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MS Symptoms and Early Signs of Multiple Sclerosis | SELF

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But, Dr. Moses says, most people with MS tend to develop these early symptoms6:

  • Vision loss in one eye
  • Balance problems
  • Numbness, tingling, or weakness in the arms or legs

Fatigue is also another possible early symptom—it happens in up to 95% of people with MS, according to the Cleveland Clinic7. Given that a slew of other health conditions can cause fatigue, this is a tricky one to parse out, especially early on, according to Dina Jacobs8, M.D., clinical director of the Penn M.S. and Related Disorders Program at the Perelman School of Medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. But if you’re constantly fatigued and have balance or vision problems, then you may want to talk to your doctor if it could be due to multiple sclerosis.

”Any persistent neurological symptoms or coordination issues should be reason to consider a diagnosis,” Suhayl Dhib-Jalbut9, M.D., professor and chair of neurology at the Rutgers New Jersey Medical School & Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, tells SELF.

General multiple sclerosis symptoms

Again, MS symptoms can vary by person. The disease usually follows a relapsing-remitting pattern, meaning you have a flare-up of symptoms followed by remission where symptoms go away (this period can last for months or years). MS can eventually move into a steady progression of symptoms—with or without remission periods—in what’s called secondary-progressive MS, according to the Mayo Clinic3. Some people with MS have what’s called primary-progressive MS, where their symptoms worsen without periods of remission.

There are some common symptoms people with MS experience, regardless of the type of disease they have. Keep in mind that specific MS symptoms (and the severity of symptoms) vary by person, Dr. Hutton says.

MS eye symptoms

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According to the Mayo Clinic3, MS can cause many eye complications, including:

  1. Partial or complete loss of vision that usually happens in one eye at a time
  2. Painful eye movements
  3. Double vision
  4. Blurry vision

“These symptoms usually last for more than 24 hours, and can continue for weeks or months,” Dr. Jacobs says.

MS hug

You may have heard of an MS symptom called the “MS hug” which feels “like a squeezing sensation in the torso or the limbs,” Dr. Moses says. But, while it’s a common symptom, there’s no medical definition of what, exactly, the “hug” is. A small 2019 study published in the journal Neurology10 analyzed 116 people who said they’ve had the “MS hug” and described it as a squeezing, band-like, or girdle-like sensation that can involve your abdomen and chest. Some people say the sensation is so sharp and severe they can barely breathe while other individuals consider it dull, explains Nicholas Lannen11, M.D., a neurologist at Spectrum Health.

Walking difficulties

Commonly, people with MS have trouble walking and may need support by using a cane or other assistive device12.

“There are a lot of different reasons why this happens,” Dr. Hutton says. “You can have a lesion on the spinal cord that has to do with motor pathways, and that can affect strength in the leg. There can also be an issue with a sensory pathway, where someone can’t feel where they’re walking. You can have a gait disorder, or balance problems. For many of our patients, it’s all of the above,” he says.

Source: Self

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