What causes multiple sclerosis—and why are women more at risk?

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Millions worldwide suffer from this debilitating disease. Symptoms vary widely, and there’s no known cure.

Brain scans are one tool that doctors use to diagnose multiple sclerosis or MS, which impacts the body's central nervous system. This magnetic resonance imaging scan shows the brain of a 53-year-old woman with brain atrophy consistent with severe long-standing MS. But Applegate’s symptoms didn’t stop there. Lesions in her brain caused pain all over her body. She began to experience depression, too.

In multiple sclerosis or MS, the body's immune system attacks the protective myelin sheath that covers nerve cells. When the myelin deteriorates, nerve cells struggle to relay normal signals between the brain and body., a neurologist at the University of California, San Francisco. “ quite make it to the threshold of someone going to the emergency room,” she says, but things might not feel quite right. There’s no definitive test for MS.

These symptoms may include numbness, slurred speech, vision issues, and loss of coordination, but others are less detectable. So-called invisible symptoms, like fatigue and bladder dysfunction, are more common and difficult to treat, says Charvet. Because these symptoms are also harder for those without MS to see, “it’s a burden to get support and empathy,” says Bove.experiencing it at some point after diagnosis.

 

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