What is multiple sclerosis?
Also known as: MS.
Multiple sclerosis (MS), is an autoimmune disease where the body’s immune system, which normally helps us fight a variety of infections, attacks and inflames its own central nervous system. MS affects the brain, spinal cord, optic nerves (CNS), and particularly the myelin sheath (the fatty layer that protects and helps nerves send information from one place to another), damaging them and slowing or preventing messages from being sent between the brain and different parts of the body.
There are a number of types of multiple sclerosis:
- Relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS), most children have this type
- Primary progressive MS
- Secondary progressive MS (SPMS).
Reviewed by: Jack Wolfsdorf, MD, FAAP
This page was last updated on: 1/29/2019 3:21:13 PM
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