Multiple Sclerosis

The Immune System's Terrible Mistake

BY PETER RISKIND, M.D., PH.D.

Imagine having a disease that can strike at any time, that can leave you blind or paralyzed for days, months, or forever. Then, imagine that this disease might spontaneously go into remission, only to return months or years later. This is life with multiple sclerosis (MS). Unfortunately, this is not an unusual scenario.

MS is a common neurologic illness, affecting approximately 300,000 Americans. Perhaps cruelest is that it strikes otherwise healthy young men and women who are often just beginning to start families and gain advancement in their jobs. It is the second most common neurologic cause of disability of young adults (after head trauma) in the United States. It begins in two-thirds of all patients between the ages of 20 and 40; it is rarely diagnosed in young children or the elderly.

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