FDA approves first drug to treat severe MS after 40 years

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a disease of the central nervous system, which includes the brain, spinal cord and optic nerves.

The flow of information within the brain, and between the brain and body, is disrupted.

Patients can end up permanently disabled from the disease.

About 400,00 people in the US have MS and women are twice as likely to have it as men.

Signs and symptoms:

There is currently no cure for MS. However, medications can help ease attacks and possibly slow the disease’s progress.

Physical therapy and other treatments can help control symptoms and may improve quality of life.

There are four types of MS:

1. Relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis

Most people with RRMS have this type, which usually starts in your 20s and 30s.

If you have RRMS, you may have attacks when your symptoms flare up. These are called relapses.

2. Secondary progressive multiple sclerosis

People with SPMS start out with another type of MS – RRMS.

Most people with relapsing-remitting MS, about 80 percent, eventually get SPMS.

The relapses and remissions that used to come and go change into symptoms that steadily get worse.

2. Progressive relapsing multiple sclerosis

If you have PRMS, you’ll have distinct attacks of symptoms, called relapses. You may or may not fully recover after these flares.

Between relapses, the disease continues to slowly get worse.

3. Primary progressive multiple sclerosis

Between 10 and 15 percent of people with MS have PPMS – the most debilitating form.

Once it starts, PPMS gets worse over time. Unlike some other types of MS, there are no relapses or remissions.