5:26
- wellness
- February 27, 2019
Selma Blair shines spotlight on multiple sclerosis
Blair said she lived with the symptoms of MS for years before her diagnosis.
5:26
\"Thank you for sharing Selma's story. I was diagnosed 19 years ago and I agree a positive attitude is so important,\" one woman wrote on Facebook. \"It was over seven years before I was formally diagnosed.\"
\"This diagnosis is devastating and a relief all at the same time,\" wrote another woman. \"To know the whys of all my issues but be told there is no cure is hard. Thank you for bringing awareness to the foreground!\"
Blair said her doctor has told her she could have 90 percent of her abilities back within a year.
\"So this is to say, 'Let's meet again next year and see if I'm better,'\" Blair told Robin Roberts. \"If I'm not, and I can still have a conversation, that's good enough.\"
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/GMA/gma-selmablair2-ht-kk-190226_hpMain_4x3t_384.jpg\")
Read below for answers to common questions about MS.
MS is a chronic disorder in which cells from the immune system attack the nerve cells of the central nervous system (CNS). There's a special substance called myelin, which covers the nerve cells and allows messages to pass from your brain to the body and vice versa.
During a flare, the immune system attacks the myelin, the nerve covering becomes inflamed and communication between the brain and body is disrupted. The inflammation and nerve covering damage cause multiple areas of scarring (sclerosis) within the CNS, which is where the name \"multiple sclerosis\" originates.
Unfortunately, the cause of MS is not yet known. Scientists believe it could be caused by an unknown interaction of genetic predisposition and environmental factors.
Since the central nervous system is made up of your brain, spinal cord and specialized eye nerves, multiple sclerosis can affect a variety of body parts including arms, legs and eyes.
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/GMA/gma-ms-signs-ht-kk-190227_hpEmbed_16x9_384.jpg\")
The most common problems are vision, balance and muscle control. Other symptoms include fatigue, numbness and tingling, weakness, dizziness, pain and emotional changes.
There is not one definitive test to make an MS diagnosis, according to Dr. Jennifer Ashton, ABC News chief medical editor.
\"When you talk about making a diagnosis, this is not like strep throat,\" she said. \"What's required is two different episodes separated in time and location in our anatomy, in the central nervous system where there's been damage or flares.\"
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/GMA/gma-ms-diagnosis-ht-kk-190227_hpEmbed_16x9_384.jpg\")
MS affects more women than men, which could be due to a protein, research shows.
Most people with MS are diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 50, with at least two to three times more women than men being diagnosed with the disease.
Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis noticed in 2014 that a protein called S1PR2, which controls the permeability of the blood-brain barrier (BBB), is more prevalent in those with MS. Further research on both mice and humans revealed that, among people diagnosed with MS, women produced far more of this protein than men.
There's currently no cure for MS. The specialists who treat MS are called neurologists. A neurologist will most likely use a combination of medications, physical therapy and psychiatric care to support patients following a diagnosis of MS.
\"We have to do what's right for [the patient] over a long period of time, and the body often follows the mind and the spirit,\" Ashton said of the multidisciplinary approach to treating MS. \"Your frame of mind and your attitude is so important, and often we get that from outside support.\"
The types of medications used are disease-modifying medicines, medicine to manage relapses and medicine to manage symptoms associated with a flare.
Watch the below video to hear more from Ashton about MS.
Dr. Colette Poole-Boykin,a child psychiatry fellow at Yale-New Haven Hospital and a former member of the ABC News Medical Unit, contributed to this report.
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