What kind of doctor treats white matter disease?

Healthcare providers such as neurologists and neuro-radiologists are often able to distinguish white matter disease lesions from other causes of lesions with MRI based on where they're located in your brain.

What doctor do you see for white matter disease?

A radiologist, particularly a neuroradiologist, has expertise in what the brain should look like on an MRI. When evaluating for white matter disease, the radiologist will be looking for abnormal signal in the brain tissue.

How quickly does white matter disease progress?

It is not possible to stop disease progression, and it is typically fatal within 6 months to 4 years of symptom onset. People with the juvenile form of metachromatic leukodystrophy, which develops between the age of 4 and adolescence, may live for many years after diagnosis.

Can white matter disease go away?

While there is no known cure for white matter disease, treatments can help to manage the symptoms. Controlling the risk factors associated with heart disease can help decrease the progression of the disease.

How do you slow down white matter disease?

Keep your blood pressure and blood sugar in check. That can lead to white matter changes. To keep your heart healthy, follow a low-fat, low-salt diet, and get about 2 and a half hours of moderate-intensity exercise each week. Manage diabetes if you have it and keep your cholesterol in check.

White matter disease associated with migraine headaches

What does white matter disease feel like?

While white matter disease has been associated with strokes, cognitive loss, and dementia, it also has some physical and emotional symptoms such as balance problems, falls, depression, and difficulty multitasking (e.g., walking and talking).

What are the first signs of white matter disease?

What does it mean when an MRI shows white matter?

White matter lesions (WMLs) are areas of abnormal myelination in the brain. These lesions are best visualized as hyperintensities on T2 weighted and FLAIR (Fluid-attenuated inversion recovery) sequences of magnetic resonance imaging. They are considered a marker of small vessel disease.

What happens when you have white matter disease?

This is your brain on aging

Originally, white matter disease was considered a normal, age-related change. But over the last decade, medical experts have come to understand that the presence of large areas of disease in the white matter of the brain are associated with cognitive decline and dementia in patients.

How many stages of white matter disease are there?

These data demonstrate a consistent regional scaling relationship between global and regional WMSA that can be used to classify individuals into one of four stages of white matter disease.

What autoimmune disease causes white matter disease?

Introduction. Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory disease of the central nervous system, which leads to plaque like primary demyelination in the white and grey matter and focal as well as diffuse neurodegeneration [33].

What is the difference between white matter disease and MS?

“In general, white matter disease causes acute MS symptoms, like numbness and weakness," Stone says. "Gray matter disease causes progressive symptoms, like fatigue and memory loss. These higher brain functions are called cognitive functions. Most MS disability actually comes from cognitive dysfunction."

Is white matter neurological?

White matter is found in the deeper tissues of the brain (subcortical). It contains nerve fibers (axons), which are extensions of nerve cells (neurons). Many of these nerve fibers are surrounded by a type of sheath or covering called myelin.

How long can you live with chronic white matter disease?

In general, the prognosis is grave, with the majority of patients dying after a few years. However, some die only after several months, and some manage to survive for several decades [6].

Is it normal to have white matter on brain MRI?

Studies have found that white matter lesions appear in some degree on brain scans of most older adults but less often in younger people. White matter lesions are among the most common incidental findings—which means the lesions have no clinical significance—on brain scans of people of any age.

Can stress cause white matter lesions?

White matter dynamically changes in response to learning, stress, and social experiences. Several lines of evidence have reported white matter dysfunction in psychiatric conditions, including depression, stress- and anxiety-related disorders.

What is another name for white matter disease?

Description. Leukoencephalopathy with vanishing white matter is a progressive disorder that mainly affects the brain and spinal cord (central nervous system). This disorder causes deterioration of the central nervous system's white matter, which consists of nerve fibers covered by myelin.

What improves white matter in the brain?

Our findings demonstrate that regular physical exercise significantly increases the integrity of white matter fiber tracts, especially those related to frontal function.

Is white matter disease a normal part of aging?

Cerebral white matter lesions (WML) are common in the aging brain and are associated with dementia and depression. They are associated with vascular risk factors and small vessel disease, suggesting an ischemic origin, but recent pathology studies suggest a more complex pathogenesis.

Does white matter disease always lead to dementia?

Comprising about half the brain, white matter is prominently or exclusively involved in well over 100 disorders, in each of which white matter dysfunction can potentially cause or contribute to dementia.

Can white matter disease cause pain?

In addition, white matter hyperintensities (WMH), for example in the spinothalamic tract, also referred to as the anterolateral pathway, may lead to an increase in pain experience; this type of pain is paraphrased as deafferentiation pain.

Do you have headaches with white matter disease?

Patients with extensive white matter hyperintensities are likely to have tension-type headaches or to have headaches develop during middle age, according to results published in Cephalagia. Currently, there are no established treatments or strategies for managing white matter hyperintensities.

What age does white matter appear on brain?

Age-related changes in the brain -- the appearance, starting around age 60, of "white-matter lesions" among the brain's message-carrying axons -- significantly affect cognitive function in old age. White-matter lesions are small bright patches that show up on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain.

What are the best vitamins for white matter disease?

Vitamin D, Folate, and Cobalamin Serum Concentrations Are Related to Brain Volume and White Matter Integrity in Urban Adults.