Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a devastating illness, causing reduced usage of your body, and eventually disability. Many MS patients also suffer from dementia and breathing problems, too. As someone with MS ages, the symptoms get worse, and the use of an in-home caregiver may become necessary. In some cases, those that suffer from this disease find themselves in a nursing home because of how severe their symptoms have become.
Doctors do not yet have a cure for MS, but there are many ways to help lessen the impact that the disease has on someone’s life. Medications and physical therapy can help a bit, but they are only temporary solutions, unfortunately. Treatment for MS has come a long way, but there is still a lot of room for improvement.
New research is emerging in the treatment of MS that is helping to advance care for patients, and to help prevent further problems. For example, cerebral microbleeds in those with MS drastically increase the risk of total disability, both physical and mental. This data comes out of the University of Buffalo in New York State, and it’s among the first of its kind. To study the brain, researchers used a type of MRI and looked at 445 individuals with MS in various stages. They also looked at over 175 individuals with healthy brains as a control for the study. What they found was that for those aged 50 and over, 20 percent of MS patients had these microbleeds. For healthy individuals, only about 7 percent had them.
One of the issues that comes along with MS is that there is a heightened risk of what are called comorbidities. This was especially true when it came to cardiovascular illness, such as hypertension, obesity, and lipid metabolism. Because smoking, diabetes, and migraines are all risk factors of microbleeds and because they all carry with them these same comorbidities, researchers wanted to see what the similarities were when it came to those suffering from MS. Their discovery might help improve the prognosis for those with MS in the future.
The researchers found that the greater number of microbleeds a patient had, the more severe their disabilities were likely to be. Being able to address this issue and correct it may have great benefits to MS patients in the future and improve their quality of life. Many of those currently suffering from MS are homebound, relying on the care of an in-home care specialist thanks to the disability that their disease has created, and if some of this could be prevented, their lives would be much better off. That’s still a ways in the future, though. Research like this can get the ball rolling in the right direction, and that is extremely encouraging. For now, those with a loved one suffering from MS need to do what they can to help their loved ones live pain free lives, free from the danger of trying to get around with physical or mental impairments. Having a caregiver, be it professional or family, can be a huge help in keeping them safe.
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