It is easy to assume that you would know when you are involved in illness as serious as multiple sclerosis. But it can take years for people with MS to get the right diagnosis.
New studies have now shown that the subtle symptoms of the disease can be shown even 15 years before someone is diagnosed with MS.
In the event that you are not familiar with it, MS (multiple sclerosis) is a chronic condition in which the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks the protective coating of the nerve fibers. People can experience a number of symptoms with MS, including vision problems, muscle weakness, numbness in the hands and feet and muscle spasms, according to the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke (Ninds). Some people with MS will eventually develop partial or complete paralysis of Ninds.
The findings of the new Jama Network Open The study is shocking and raises many questions about how people can understand whether their symptoms are due to something insignificant or condition, as serious as MS. Here’s what neurologists want to know.
To meet the experts: Clifford Segil, Do, is a neurologist at the Health Center of Provident St. John in Santa Monica, California; Amit Sahdev, MD, MS, is a medical director at the Department of Neurology at the Michigan State University.
What did the study find?
For the study, researchers analyzed the health records of about 2000 people in British Colombia. They found that people who were eventually diagnosed with the MS began to interact with the healthcare system for more often 15 years before they first had symptoms that were later identified as MS.
Each person’s health trip was different, but the researchers were able to take common trends. People who were eventually diagnosed with MS began to see GPs for 15 years before being diagnosed for symptoms such as fatigue, pain, dizziness and mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression.
In the 12th years before their diagnosis, patients see a psychiatrist more often. Eight to nine years before the diagnosis, they had more frequent visits to neurologists and eye doctors who may be associated with blurry vision or eye pain.
Three to five years before they were diagnosed, they visited ER and had more frequent visits to radiology. A year before their diagnosis, patients see doctors more often in a number of specialties, including neurology, emergency medicine and radiology.
This suggests “that MS may have started earlier than it was thought before,” the researchers wrote in the conclusion.
Why can MS be so difficult to find this early?
MS may look a little different for everyone and has a wide range of symptoms, indicates Amit Sahdev, MD, MS, Medical Director at the Department of Neurology at Michigan State University.
MS is an autoimmune disease and can cause inflammation throughout the body, he explains. “With excess inflammation, the body can feel generally dysfunctional,” Sahdev says. Importance, you can feel disgusting in general or in many areas, which makes it difficult for doctors (and you) to determine what can be behind.
People with MS can also fight fatigue, which can be a difficult symptom to associate with any condition, says Sahdev.
Symptoms such as pain, mood swings and fatigue tend to be more related to the diagnosis of MS after they are made, as they can be due to a number of health conditions, says Clifford Segil, Do, a neurologist at the Health Center of Provident St. John in Santa Monica, California. He says he is inclined to detect these symptoms when he looks at the patient’s health history after a MS diagnosis.
What should you do if you have these symptoms?
Doctors say it is a stretch to assume that you have to assume that you have MS if you only deal with fatigue or mood swings. But Sahdev says that you also should not repel the symptoms that just don’t give up.
“Health is deeply personal. To manage it, you have to start with a supplier who contacts you,” he says. “Ideally, you will start with an observation or anxiety that is disturbing. Focusing this problem with this supplier is the place to get started.”
But Segil emphasizes the importance of seeing a specialist if you are dealing with several symptoms that you really can’t explain. “Every time you have a constellation of symptoms that are without a clear medical diagnosis, seeing a neurologist can be reasonable,” he says. They can help you take careful assessment of your health story, along with a test order to see what can happen.
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