What Is the Most Common Symptom of MS?

Multiple sclerosis is a chronic disease affecting the central nervous system. The most common primary symptom that MS patients experience is numbness or tingling, often in the legs, followed by other symptoms that can include fatigue, bladder dysfunction and vision problems.

What Is MS?

• In patients with this chronic and incurable disease, the insulating material, or myelin, around nerve cells becomes inflamed. Inflammation damages the nerve cells. Cells with damaged myelin don't relay electrical impulses correctly, causing the symptoms seen in MS patients.

Most Common Symptom

• The most common symptom experienced by those eventually diagnosed with MS is paresthesia, or numbness or tingling, that often occurs in the upper legs. Often the first symptom noticed by sufferers, it is a primary symptom that is a direct result of the disruption of the myelin sheath surrounding the axon nerve cells.

Other Symptoms

• As the disease progresses, about 80 percent of MS patients report developing fatigue severe enough to interfere with work and home duties. Other common symptoms include problems with balance, coordination and walking; bladder dysfunction, vision problems, dizziness, spasticity, emotional changes, vertigo, sexual dysfunction, pain, cognitive dysfunction and depression.

Time Frame

• Symptoms of MS usually appear in patients between the ages of 20 and 40. In some people the disease progresses quickly; in others, slowly---even seeming to disappear but then reappearing. People over the age of 50 who develop MS tend to experience difficulty walking as their dominant symptom and develop fewer secondary symptoms.

Warning

• Most of the symptoms of MS can also be symptoms of other diseases such as a vitamin B12 deficiency, diabetes, a herniated disk, atherosclerosis and others. Consult a physician if you persistently experience any of these symptoms so that a correct diagnosis can be made.