A Dive into Demyelinating Diseases and an overview of MS.

  A demyelinating disease affects the myelin sheath. This is usually caused when the immune system mistakenly identifies myelin tissue as harmful tissue. According to the National Library of Medicine, “The term demyelination describes a loss of myelin with relative preservation of axons. This results from diseases that damage myelin sheaths or the cells that form them”. This causes changes to the way nerves communicate with one another, ultimately leading to symptoms. A demyelinating disease can also cause one to have a shorter life expectancy. The degeneration of the myelin sheath in demyelinating illnesses leads to a slowdown in neural transmission, which eventually results in an impairment of mobility.

Specifically, Multiple Sclerosis is a disease that results in the deterioration of the covering of a neuron, also known as the myelin sheath. It is the most common of neurological diseases with symptoms of setting in young adults between the ages of 20-40 years old. According to the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Strokes, “In MS, the immune system cells that normally protect us from viruses, bacteria, and unhealthy cells mistakenly attack myelin in the central nervous system”. The origins of this illness can be traced to the 1800s, when Jean-Martin Charcot, a French neurologist, noticed people exhibiting the same typical symptoms as MS patients. He gave the illness the French term "la sclerose en plaques," or multiple sclerosis, based on his observations. With the passing of the centuries, research grew even further, and the illness is now classified according to particular symptoms and indicators. Furthermore, given that myelin degeneration is visible in scans due to injury to the nervous system, the use of technological devices like magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has improved our understanding of the condition.