What is the most prominent symptom of MS?

Fatigue may be the most prominent MS symptom. Numbness of the face, extremities or body is often the first symptom of MS. Pain is common in MS, with around 55% of people with MS citing chronic pain. Walking, balance and coordination problems can be helped by physical therapy and medications.

What is the biggest symptom of MS?

Fatigue. Feeling fatigued is one of the most common and troublesome symptoms of MS. It's often described as an overwhelming sense of exhaustion that means it can be a struggle to carry out even the simplest activities.

What is the number 1 symptom of MS?

Numbness of the face, body, or extremities (arms and legs) is often the first symptom experienced by those eventually diagnosed as having MS.

What part of the body does MS affect first?

Visual problems are often the first symptoms associated with MS. The optic (eye) nerve can become inflamed (optic neuritis) as the optic nerve is a common area where damage to the protective covering of nerves (demyelination) occurs. More than half of people with MS will experience at least one issue with vision.

What does MS look like in the beginning?

Cognitive changes: The most common cognitive changes related to MS tend to be things like slowed processing (when you need to read things a few times to let them sink in), difficulty finding words, loss of short-term memory, and multitasking problems.

Early symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis (MS)

Does MS show up in blood work?

Blood Tests: Currently, there are no definitive blood tests for diagnosing MS, but they can be used to rule out other conditions that may mimic MS symptoms, including Lyme disease, collagen-vascular diseases, rare hereditary disorders and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS).

How do you confirm MS diagnosis?

What autoimmune disease is similar to MS?

Sjogren's syndrome is an autoimmune disease that can mimic some of the symptoms of MS such as fatigue and joint pain.

Where do you hurt with MS?

Tightness or stiffness of the muscles, called spasticity, is caused directly by MS. Spasticity, will alter walking and cause pulling on the joints. This can result in pain typically in the ankles, knees, hips and back.

How does MS usually begin?

Here's where MS (typically) starts

Although a number of MS symptoms can appear early on, two stand out as occurring more often than others: Optic neuritis, or inflammation of the optic nerve, is usually the most common, Shoemaker says. You may experience eye pain, blurred vision and headache.

What are subtle signs of MS?

What does mild MS feel like?

Numbness or Tingling

A lack of feeling or a pins-and-needles sensation can be the first sign of the nerve damage from MS. It usually happens in the face, arms, or legs, and on one side of the body. It also tends to go away on its own.

What are some weird symptoms of MS?

What part of the body does MS affect the most?

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a potentially disabling disease of the brain and spinal cord (central nervous system). In MS , the immune system attacks the protective sheath (myelin) that covers nerve fibers and causes communication problems between your brain and the rest of your body.

What are the facial symptoms of multiple sclerosis?

Usually, MS facial twitching affects one side of your face at a time. And you may notice other facial symptoms first, like numbness, tingling, weakness, or other weird sensations. “People will usually say, 'My face feels swollen, but I look in the mirror and it's not swollen,'” Stoll says.

What do MS legs feel like?

The weakness can make your legs feel heavy, as if they are being weighed down by something. They may also ache and hurt. Some people with MS describe it as like having bags of sand attached to their legs. This muscle weakness combined with MS fatigue can be upsetting.

Does MS cause weight gain?

MS fatigue, steroid therapy, and depression can all lead to unwanted weight in people with MS. Though these factors are not your fault, you owe it to yourself to take control of your weight. Overeating can increase MS symptoms or health conditions, such as: fatigue.

What pain meds are given for MS?

Drug Treatments for Chronic MS Pain

Cross notes that these drugs include the anticonvulsants Neurontin (gabapentin), Tegretol (carbamazepine), and Dilantin (phenytoin), as well as the tricyclic antidepressant amitriptyline.

What disease is misdiagnosed as MS?

A wide range of conditions can be mistaken for MS, including: migraine, cerebral small vessel disease, fibromyalgia, functional neurological disorders, and neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders, along with uncommon inflammatory, infectious and metabolic conditions (1, 3).

Does MS affect your nails?

Nail problems are common, and they are not usually serious. If a person has multiple sclerosis (MS), nail problems can cause pain or discomfort. While nail issues are not directly related to the disease, determining the cause may help prevent a person with MS from experiencing further discomfort.

What mimics MS on MRI?

Hypoxic-ischemic vasculopathy, specially small-vessel disease, inflammatory disorders, vasculitis, and non-MS idiopathic inflammatory disorders, as well as some toxic, metabolic, and infectious disorders, may present mimicking MS on MR examinations and should be included in the differential diagnosis of MS-like lesions ...

How can a neurologist tell if you have MS?

Neurological examination

Your neurologist will look for abnormalities, changes or weakness in your vision, eye movements, hand or leg strength, balance and co-ordination, speech and reflexes. These may show whether your nerves are damaged in a way that might suggest MS.

Can an eye test detect MS?

MS causes the immune system to attack nerve fibers and causes miscommunication between the brain and other parts of the body. When your optometrist detects optic nerve inflammation, that can indicate a diagnosis of MS.

Is there a marker for MS?

Immunoglobulin M (IgM)

Intrathecal IgG OCBs are a hallmark of MS and are the most widely used diagnostic biomarker in MS, despite not being specific to MS. In addition, an increased IgG synthetic rate and elevated IgG index are also used as corollary evidence for MS.