Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a disease associated with disabling of the brain and the spinal cord. It involves the immune system attacking the protective sheath, which covers the nerve fibres. This causes a communication problem between your brain and the rest of your body. Signs and symptoms of the disease mainly depend on which nerve the amount of damage. Currently, the cause of the disease is unknown, terming it as an autoimmune disease.

The following are some of the symptoms of multiple sclerosis:

1. Vision problems
This is a common symptom of Ms The symptoms include double vision, optic neuritis, involuntary eye movements, blurred vision, and total loss of vision. These symptoms result from damage of the optic nerve or loss of coordination of the eye muscles.

2. Tingling and numbness
It comprises a lack of feeling sensations. With this condition, you are unable to feel the needle of a pin when pressed on your body. This is because the nerve has been damaged from MS. Commonly its experience on legs, arms, and face. Tingling and numbness may be caused by other factors such as lack of flow of blood for the nerve. Where it is an MS its symptoms keep coming and going, which might get worse with time.

3. Pains and spasms
This is a condition that causes your muscle to feel heavy, stiff, and difficult to move. This condition can cause a limb to jerk out of your body or kick out. This condition is mostly witnessed on the legs and arms.it comes either as stiffness that does not go away or as motions that you cannot control and comes and goes mostly during the night.

4. Weakness or fatigue
There is always a misconception between fatigue and tiredness. Whereas tiredness is because of hard work, fatigue is accompanied by a lack of energy, unusual and excessive tiredness that is not relieved by sleep. There is no proven exact cause of MS-related fatigue, but some think it emanates from the constant activation of the immune system.

5. Balance problems or dizziness
With MS you will experience episodes of dizziness which makes you lightheaded or off balance. Some experience vertigo which is a false sensation of spinning or whirling yourself or the environment around you. On the other hand, a feeling of swaying due to sensory deficit is caused by the damage in the cerebellum or brainstem. Its symptoms include coordination difficulties.

6. Bladder Issues
This involves a condition that the bladder is unable to control the normal amount of urine that it’s supposed to hold or unable to empty properly. Its symptoms are mainly haste and frequency in urination. This happens when there is a problem in communication between the bladder emptying reflex in the spinal cord and the brain part responsible after the bladder is emptied. This condition is very inconvenient and uncomfortable because patients always feel embarrassed. Talking to a professional may help in guiding the ways to treat the condition.

7. Cognitive problems
Cognitive refers to a high-level brain function that enables you to learn and remember things, solve problems, focus, maintain, shift attention, use of language and perform calculations, among others. With MS following are the most affected areas; information processing, acquiring, retaining, and retrieving new information, attention and concentration, planning and prioritizing, visual perception and constructional abilities, Verbal fluency.

The bottom line is that multiple sclerosis is a serious condition and if you experience one of the above symptoms, please seek medical attention to get a proper diagnosis before it’s too late.