Symptoms

Symptoms of multiple sclerosis are generally categorized into 7 categories: visual, motor, sensory, coordination and balance, bowel, bladder and sexual, and others.  Symptoms vary from person to person and are determined by the location of the lesions in their brain caused by the disease.

Visual: blurred vision, eye pain, double vision, jerky eye movements, lack of coordination between two eyes, and abnormal pupil responses

Motor: muscle weakness, partial or mile paralysis, loss of muscle tone causing stiffness, pain, and restricting movement of affected limbs, slurred speech and related speech problems, involuntary contraction of muscles, involuntary leg movements, and foot drags

Sensory: partial numbness, tingling, buzzing and vibration sensations, loss of sensation, and facial pain.

Coordination and Balance: loss of coordination, shaking when performing fine movements, under- or overshooting limb movements, abnormal balance function in the inner ear, nausea/vomiting/sensitivity to travel sickness, problems coordinating speech, stuttering, and slow limb position feedback

Bowel, Bladder, and Sexual Symptoms: urinary urgency and incontinence, urinary retention, impotence, infrequent or irregular bowel movements, bowel urgency and incontinence, inability to achieve orgasm, and inability to become sexually aroused.

Cognitive: short and long term memory problems, forgetfulness, slow word recall, impairments to speech comprehension and production

Other: Increase in severity of symptoms with heat, acid reflux, impaired sense of taste and smell, epileptic seizures, swallowing problems, respiratory problems, inappropriately cold body parts, autonomic nervous system problems.

Although there is no cure for MS, with modern day treatments many people with the disease are able to go on to live nearly normal lives.  In fact, most diagnosed are expected to have a life expectancy of 95 percent of someone without the disease and only 25 percent are believed to need a wheelchair at some time.

Montel Williams, a prominent television talk show host, talks about his MS, his symptoms, and his management.