very important to understand the medical progression and what happens to people with Multiple Sclerosis over the years . It is known through research that Multiply Sclerosis occurs less often less often in African American than Caucasians but African Americans tend to have the most aggressive forms of Multiple Sclerosis.

Life styles for people with multiple sclerosis they should make every effort to preserve their general health. A healthy diet sufficient rest establishing priorities to conserve energy and developing support networks can all be very helpful. ( health. nytimes. com) patients with MS can benefit from various rehabilitation services to help them cope with the physical and emotional symptoms of their conditions. Physical therapy, occupational therapy, vocational therapy speech therapy these are ball forms of therapy that they have to take.

There Dietary intake is to drink 2 quarts of water a day and avoid caffeine containing beverages which are actually dehydrating. Eat a diet rich in fiber particularly from whole grains. Low fat diets have not much effect on MS but are in any case generally healthy. Omega 3 fatty acids found in oily fish and fish oil supplements and that is to just to name a few. (health. nytimes. com) Social Roles for people with multiply Sclerosis some people become withdrawn at first there are some who become depressed. They have a lot of doctors appoints that they have to keep up with. It’s good that they join support groups.