By Karla Sullivan
“Every day is a new day with something beginning or ending. Today I woke up and my eyesight is a bit blurry with double vision. Yesterday’s clarity has gone while another day’s nearly total loss has ended. It’s the same with every symptom – will my drop foot trip me up today, literally, or will my leg feel like a massive piece of lead? Will I tremor a little or a lot, with a lot meaning I don’t dare touch anything for it will end up broken or flying across the room? Do I dare go out into the world after eating and risk incontinence of the both kind? Shall I use my single cane, my quad, my walker or my wheelchair? Which one suits today’s challenges? Is there a hint as to what level of fatigue I’ll have today? Whether it be 8, 12 or 20 hours of sleep doesn’t matter with MS. The fatigue is different.,” comments, Reverend Carmella, who has lived with the unpredictable affects of Multiple Sclerosis for many years.
According to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Multiple Sclerosis is a chronic, often disabling disease that attacks the central nervous system. Symptoms may be mild such as numbness in the limbs, or severe which include progressive paralysis or loss of vision. Slurred speech, tremors, cognitive loss and bladder issues with the disease can be permanent or come and go. Unique fatigue that creates an overwhelming sense of extreme weakness is another definitive of the condition. Better known as MS, it is a disease of the immune system but the specific target of the immune attack has not yet been identified.
Just last last month, new research has been presented that a toxin produced by a common food bug may trigger MS. Dr. Jennifer Linden, a microbiologist at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, states at a research meeting in Washington,” We provide evidence that supports epsilon toxin’s ability to cause BBB permeability and show that epsilon toxin kills the brain’s myelin producing cells, oligodendrocytes; the same cells that die in MS lesions.” Epsilon is produced by certain food bacteria.
Medical News Today pointed out that results showed patients with MS had levels of epsilon toxin antibodies ten times higher than those without MS. Furthermore, the stool samples showed that only 23% of MS patients carried the type A bacterium, compared with 52% of healthy patients.
MS can not be compared and no two people have exactly the same experience. Generally there are four courses of the disease.
· Relapsing-Remitting MS which are defined attacks of worsening neurological function which is the most common of sufferers.
· Primary-Progressive which is just a slowly worsening process.
· Secondary-Progressive, which follows an initial period of relapsing but the disease worsens more steadily.
· Progressive-relapsing which is rare and the disease continues to progressive without remission.
Currently, there is no cure for the estimated 2.1 million who live with MS world wide. Treatment includes a combination a of drug and disease-modifying therapy which is suggested as the best way to improve quality of life.
MS Counts is the theme for 2014 National Multiple Sclerosis Education and Awareness in March this year and the initiative sponsored by the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation offers opportunities to establish the largest awareness campaign for the disease. You can get started today.
Typically when you are young and healthy, that is the most opportune time to purchase a life insurance policy but life insurance is still an option for those with MS. Members of the National MS Society indicated that securing insurance was not generally a problem. If your symptoms are minor, the better off you will be and more progressive, shop around. You may be charged a higher premium but well worth your time in having coverage.
Life insurance companies focus on the course of the disease, types of treatment and how you have responded to those treatments when applying for a term life policy. If you diet, exercise, do not smoke, have no additional medical conditions, and follow up with regular medical appointments, you have a strong possibility of being approved for a policy with reasonable rates.
If in the early stages of any immune disorder, start now with research into the best policy for your needs. Almost 30% of MS victims experience their first symptoms in their 20’s and 30s.
