Page 33 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - February 2023 Edition

What Is Multiple Sclerosis - MS? 33

What Is

MULTIPLE

SCLEROSIS?

Continued from Page 32

So the best thing to do when living with
MS is to find a trusted interdisciplinary
medical team that can help you monitor
and manage your health. Having a
multidisciplinary team is essential for
addressing the individual symptoms that
you're experiencing. If you have an MS
attack or relapse, your doctor may
prescribe you corticosteroids to reduce or

improve your symptoms. And if your
attack symptoms do not respond to
steroids, another option is plasmapheresis
or plasma exchange, which is a treatment
similar to dialysis. About 50 percent of
In MS, the immune system attacks the
people who do not respond to steroids DEBUNKED: Saturn’s
protective sheath (myelin) that covers
have a significant improvement with a Hexagon Is Alien Technology
nerve fibers and causes communication
short course of plasma exchange. There
problems between your brain and the rest
are over 20 medications currently
of your body. Eventually, the disease can
approved for prevention of MS attacks
cause permanent damage or deterioration
and prevention of new MRI lesions.
of the nerve fibers.

As learning to function with MS can be
Signs and symptoms of MS vary widely
challenging, there are medical experts
between patients and depend on the
ready to work with you to help you
location and severity of nerve fiber
manage it, so you can still live a full life.
damage in the central nervous system.
Consulting with a physiatrist, physical or
Some people with severe MS may lose
occupational therapist can help you deal
the ability to walk independently or
with physical difficulties. Physical
ambulate at all. Other individuals may
activity is strongly recommended for all
experience long periods of remission
people with MS. Mental health is also an
without any new symptoms depending on
important consideration. So keeping up
the type of MS they have.
personal connections with friends and
family and trying to stay involved with
There's no cure for multiple sclerosis.
your hobbies is important. But also be
However, there are treatments to help
kind to yourself and realistic about what Saturn's hexagon was first spotted when
speed the recovery from attacks, modify
you're up for. This can change from day NASA's Voyager spacecraft flew by the
the course of the disease and manage
to day, so it's okay to give yourself giant, ringed planet in 1980. The bizarre,
symptoms. [] six-sided structure on the round planet's
permission if something seems like too
north pole caused quite the stir, because
much or if you need to cancel plans. You
straight lines and polygons are not so
may also find support groups helpful to
common in nature.
connect with people who understand
what you are going through and discuss Immediately after the Voyager returned its
your feelings and concerns with a doctor first images of Saturn's strange feature,
or a counselor. Meanwhile, scientists are even stranger theories arose to explain it,
hard at work, expanding our including that it was somehow related to
understanding of this disease and alien technology, or perhaps even was a
gateway to hell. The hexagon is not
developing new treatments and
artificial, but rather a weird-looking
medications which are ever more
hurricane at Saturn's pole (opens in new
effective. If you want to learn more,
tab).
watch more of our videos or visit
mayoclinic.org. We wish you well. NASA has done several flybys of this
region with the Cassini spacecraft, studying
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a potentially the haze particles and other features of the
disabling disease of the brain and spinal storm, to try to learn more about its unusual
properties.
cord (central nervous system).