How MS Progresses
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So I simplify it, and I say. Really there are two stages of MS. Most people will have these inflammatory active changes that will occur. What you're having is this inflammatory attack on the brain. And patients will have these relapses. So physically, they will feel it. Sometimes they do, and sometimes they don't, so you can have inflammatory activity that leaks into the brain and causes some brain inflammation.
We're able to track that with MRIs, so even if you don't feel it, we can use the MRI as a way we can see if there's any changes in between the MRIs. How do I know I'm having a relapse? Very classically, these are neurologic symptoms. They are numbness, weakness, double vision, dizziness, difficulty with balance, it can be difficult with bladder and bowel, increased fatigue.
And we usually tell people if that happens with MS, it usually is over a couple of days you'll present with a symptom like that in the beginning. In most patients, about 85% to 90% of patients will have these active inflammatory changes that will occur. Over time in everybody it slows down. That time can be 10 months. That time could be immediate or it could be 30, 40 years, but if you look at people over their lifespan, that will decrease.
All of the medications we have right now, or the majority, are really focused on stopping that inflammation. Stopping activity that causes injury to the brain, and they all do so in 30% to 70%-80% effectiveness in that area. And once the inflammation is gone, there's that part where it's progressive, so we have activity that's inflammatory, and then we have a progressive part of the disease.
I break progressive down into two areas as well. Number one is when somebody is on therapy. They're having relapses, but they're sort of breaking through disease, so they're progressing despite being on therapy for MS. Then there's that progressive part of MS where there's not inflammatory activity. Sometimes as I said, people will transition into a progressive phase very quickly.
Some people-- so far, I've been following people for 23 years, and they've never progressed, and they've never gone into a progressive phase, and they're still doing very well, and they look fine. Again, the important thing is to get on therapy and have the right services available and to stay on therapy when you're still having active inflammation.
JEFFREY ENGLISH
MS is an autoimmune disease. Your immune system is triggered for some reason to see some proteins in the brain and the spine as being foreign. The most common question is about what type of MS do I have. So we'll go online, and I'll see this relapsing, remitting, and primary progressive and secondary progression. All of those names were derived when we didn't really understand the disease as much before we had MRIs and all these advanced techniques where you can actually see how patients are doing. So I simplify it, and I say. Really there are two stages of MS. Most people will have these inflammatory active changes that will occur. What you're having is this inflammatory attack on the brain. And patients will have these relapses. So physically, they will feel it. Sometimes they do, and sometimes they don't, so you can have inflammatory activity that leaks into the brain and causes some brain inflammation.
We're able to track that with MRIs, so even if you don't feel it, we can use the MRI as a way we can see if there's any changes in between the MRIs. How do I know I'm having a relapse? Very classically, these are neurologic symptoms. They are numbness, weakness, double vision, dizziness, difficulty with balance, it can be difficult with bladder and bowel, increased fatigue.
And we usually tell people if that happens with MS, it usually is over a couple of days you'll present with a symptom like that in the beginning. In most patients, about 85% to 90% of patients will have these active inflammatory changes that will occur. Over time in everybody it slows down. That time can be 10 months. That time could be immediate or it could be 30, 40 years, but if you look at people over their lifespan, that will decrease.
All of the medications we have right now, or the majority, are really focused on stopping that inflammation. Stopping activity that causes injury to the brain, and they all do so in 30% to 70%-80% effectiveness in that area. And once the inflammation is gone, there's that part where it's progressive, so we have activity that's inflammatory, and then we have a progressive part of the disease.
I break progressive down into two areas as well. Number one is when somebody is on therapy. They're having relapses, but they're sort of breaking through disease, so they're progressing despite being on therapy for MS. Then there's that progressive part of MS where there's not inflammatory activity. Sometimes as I said, people will transition into a progressive phase very quickly.
Some people-- so far, I've been following people for 23 years, and they've never progressed, and they've never gone into a progressive phase, and they're still doing very well, and they look fine. Again, the important thing is to get on therapy and have the right services available and to stay on therapy when you're still having active inflammation.
